What exactly is pace (beyond what has already been mentioned)?

What exactly is pace on the watch? It shows as feet & inches. Apple says it's distance (feet?) divided by time (min.?) which would be feet/min, not just feet & inches. When one divides one unit by another, the resulting unit has to represent both, e.g., miles driven in an hour is miles/hour. My pace shows as 14-24 ongoing which makes no sense as feet per what? (I know about calibrating the watch with the iPhone but that isn't changing the pace much). No common definition of pace seems to match the number my Apple Watch shows repeatedly. What does the watch's pace as just plain feet and inches actually mean? I've asked Apple Support numerous times but Engineering just comes back saying it's distance divided by time but the resulting number is just feet and inches, which is illogical.