The Economy of Running

by Nora Drake

Rod Garratt loved running so much that he sometimes listens to podcasts about running while he’s running. He loves it so much that sometimes he can’t stop running even when his body tells him to. An expert on currency and payment systems in his day job as a professor of economics, Garratt sees parallels between his career and his passion. “Sports are really only interesting as long as you can improve in them,” he says. “To relate it to economics, if you want to optimize, you want to look at where the potential improvements are the greatest. So even though most of us prefer to do the things we are the best at, I keep training so I can work on the stuff I’m not as good at.” Garratt’s dedication was rewarded earlier this year, when he won a bronze medal in the Men’s 60+ 4x400-meter relay at the 2024 World Athletics Association Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, and a gold medal in the 2024 USA Track & Field Masters indoor 400-meter dash.

Unusual for a master’s athlete, Garratt only became serious about the sport in his 50s. Though both his father and daughter were elite track and field athletes, he wasn’t able to pursue the sport when he was young. “I started running in high school,” he says, “but I only ran one track meet before discovering I had a heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. They didn’t really know how to diagnose it back then, so it prevented me from continuing on with competitive running. It wasn’t until I came to Santa Barbara many years later that I was able to get it diagnosed and to have surgery to correct it.”

He started taking distance running more seriously once his heart condition was cured, training with a local run club until the mileage started to wear his body out. “I also play hockey and bike,” Garratt explains, “and I tore my ACL playing hockey. Once I got that fixed, I decided that the running I had been doing was too much and I should go back and try track and field. Then I tore my quad.” Despite these setbacks, Garratt persisted. He trained (and cross-trained) for at least an hour per day, stayed healthy, and showed up at the indoor championships last year just hoping to get a medal of any color. He was pleasantly surprised by the results. “The way the race unfolded, there was a runner who had come in with a better time than me, but he went out too fast and I was able to finish strong,” says Garratt. “I went from dead last in the first lap to winning. I was elated.”

In addition to his training, he also credits some of his success to the slow march of time. Being an economist, he has examined the relevant data and has concluded that his dominance isn’t entirely due to natural talent. “I wasn’t that fast when I was younger, but for my age now, I am pretty fast,” he explains. “My success is really just due to getting slower at a lesser rate than other people.” Garratt hopes to keep running as long as he is physically able, and as long as he is still learning new things. “One of the beautiful things about track is that, since I stopped in high school, I had a lot to learn, like how to use starting blocks, how to pace myself, how to race,” he says. “I’m still developing these skills, and I hope to keep competing for as long as I can.”