How fast do have to be in order to be part of the top 1%?

100kg man wrote:

5’10 210lbs wrote:

Yes and I always thought the vast majority of men in their prime ought to be able to bench press at least 250lbs too (the equivilent of running 41.9s) but can you?

Unless you're 220+lbs, benching 250 is way more impressive than running 41.9.

I could bench 250 at 180lbs, it’s called “having strength” something a lot of runners ain’t familiar with. All you scrawny runts would say that but the reality of it is most men who work out probably find 250lb bench just as doable as a 58/400. Same amount of training. I run 54 and it was the same level of difficulty in my opinion.

a 7:30 3k or 8:00 steeple is much harder than a sub 13 5k or sub 60 half. I know you were trying to be clean on numbers, but there are clear differences in physiological expenditures here.

Former D1 400 runner wrote:

I ran a 48 400 in highschool to win state in arkansas...and a 47 in college. I was the only person to break 50 out of the entire state that year. So 1 hser out of 3 million people and maybe 30 total could break 50 in the entire state. (college athletes).

Our 4 x 400 team had me and three guys that could run 54-58. There were 260 people in my school. Top 1% would be 55. top 0.1 would be 53. Top 0.01 would be 51. and top 0.00001 would break 50.

48 out of blocks is smoking. That said 50-53 second 400 times are really just quality varsity times. My all-white public high school class had almost exactly 100 boys. My junior year there were 6 juniors on the team who were sub 55 400 runners. Two 50.x-51.x legit quarter milers, plus two sprinters and two distance guys who coul split 53.x on the 4x4. Our 4x4 ran in the mid to high 3:2x range and didn’t even make the fast heat at sectionals. That’s 6 out of 100 under 55. My class was probably deeper than most at my school but not exceptional by any means. Take a group of all-conference Soccer midfielders, baseball outfielders, basketball small forwards and train them for 8 weeks and most will get under 56 for the 400. Train them for two years and very few will get under 50 because a 50 sec 400 is really fast.

I’d say a 55 second 400 is top 10 percent for 17-18 year old males if we are talking about a reasonable training period. 52 flat out of blocks sounds about right for top 1 percent of European/ west African population.

The top one percent of runners wrote:

Run under one of the following:

10 seconds for 100m

20 seconds for 200m

45 seconds for 400m

1:44 for 800m

3:30 for 1500m

7:30 for 3000m

8:00 for steeplechase

13:00 for 5000m

27:00 for 10000m

60 minutes for half marathon

2:05 for the marathon

3 hours for 50k

6 hours for 100k

11 hours for hundred miles

The stupidity of the OP's question is matched only by the stupidity of this answer.

Maybe you are distance runner to value 60:00 and 2:05:00 so greatly, relative to the sprint times that you list. Or maybe you know nothing about distance and that explains it.

There are 59-high HM runners and 2:04-high guys from Kenyan and Ethiopia who you can't even name. Literally they may not place top 5 at one of many fast races. Meanwhile, 9.9, 19.9 or 44.9 will all put a runner in an Olympic final.

In any case, those are orders of magnitude removed from the 1% threshold.

5’10 210lbs wrote:

fdgdg wrote:

Well that's just silly. At peak shape I'd of thought the vast majority of men could run sub 42.

Yes and I always thought the vast majority of men in their prime ought to be able to bench press at least 250lbs too (the equivilent of running 41.9s) but can you?

Yes.

Out of the general population of 18 to 25 year olds?it’s sad to say but an ovewhelming majority could not break 1:30 for a single lap, even slim people. I am not joking. That is a SIX minute mile pace which to a person who doesn’t exercise at least 2-3 times a week might as well be THREE minute mile pace.

Sub 1:00 for men and sub 1:15 for women. You’d be very hard pressed to pull a person off the street who could run those times without previously being track athlete. I guess the ones who could do it would be the in-shape ones who play some sort of sport and take it at least somewhat seriously (like being one of the standout players on alocally competitive team) such as football or the ones currently running/doing some interval work (and let’s face the facts that reguardless of time, if you are a runner at any speed in your 20s you are likely in the top percentile because 99% of people are too busy with partying, travelling and work - everything is brand new at that age).