About Meteor.run

Why does Meteor.run exists?

I have often heard people making comments like these at the track or after a races:

• “That guy runs so fast, but how fast could he run if he was my age?”
• “Coach says to train at 10k pace, but what is my 10k pace? I have never run 10k!”
• “My husband doesn't train that often and he runs so much faster than me. I train four to five times a week and I can only just break an hour.”

These statements are fraught with assumptions and misconceptions that are difficult to dispel. It is true that as an adult, as you age, your running speed slows. Yes, men run faster than women, but the question is by how much? How big a factor is age, gender or distance on running speed?

The challenge with this question is that there is no set answer. One can't say men run the mile 30 seconds faster than women. Age, fitness level, distance all have a significant impact on the answer.

Meteor.run is the solution. We apply data science and statistical methods to build tools that answer this question and many more like it.

What is Meteor.run?

We gathered race results from wide variety of running events from across the United-States and Canada. The data was aggregated to create a baseline. This baseline is used to compare the performance of individual runners while accounting for factors such as age, gender and distance.

We currently offer two calculators:

• Age group and gender equivalency calculator;
• cross distance equivalency calculator.

More tools and calculators are in the works.

Who is behind Meteor.run?

My name is Nick, I am the creator and founder of Meteor.run. I am passionate about endurance sports. I have practiced and competed in them for as long as I can remember. I have competed in running road races of every distance, from 5k to the marathon. I have also raced bicycles, road and mountain. I was an accomplished triathlete. I have completed two Ironman's, several Half-Ironman's and countless other events.

Professionally, I am web-developer/data scientist. I have created other data-centric websites and consulted for others. This website is a merging of my passion and my profession.

Where does the name come from?

Meteors are cool, they travel through space at high speed and over long distances. A great metaphor for life a long runner. But that is not the reason!

It is a play on words. Spoken “Meteor Run”, it sounds like “Meter Your Run” as in measuring your running performance.