lol @ 8 miles per hour for an entire hour after a couple of weeks. I used to run 15 miles a day (7.5 to work 7.5 back) and even then that would've been tough. and I worked up to that over basically 3 years. a
Yes, in my experience there are people that are natural runners and there are those who are not. I myself am running for 18 years already, around 2 times per week and even in my best form never reached 8 miles in one hour. A friend of mine picked up running and surpassed me after a few months. People are different, and GP forgot that!
I did that in a race (8.7 in 70 mins, hilly) and it took 3 months from sedate but the thing about a race is the regime is geared up for that day so it’s not like I could knock that one out at any point along the way.