Stride length

Today was fantastic! The wind was calm, the sky clear, and temps about 30 degrees. Plus there is a warm-up on the way!
I ran 7.9 miles easy pace. Took a while to warm up today but finally at about 3.5 miles I hit a smooth rhythm.
As I was running I was thinking about how to increase stride length. I was doing the math in my head, calculating the number of strides a marathon requires for a runner with a four foot stride length. 5280 feet X 26.2= 138,336 feet divided by 4=34,584 strides- what if a person increased stride length by one inch? You would eliminate 705 strides! If your stride is less than four feet then your elimination increases! ( A stride is one legs reach)
So how could you increase the stride by one inch? Any ideas?

What it is-
One of the questions we would ask ourselves in college (the group I "ran" with) was "What is reality?" Pretty heavy stuff, huh? We really never answered the question. However, it did cause us to think. Thinking truly is something that is lacking sorely in our current reality, as I see it, anyway.
Here is reality for me, today: Northwest wind staying in my face constantly even as I turned to the South. Sciatica is nearly healed. (YES!!) Ran a total of 8.1 miles, with a great warm-up, a strong middle of 5.4 miles at 9:03 pace, and a mile cool down. The course was rolling and quiet. The sky was clear and inviting, the air was clean and nourishing. The road was a joy today! That's reality! To exist in a well worn body and to be able to have hope for improvement gives me a vision of a reality-Posting the 1:50.00 half in March- So what is reality?
Looking to "The Jack Frost 5k" Dec. 6th. This would be a speed work session.