The Loneliness of the Seminal Computer Scientist

(Granted, Sillitoe's story has a better ring to it than the title of this post.) Probably already well-known among modern mathematicians and computer scientists, Alan Turing was quite an accomplished distance runner. When I first saw his 1947 Lecestershire marathon time of 2:46, I thought there might be some confusion; Europeans use the term "marathon" much more loosely than North Americans. On this side of the Atlantic, a marathon is 26.2 miles, period. So I looked it up and there's even a newspaper clipping image which specifies that yes, this is a real marathon time. 2:46 would be a damn good time in 2010, let alone in 1947 with bad running gear and probably bad nutrition and training. My own PR is 3:13 and I will likely never approach Turing's time regardless how much EPO and 'roids I consume.