do YOU speak running?

so i came across this article yesterday on runner's world about the language of running. to test yourself, the author suggested running (ha!) a little comprehension test by reading these scenarios and seeing whether or not you could explain what they mean:


Person 1: "Are those Glycerins?"
Person 2: "No. Ghost 4's."
Person 1: "Nice. I've actually been thinking of trying Vibrams."
Person 2: "If you're interested in zero-drop, heck, just wear flats."
—
Person 1: "I'm wiped. I just did three at 6:30
then eight by 400 with 200 recoveries."
Person 2: "I thought you still had that ITB thing?"
Person 1: "I did, but I foam-rollered it and now it seems okay."
—
Person 1: "How was your marathon?"
Person 2: "It was okay. I wanted to negative-split and run sub-three;
I went through the half in 1:32, but the wheels fell off
around 21 and I wound up doing a 3:12."
Person 1: "Is that a PR?"
Person 2: "Yeah. But not a BQ."
—
Person 1: "Are you doing Marine Corps this fall?"
Person 2: "No, it's full."
Person 1: "You could bandit."
Person 2: "Nah, I'm gonna do Grandma's in the summer
then maybe do a fall half."

i laughed at their examples and it got me thinking about other running terms that make sense to the running community but not necessarily to the "common folk."

so, take my test and see if you're fluent in the running language...

do you know:

• the difference between chomps and GUs?
• what it means to BQ?
• the meaning of a PR?
• the difference between DNS and DNF?
• what a spibelt is?
• that a garmin is more than a driving directions device?
• what a negative split is? or splits, in general?
• the difference between pronation and supination?
• the difference between chip time and gun time?
• what it means to taper?
• the difference between fartleks, pickups, and tempo runs?

If you answered yes to all (or most) of these, congratulations! i have deemed you bilingual (or trilingual or whatever number lingual you were before reading this post +1).

go ahead and slap that on your resume. i mean, if nerds can put computer languages on there, i can put that i'm fluent in running.  right? 

next up: ted corbitt 15k this saturday!

[note: nerds are cool.  i love nerds (both the people and the candy). please don't send me hate mail if you put computer languages on your resume]