Pacing Yourself in Security

Managing the security knowledge gap

Photo by S J on Unsplash

This article is about leading Security in an organization. I promise. But first, a story:

When I decided to run my first marathon, I joined a running club, which grouped the runners according to speed. Each group had a pace coach — the person who ran with the group and kept them generally on time target. The fastest group (the sub-5 minute milers) would leave first, loping off like the greyhounds they were. Then the 6-milers, the 7-milers, and so on, until my group, the 10 minute milers, would shuffle off, like the bulldogs we were.

When you train for a marathon, each week your “long run” becomes a bit longer, until your longest training run is about 20 miles. Now, if you’re a greyhound, you can run 20 miles in less than 2 hours. But if you’re a 10-minute mile an hour runner, it takes at least 3 hours to run the same distance. It was during one of those long runs that the 5 minute pace coach joined the 10 minute running group — and he suffered.

You see, when you run long and slow, you have a different running style, and you use different muscles. When you run long and slow, you spend more time on your feet, and you take more steps — your feet know it. When you run for almost an hour longer than the greyhounds, you use food less efficiently, and need more of it. And our poor greyhound…