We welcomed Chicago marathon winner, London marathon winner, British Olympian and icon, Paula Radcliffe to the very first IQUW Live. These sessions are really insightful as they help us understand how other industries intelligently use data, so we can learn from their inspiring stories and begin to apply them to our world, as we continue to build out our approach to combining data, intelligent automation and human expertise to drive great decision making.
In a really insightful session, Paula talked how the use of technology, innovation and data in athletics has changed over the last 20 years and helped athletes make huge leaps in their performance. Paula talked to us about her early days of running, where her best insight into future performance was how she felt after a good night's sleep and by checking her pulse - a big difference to today's world where athletes are surrounded by tech wearables, physiotherapists and data scientists to provide them with numerous data points to give insight into their performance.
Paula also provided a unique view on Eliud Kipchoge’s sub 2-hour world record attempt and why his previous attempt failed and the effort that went into ensuring his second attempt was successful. We learnt that Dave Brailsford was bought into Kipchoge’s team to bring his theory of marginal gains to the world record attempt. Brailsford interrogated every data point, from drink composition, fluid intake frequency and the number of pacers and their formation, to the course, which had to be flat with not too many turns and, of course the running shoes. Paula spoke about the Nike Vaporfly - the shoe that’s caused quite a stir - with a cushioned stiff plate that’s enabling every level of runner to run a bit further and a bit faster, but with less soreness.
And, after all that, some of us went for an unforgettable run ... with an Olympian
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