It provided him with details that let him polish his technique, which he learned just as we learn to walk, by trial, error, observation and imitation. The notion that digital representations are more efficient than the analog soup of actual running is the latest flavor of Platonic forms. And it was debunked millenia ago by an old Greek who never saw a camera. Distances do not come in units to be neatly cut into halves. Digitization represents reality in snapshots.
Life is in the spaces between.