Could anyone run a 5 minute mile?

Robbie Hummel can run a 4:40 mile. 6' 8" 218lb.

I was just trying to give the hope to people who have the dream of running a sub-5 minute mile. I personally believe it is achievable from just about anyone at an acceptable age with no physical ailments... I think its possible as witnessed from my own experiences.

I ran a sub-5 minute mile my freshman year of high school, but I do not account that performance to talent in any way. I am short (5'4"), and did not start running until about seventh grade. I was forced to run the mile all of middle school and I think I began somewhere around 11 minutes, once I actually joined track I still dont think I broke six minutes in eighth grade.

How could this be talent? it took me years before I started to get anywhere near "fast" and I just went to practice, no amazing glory story. I did not bust out a sub-6 minute mile my first ever attempt. Why wouldnt any guy be able to accomplish what I have? especially given more time.

midgets.

Uppity wrote:

double BS wrote:

2nd that motion! there is NO WAY they could manage that. If they had the lungs for 5 minute mile they'd be low 31 for 10km. Holding a mile and not going lactic before 2 laps who hasn't trained I strongly doubt it.

Sick logic.

This means they are also 2:11 ish for the marathon. A 5 min mile is more like 36 for the 10km IF they have developed the endurance for it.

I'm a 34ish min 10km runner and I struggle with 5:15 and people tell me I'm fast. So 5min must be insanely fast if I ever get there.

IF you take some random middle aged dude who's never run before, they're almost certainly never gonna break 5. However I think that pretty much anyone capable of playing a high school sport (i.e. basically everyone) could break 5 if they ran track and kept with it for a few years.

At 6 ft ~180 lbs I hardly have a runners build, have run 4:36 and plan on continuing to get faster. A kid on my high school team came in as a 190 lb frosh running 7+ minutes in the mile and ran 4:56 his senior year. The people saying that 90% of the male population can't break 5 are way off.

Mojo Jerkin wrote:

I call complete, utter BS on this.

Our local HS has one of the better track teams in our area. I think they have about 70 boys on the team. I can count 8 of them who can break a 5 minute mile currently. Not one of them is on the basketball team, and not one of them is taller than 5 10.

HA HA

well its too bad ya don;t believe me but it is the truth

if you want to track down the LA City Champion Basketball team from 1976 Granada Hills High school and ask them about it you will learn it is not bs.

Nothing in the newspapers at the time because it was not considered to be anything out of the ordinary as far as off season preperation.

If you can track down former Decathalete Tom Harris (6th in the 84 OLY trials) he knows some of the guys involved as he graduated a year before. Tom didn't like to run very far but he was under 5 easy about 4:45 and was 6 feet tall but primarily a high jumper at the time.

Kind of sad that you guys today are such piss poor runners

that you think everything before your time is bs.

A track team with noone who can break 5 minutes who is 6 feet tall?

HAHAHA! OK I was 6 ft 1 and broke 5 minutes, in junior high! John Wendler 1976 City champion 2M(9:08) also 6 1. Clay Sigman was City Mile champ that year in 4:12 was even taller than i was. I think he was 6 2.

Newsflash, Jim Ryun was 6 2 Marty Liquori was 6 ft so in my day they LOOKED for guys that tall to run the mile.

the cross country team had over a hundred runners because if you participated all 3 years and did all the mileage even if you never raced they would give you a varsity letter. Very few runners did that and did not break 4:40. Basically none that i know of. Alot of 6 and 7 minute milers became sub 4:40 guys. You don't have to believe me you just keep doing what you do in your own little pathetic loser world and keep telling yourself you are a winner.

Good Luck you will need it.

Let's say you gave me 10 male babies, selected randomly from all parts of the world. Now, I train them right and feed them right all the way up until they are, say, 25.

Let's also say that when they turn 25, they have to run a mile under 5:00, or else they will be executed. And that they have known this fact all their lives.

Does anyone on here REALLY think won't all break 5 minutes?

There's a good chance the one from the USA will not make it.

runn wrote:

Like talking about yourself much? It's not even really on topic.

I'm talking about the ability to run a 5:00 mile a**hole. It changes as you age- I guess you're young and (clearly) stupid.

I said that at one time it was EASY- no problem to run one, now, 20 seconds slower is an amazing effort.

Wow- stay off the message board or at least off of the threads that intelligent people have intelligent discussions on.

LOL, bro you talked about liking to train for 10ks to HMs and then about running some indoor 5:20, you went into your lack of speed training for it and generally just talked about yourself. Yes, I could pull out the few rare kernels that were on topic but who cares?

Flagpole wrote:

[

Yes, there are some who might not be able to run a mile without stopping initially who could train and get to 5:00 or faster, but most (the VAST majority) will not be able to do that. I say ~1-2% of ALL MALES ever could run sub 5:00, and that would be with training from the beginning.

1-2%??!

That is absolutely insane.

If we were talking 4 mins, then MAYBE.

But 5 minutes?

That's a joke. 5 minutes isn't all that fast and to imply that only 1-2% of healthy males have the genetic potential to run that is to reduce the human body to an absolute farce.

Get real.

I did not intent to imply that tall people can't break a 5 minute mile. I personally know someone who is 6' 6" and in the day could run about 4:10. I had a teammate who was 6'3" and almost broke 30 for 10K. But neither of them could play basketball worth a damn.

In the recent Olympic trials, only 6 US decathletes went under 4:38 for 1500m, roughly equivalent to a 5 minute mile. Just some evidence on how hard it is.

I know you are trolling... but if you can provide any real evidence that your entire high school basketball team ran under 5 minutes, I will gladly send you $100 and an apology.

A 5 minute mile isn't all that impressive to this board, which has a lot of folks that were good enough to compete at college and beyond. But, if I again think of my son's high school, which has an excellent track program, if every one of the 400 boys in the school ran track all 4 years, I would bet that no more than 15 of them would be under 5. So, I would say that a 5 minute mile is in the capability of perhaps 5% of the male population at best.

Dude, the number of US men EVER that have run sub 4 minutes is like 300 people (I used to have the website bookmarked but I lost it). Ever. The US has 320 million people right now and in its history, there have been over a billion of people that have at one point been living in the US. Think about that.I guarantee you that if you were running even a sub 5 minute mile in HS, there were not many cats faster than you. Most large HS's only have two or three people that break 5. Also, I would argue that the vast majority of people that run competitively are self-selected because they are good at it.I was never that good at tennis or basketball but realized that I was ok at running. People on letsrun need to stop with their threads that every pro athlete could be an elite runner if they tried, that everybody is equally capable physically, and that we are all equal in all aspects of life. We aren't. Some people are more athletic, some people are smarter, some people are more gifted at certain subjects and areas of life. There are a lot of guys that are in good physical shape and run 8 minutes for a mile. Young guys, too. Not everybody is meant for distance running, just as not everybody is blessed with fast-twitch muscles.

insane wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

[

Yes, there are some who might not be able to run a mile without stopping initially who could train and get to 5:00 or faster, but most (the VAST majority) will not be able to do that. I say ~1-2% of ALL MALES ever could run sub 5:00, and that would be with training from the beginning.

1-2%??!

That is absolutely insane.

If we were talking 4 mins, then MAYBE.

But 5 minutes?

That's a joke. 5 minutes isn't all that fast and to imply that only 1-2% of healthy males have the genetic potential to run that is to reduce the human body to an absolute farce.

Get real.

Stats, brah. As of 2011, only 347 americans have EVER broken 4. In its history. This is to the poster that said that 1-2% of guys could break 4. Only 1192 guys in the WORLD have EVER done so. There are 6.5 BILLION people in the world and roughly 3.25 BILLION men. However, in human history there have been many billions more people. Running fast is largely due to god-given talent. Not everybody is born with this ability. Roger Bannister didn't train much, even for the 1950's. He was actually a neurologist and track was not his main focus. how did he do it? Super athletic.

http://runsub4.com/2011/04/29/all-time-sub-4-minute-mile-list/

1. List of American Sub 4 minute milers. As of this post, there have been a total of 347 Americans to break 4 minutes in the mile. 2010 was the year with the most new members with 18 runners breaking 4 minutes that year.

2. Number of sub 4 milers (worldwide) This list totals 1192.

The mark listed for each athlete is how fast he ran in his first-ever sub-4:00 mile. The list is for actual mile races, not

any conversions from the 1500 (where a 3:42.22 is equivalent to 3:59.99) or the 1600 (where 3:58.61 is required).

Dual citizens are not included unless they represented the U.S. internationally.

Yes, just like any DB with a weight vest can run a sub2 hr marathon.

It's not that fast for people who consider themselves runners, but we're talking about the average population. There are guys on high school track teams across the country who train, eat well, do their best who can't come close to breaking 5:00 for the mile, and they never will.You're just wrong brother. 95% of adults in this country can't run a mile without stopping...now, MOST of them COULD if they trained and lost weight, but 5:00 is smoking fast for them, and less than 1% of all people today have ever done it...train a ton more and you'll get MAYBE another percent. Too many of you seem to believe that running is JUST time on task, and it is NOT that. Inherent talent is the No. 1 thing that dictates if you can become a good runner or not. Bekele could not run for a year and roll out of bed and run a 5 k in 14:something, but there are TONS of people who could run 100+ miles a week, eat well, sleep well, try as hard as they can who could NEVER break 15 minutes or even 17 minutes. We are SOOOOO limited by our inherent talent when it comes to running.1-2% is all that could ever break 5 minutes, and it might be closer to 1% than 2%.

insane wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

[

Yes, there are some who might not be able to run a mile without stopping initially who could train and get to 5:00 or faster, but most (the VAST majority) will not be able to do that. I say ~1-2% of ALL MALES ever could run sub 5:00, and that would be with training from the beginning.

1-2%??!

That is absolutely insane.

If we were talking 4 mins, then MAYBE.

But 5 minutes?

That's a joke. 5 minutes isn't all that fast and to imply that only 1-2% of healthy males have the genetic potential to run that is to reduce the human body to an absolute farce.

Get real.

Here's a good exercise: go to your neighborhood trail and watch the people who go there to walk, jog, run, etc. And remember these are the people who actually bother to get out to exercise. If ANY of those folks hit a 7min mile, they look like world class athletes among that crowd. An 11" stride for some of those joggers is an achievement.

What is the acceptable limit to the human potential in running?

Now that's a totally different question. The "acceptable limit" (I'm not sure to whom you mean "acceptable") is the outliers on the far right of the bell curve, not the middle and lower percentile.

No. There are people for whom, no matter what you did, this would be impossible.

Dennis Reynolds wrote:

runn wrote:

Like talking about yourself much? It's not even really on topic.

I'm talking about the ability to run a 5:00 mile a**hole. It changes as you age- I guess you're young and (clearly) stupid.

I said that at one time it was EASY- no problem to run one, now, 20 seconds slower is an amazing effort.

Wow- stay off the message board or at least off of the threads that intelligent people have intelligent discussions on.

LOL, bro you talked about liking to train for 10ks to HMs and then about running some indoor 5:20, you went into your lack of speed training for it and generally just talked about yourself. Yes, I could pull out the few rare kernels that were on topic but who cares?

He was on topic...I know the point he was making. But then again I'm old and 5k's feel like mile races used to.

oldhalfmileguy wrote:

funny you should mention that

My schools basketball coach wanted his team to be in the best shape. EVERYONE had to run a sub 5 minute mile before they could be on the team. Funny to see these big guys with basketball shoes run. Most made it in the first attempt. They all made it by the third try. a 6 ft 5 fwd/center had the fastest time 4 39.

Why don't posters ever come back to defend their BS. At least come back and acknowledge that this "mile" may have been a tad short.