Pater Familias

Theories, observations, and articles, by Philip Schaefer · All posts · Categories

“THE RACE IS NOT ALWAYS TO THE SWIFT….”

October 23, 2008 at 10:16 AM · Literature, Sports

“THE RACE IS NOT ALWAYS TO THE SWIFT….” Here is an article about the lady who had the fastest time out of some 20,000 competitors in the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco. In fact, it seems that her time was about ten full minutes faster than the nearest competitor. However, she was not considered for first place because she was not a member of the “elite group” which had a 20 minute head start and was timed separately. She will now be allowed a trophy. I had been thinking of the story as a comment on Damon Runyon’s rule of thumb: “The race is not always to the swift, but that’s the way to bet.”