“Race walking” is distinguished from “running” based on technique. In this case, “walking” is defined very strictly as “never having both feet off the ground.”

Yes, obviously it’s just a silly way to run, if “run” is “move fast on foot”.

It’s just that “race walking” is fewer words than “a silly way to run where you have to keep one foot on the ground always.”

We can't call it running if at least one foot has to be on the ground at a time. That requirement also drastically limits stride length, giving an inherent advantage to the runner.

I don't think you're familiar with the performance levels of masters (40+) atheletes.

I'm 60 now, but in my 40s I was a moderately good marathon-to-ultramarathon runner, and with a little bit of speedwork training, I managed to run a 5:30 track mile. That's not even fast - I had friends of the same age who could run 4:30.

It is truly remarkable what the human body can do - the world record for the marathon involves running 26.2 miles faster per mile than I could ever run 1 mile.

But if you can't sprint faster than 4mph for a few seconds, that's fine but it's not indicative of "at your age". Unless you have some actual health issue that prevents it, I would very surprised if you were incapable of hitting 6mph for a mile with some training, and a lot of people would not find it tremendously hard to hit 6.5-7mph if they had the time and motivation to train.

Not just that, but elite marathon performances (42.2 km) are under 5 minute miles.

Say, 2:10 (130 minutes) over 26.2 miles is a 4:58 mile pace.

The current world record seems to be 2:00:35, which is like a 4:36 mile pace.

Sometimes footage of elite level long distance running events shows fans trying to follow the runners on bicycle. It looks quite astonishing and ridiculous at the same time.

I hadn't heard of this event before but watching the video it does seem like the last one might have beaten the freeze if they had got a full 5 seconds head start. Makes you wonder if the freeze head start is based on how fast you run / how fit they think you are.

It seems like when the freeze is beaten, he is beaten by a hardcore amateur:

https://www.mlb.com/video/braves-fan-beats-the-freeze

I've run over two dozen marathons. Even at that distance, it takes a lot of discipline to not go out too fast. These are random people they find in the stands who are going to be very amped up in the moment. Strategy is the furthest thing from their minds and even if weren't, it takes practice to know what your ideal pace is.

Strategy is only good for really, really good runners.

At ~160m, (similar to the 200m), at-pace speed for the pro is already all-out for the average person.

It takes a lot of practice and training to learn how to pace yourself in order to do that strategy. Some rando off the field isn't going to be able to do that. Hell, I think even experienced runners may have trouble doing that for distances that they don't run regularly (e.g. a 100m specialist doing a 800m or a marathoner doing a 100m or 400m).

Yeah, halftime in baseball is after the first two quarters, and before the third and final quarter. :P