Runner wannabe: the athlete who takes his pulse with a finger

Runner wannabe: 98 beats and a finger as his only gauge

Can you brag about a time without a watch? The answer is yes, if you have a finger and enough faith. The amateur runner who checks his heart rate by feel has found his place online: a 5-kilometer run, 98 beats per minute at the finish, and the feeling of having brushed against glory. Everyone else, however, isn't so sure.

The finger method and the Paralympic controversy

The confession is honest: "I did it with my finger at the end, I'm too poor to go buying watches for that." Measuring your heart rate by finger — that is, counting the beats on your wrist for a few seconds and multiplying — is the resource of someone who doesn't want to spend money on a heart rate monitor. The result: 98 bpm at the finish, which isn't bad for a novice runner, but which purists consider worthless without a device to certify it. "And you're not even measuring your pulse," they snap at him. The runner responds with humor: his race report would be too flashy, plus nobody actually runs there.

The reference to the Paralympic Games is no accident. The runner asks whether he'll make the next ones, and the answer is brutal: "You'd have to fruta something substantial enough for them to accept you into the qualifiers." The joke tangles with the real controversy surrounding the Spanish wheelchair basketball team, accused of faking intellectual disability to compete. The suggestion of "faking" it to qualify is the dark humor of the situation, which still has plenty of substance.

The data is scarce but sufficient for analysis. Another runner contributes his own mark: 7 km in 50 minutes, which works out to a pace of 7:08 per kilometer. The response is immediate: "Brisk walking gets you the same time. Jogging like a slob." And the final verdict: "You need more training." The wannabe runner, with his finger as his gauge and Melendi in his earbuds, keeps at it. Because in the end, running is a matter of faith, not equipment.

Meanwhile, the runner keeps training, hoping that one day someone will ask about his time. Even if it's measured by finger. And if not, he'll always have the consolation of having finished the race, which is no small thing.