I went to the marathon results, sorted them by my age group, and then did the calculation.

It works like this: Say I was #85 out of 110 in my age group. That would mean I finished ahead of 25 (110-85) of my 109 competitors (110 minus me). So I beat 25/109 of them. Dividing 25 by 109 comes out to about 22.9%.

(Pardon me if that calculation is obvious to you — I worked for many years as a math teacher, so I can’t help explaining things like this.)

All the Chiefs linemen looking back at him, like “Wait, how did he get there?”

My favorite play is when we run a delayed handoff, waiting until the RB has three defenders right in front of him.

Charlotte Bronte agreed with you about Austen’s writing being mundane (though well crafted). Here is what Charlotte wrote about Emma:

“She does her business of delineating the surface of the lives of genteel English people curiously well. There is a Chinese fidelity, a miniature delicacy in the painting. She ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound. The passions are perfectly unknown to her; she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy sisterhood. Even to the feelings she vouchsafes no more than an occasional graceful but distant recognition—too frequent converse with them would ruffle the smooth elegance of her progress. Her business is not half so much with the human heart as with the human eyes, mouth, hands, and feet. What sees keenly, speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study; but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of life and the sentient target of death—this Miss Austen ignores. She no more, with her mind’s eye, beholds the heart of her race than each man, with bodily vision, sees the heart in his heaving breast. Jane Austen was a complete and most sensible lady, but a very incomplete and rather insensible (not senseless) woman.”

I do the same as you — try to maintain a consistent effort. This means that on uphills, I slightly reduce my cadence and significantly reduce my stride length (more so on steep hills). This approach works well for me; without it, I’d tire myself out too much on uphills.

On downhills, I try to glide down, lengthening my stride a bit but not speeding up too much. (In my early running days, I pounded too hard down some hills during a race, tore my medial meniscus, had surgery, and missed years of running.)

As you’ve noticed, many runners don’t follow the even-effort strategy. Maybe that’s because different approaches work well for different people (and yes, your weight gives you more of a reason than most runners to slow on the uphills). But another reason may be that runners in your pace group don’t tend to be highly educated about running strategies. (Just taking a guess here.)

P.S. If you’re 52 and 5’9” and 220, and you’re running a half marathon in just over 2:00, you’re doing a fantastic job!