For anybody to run at their best, regardless of ability, that means pushing through pain. I am here to tell you that ALL of us runners, while we feel we push at or above our limits, are still likely not reaching our physiological limits of performance.
It would be nice to finish a race knowing that we got the most out of bodies as we possibly could, however, this just isn’t the way we are built. When we run, distress signals build up in the body (lactic acid, heat etc.). As these distress signals ramp up, our central nervous system slows us down. Many researchers argue that this stimulus to slow down is so powerful that the brain makes it impossible to push our bodies to their physiological limit.
