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by jeltz 1375 days ago
But your numbers are largely irrelevant. Most people who sign up to races are not regular runners, and do not come close to averaging 8 km per day if you even run at all. If we instead look at a race for regular runners (but still amateurs) we will see vastly different numbers. Also not everyone in a race goes all out, some people run with a slower friend or just run to have fun.

Premiärmilen 2022: 610/1455 (42%)

https://registration.marathongruppen.se/ResultList.aspx?Lang...

Hässelbyloppet 2021 441/1001 (44%)

https://www.marathon.se/racetimer?v=/sv/race/show/4972%3Flay...

Höstrusket 10k 2021: 220/621 (35%)

https://www.marathon.se/racetimer?v=/sv/race/show/5011%3Flay...

Sorry for only citing Swedish races, but from my experience running many races and being a member of running clubs I can say that your 4% is misleading since in many races there are a lot of people who never run. In races where most people run (and many of those still run less than 8 km per day) I expect ~40% of the men to run under 45 minutes.

Edit: That said running 8 km per day is a lot and few people average that outside marathon training programs. Which is also why I doubt even most people running in the races above average close to that much.

2 comments

And this matches my experience.

I once joined a 10k without much research. It was on the weekend I wanted to run fast 10k (at the time that was 50 minutes for me) and I decided I might want to run it with other people.

The detail I missed was the race was organised by a local sports school to commemorate 50 years of the school and the participants were mostly alumni.

I quickly found myself at the end of the pack and even though finished around 50 minute I was still mostly surrounded by 40 and 50 year olds, everybody younger or my age was far faster than I was.

> Most people who sign up to races are not regular runners

[citation sorely needed]

Yes, some non-regular-runners sign up for a charity 5K, but as I already said that's much less true for a 10K. "Most" is a drastic overstatement.

> In races where most people run

i.e. where most people fit the definition of "well conditioned athlete"

> I expect ~40% of the men to run under 45 minutes

i.e. 45:00 is still below median. Even by your own shifty definitions, you're refuting your own point.