Sunday, 5 January 2020

Was that only four years?

Well. That hasn't gone well for us has it?

It's a new Olympic year and everything is going tits up. Australia is burning. The US has totally NOT declared war on Iran and we're 5 days into the new year without me having either a girlfriend or a unicorn.

I can't fix any of that. I can however count up all the metres that the athletes at this year's olympics complete.

So once again we ask "How Far Exactly?"

Monday, 22 August 2016

Day 16 - The number(s) are up.

August 22nd.

It's all over, everything* has been added up to give us our totals. It's been a pleasure.

Day 16 gave us the astonishing amount of 5,907,300m thanks to the 140 men finishing the Marathon. They were our only numbers today but it means it's quite simple to finally add this all up.

Quick reminder of the rules.

Human power only.

No bikes, horses or boats, no projectiles or ball games. If you run or swim or jump or throw something then we count it and add it all up.


If you don't finish you don't count. 

If you pull up 20 miles into the marathon then you'll have to live with me knowing you're a far finer specimen of human endurance than I will ever be. I won't be counting you though. This is more to do with my wish for discrete measurements than any disrespect for your achievement.

You may wish to be reminded of this too:





Most Productive Day

Was actually Day 16, today's 5,907,300 is the single largest contribution we've had in one day. Amazing to think it was all thanks to one event.


First to Last


The very first distance we measured was Christoph Martin Meier's 400m from the Men's Individual Medley Heat 1 where he finished first.


The last we counted was Methkal Abu Drais' 42,195m from his last place finish in the Men's Marathon.


Smallest to Biggest


The smallest distance of all the games was the 1.56m recorded in the Women's Heptathlon High Jump. This is shared between Evelis Aguilar and Sofia Yfantidou.


The largest distance comes from any of the 49 who completed the Men's 50k race walk but we're going to go with Matej Toth as he was the first across the line.


Jumping Up


Athletes jumped upwards a total of 2,453.71m during these games. That's enough to cover 560 Routemaster buses placed on top of each other with a little to spare.


Jumping Along


Altogether our competitors managed to horizontally jump 6,228.45m which would clear 556 Routemasters. (Which like last time out is weirdly close to the number of buses the vertical jumpers managed).

Throwing up

In total the Women and Men of this Olympiad threw various things 59,630m, that's 5,324 of those fucking buses nose to nose.


Having a Paddle

In total 1,081,550m was swam at these games, that's equivalent to 21,631 laps of the pool.

Anthony Irvin won the 50m Freestyle Gold in a time of 21.4s for one of those laps. If he could keep that time up all the way necessary it would take him 5 days, 8 hours, 35 minutes and 3 seconds to cover that distance.

Run it off

Runners covered 20,564,845m in Rio, that's like 51,412.1125 laps of the track. The Jamaican Mens 4 x 100m Relay team covered that in 37.27 secs. If they could maintain that pace all the way it would still take them 3 weeks, 1 day, 4 hours, 15 minutes and 29 seconds to finish.

Head to Head

Swimming - Rio beats London by 21,650m
Running - Rio beats London by 4,212,855m
Jumping - Rio beats London by 960.54m
Throwing - London gets a consolation goal by beating Rio by 3,626.09m

Final Score: Rio wins by 4,231,839.45m. I think we can call that a thrashing.

How Far Exactly?

So then, the big question. Having trivialised the dedication of hundreds of athletes over years of their lives to reduce them to a mere number we finally come to the final totals:

Swimming: 1,081,550m
Running: 20,564,845m
Jumping: 8,682.16m
Throwing: 59,630.59m

Total: 21,714,707.75m

If that's hard to imagine as metres then it works out to 13,492.89 miles which is comfortably over a quarter of the circumference of the planet we live on!

Right, that's it. We're done. I'll see you all in 4 years for Tokyo 2020 where hopefully my laptop won't break, my girlfriend won't cheat on me and the time-zone should work to my advantage. Until then, be good.

R
@Le_Paien_Roux

*For a given value of everything.

Day 15

August 21st.

Day 15 gave us 79,200m of swimming, 714,500m of running, 63m of jumping and 3,347.67m of throwing. That gives us:

Totals:

Swimming: 1,081,550m
Running: 14,657,545m
Jumping: 8,682.16m
Throwing: 59,630.59m

Total: 15,807,407.75m

R

@howfarexactly

Day 14

August 20th.

Day 14 gave us 7,200m of swimming, 3,955,000m of running, 152.2m of jumping and 3593.79m of throwing. That gives us:

Totals:

Swimming: 1,002,350m
Runnning: 13,943,045m
Jumping: 8,619.16m
Throwing: 56,282.92m

Total: 15,010,297.08m

R

@howfarexactly

Day 13

August 19th.

Today we got 75,000m of swimming, 1,120,250m of running, 623.04m of jumping and 11,050.84m of throwing. That gives us:

Totals:

Swimming: 995,150m
Running: 9,988,045m
Jumping: 8,466.96m
Throwing: 52,689.13m

Total: 11,044,351.09

R

@howfarexactly

Thursday, 18 August 2016

Day 12 - Just the Numbers Again.

August 18th.

Today (well yesterday really, damn time zones), the athletes at Rio 2016 ran 356,500m, they jumped 962.68m and threw differently shaped objects 12,119.13m. If we add these numbers to what they've already achieved then we get:

Totals:

Swimming: 920,150m
Running: 8,867,795m
Jumping: 7,843.92m
Throwing: 41,638.29m

Total: 9,837,427.21m

R

@howfarexactly

Wednesday, 17 August 2016

Day 11 - Just the Facts.

August 17th.

Due to continuing technical issues we just have the numbers again today. This should definitely be sorted out tomorrow.

On Day 11 people swam 230,000m, they ran 284,700m, they jumped 1,542.27m and threw various objects 6,185.94m.

Totals:

Swimming: 920,150m
Running: 8,511,295m
Jumping: 6,881.24m
Throwing: 29,519.16m

Total: 9,467,845.40m

Back tomorrow.

R

@howfarexactly