What Artificial Intelligence Says About the Perfect Running Stride

The physiologist and coach Jack Daniels once filmed a bunch of runners in stride, then showed the footage to coaches and biomechanists to see if they could eyeball who was the most efficient. "They couldn't tell," Daniels later recalled. "No way at all." Famously awkward-looking runners like Paula Radcliffe and Alberto Salazar sometimes turn out to be extraordinarily efficient. Smooth-striding beauties sometimes finish at the back of the pack. The act of running, it turns out, is surprisingly complicated.