I believe everyone physically able to should try running 13.1 mph on a treadmill just to get an understanding of just how fast these athletes run for two hours. It is incredible.
13.1 mph is a decent pace on a bike! That's the sort of pace you set for a commute to split minimizing your commute time with arriving at work not completely exhausted and sweaty.
For clarity, that's a 4:34 mile / 2:50 km. ie hauling ass.
The vast vast majority of cross country runners in high school can't maintain that pace for 3.1 miles / 5 km. How a human maintains it for 26.2 I have no idea.
Another perspective: the world record 1 mile time, which is essentially a 4 lap sprint, is 3:43.13. So these athletes run at 81% world record mile pace for 26 miles.
I used to cycle quite a lot around the West London parks and an used to seeing plenty of joggers. A few years ago, around the time of the London Olympics, I saw this woman running. I've never seen anyone run so fast and she just kept going. I crossed her path later on and she was still going. I presume she was a top level marathon runner, it was shockingly fast.
I was running Bushy parkrun[0] one Saturday in 2012 when Mo Farah was on a training run, in the opposite direction to the masses. It was like Road Runner went past, incredible pace. I was also there when Andy Baddeley got the parkrun record, 13:48. It just seems so ... ludicrous and impossible.
I used to sometimes run a mile in the middle of my treadmill run @ 10 mpg. I'm a bigger guy and regularly the machine would shut down because the belt would start to slip or overheat at that pace. I don't think it would even do 13+ mph
Most treadmills max out at 10 mph or so. Maybe 12. I have run a 2:44 marathon and at my best I would have been able to keep up with them for about .5 miles (based on my 800 meter time of 2:10). Very few people can hit that pace without damaging something unless they have seriously trained.
Agree on the incredible part. I have seen elites race in person at the 2008 Olympic trials and it is unreal how smooth and fast they are.
>I believe everyone physically able to should try running 13.1 mph on a treadmill just to get an understanding of just how fast these athletes run for two hours. It is incredible.
A whole bunch of treadmills don't go past 8MPH and even that seems pretty fast to me to run at for an extended period of time.
I can run 10mph for 13 miles, and I’m in my fifties. That’s not to brag, but to point out that an 8 mph speed limit on a treadmill is ridiculously low. Sure, it probably fits the 80% use case, but that’s only about 8 minutes/mile. Not a very useful treadmill, IMO.
But I’ve been on a treadmill less than a half dozen times in my life, so what do the treadmill makers care what I think. :-)
You're in your fifties and you're running a sub 1:19 HM? Color me dubious on that one. Possible, but not likely.
Although you're right that it would be a piss-poor treadmill if it were built to max out at 8 minutes/mile pace or slower. I suspect none are, but I think the fellow reporting it was at heavy weight, so perhaps that affected things.
Just for fun I cranked my treadmill up to 12mph which is the max. Not while I was on it because I know I'd fly off.
Every time I 'run' I think about fast running for a long distance. Then I usually stop my workout and go sit on the couch and think of some things.
Sub 2hr marathon is Stupid Fast.