What distance is best to get good at in order to escape criminals?

Fantastic question, glad to help. I would suggest being generally fit, being able to run miles, but don’t expect to actually do it during one of your criminal operations. Be aerobically conditioned, know how to use your fists, be handy with an edged weapon, and get to robbin’!

Marathon. Haha I'm so funny and original

You don’t need to run. Master the martial arts like I did and these lowlife criminals will rue the day they messed with you.

And 99.9% of cops

The distance between the US and Europe, so you can move away from your hellhole country.

Even on this forum, how many people can run a sub 50 400m?

Sorry running away will never work. The criminals will always grab your partner .How will you feel running away while they attack your wife or child ?

can't have sh*t in iten

Also, one thing I've learned from hanging around the LRC forum is that it's not crucial to actually outrun the attacker - you can simply point out to them that your PRs at other distances would indicate that you could outrun them in general, and surely you could outrun them in the pursuit if you chose to, which for some reason, you haven't (but you assert vehemently that you could!)

This may sound a bit convoluted, and I would have to agree. But stuff that like that flies around here, apparently, so I thought I would share it.

Middle distance or long distance if you still have reasonable speed.

If you run off you have at least 20m by surprise . So any robber who is naturally fast but not a trained sprinter will start to tie up at the moment they are catching you (80-100m) and then speed endurance will kick in and you are away.

400m runner will also get away but there is a small chance they make keep chasing although the 400m runner probably has better than average endurance anyway.

I've had a groups of people looking for a fight chase me when younger a couple of times when I was younger once in a car and still got away

I think 800- speed and strength.

401m

I’m also going with 800m

The difference in your 400m time will be small, but the extra distance ensures you can continue running at a steady pace until out of sight.

You don’t want to be seen leaning over to catch your breath.

My answer is probably unpopular, but I will say the 200m.

Most of the low level criminals/robbers are young and full of energy. Some of them have played football or basketball and were pretty good at it. So you better be good at running fast from the get.

Also unless you really have something they desire, or you pissed them off, they won't chase you down more than like 50-60 feet. And if they do but you have 200m strength, they will burn out after 100m. While you'll be able to slightly slow down, and continue running for 400m.

Train for 800m. Feign like you may get captured for first 1 minute to 1.5 minutes. once criminals are completely exhausted and lactic. Proceed to release 30 seconds of pure hell in the form of takedowns and ground and pound.

Right, because at this point, if you are carrying a million-dollar ring, they shoot you.

A couple of years ago I got a really good look at a police foot chase – I was leaving a store and saw a guy in a nearby lot run away from three cops who were also on foot. I was in my car so I asked the (now running) cops if anyone wanted to jump in. They did not answer, obviously did not want some random guy to get involved. So I just drove away on my way home, which took me on a long street parallel to the foot chase. I slowed down to watch the rest of it unfold.
The upshot: the guy got away easily from the cops with some pretty modest meth speed. A couple rough estimates, based on years of running experience and my car’s odometer.
- He covered the first 50 meters at maybe 60 sec 400 pace, He was moving but it was not really a sprint. It was more than enough to gap the chubby cops.
- From 50-200 meters the guy bobbed and flailed along at maybe 7-7:30 min pace. He gapped the cops some more.
- From 200 meters on, the pace continued to tank for everyone. He ran what looked to be about 8 or 9 min pace for a little bit, then faded to around 10-11 min. jog, By then, he was over 400 meters into the chase. The cops started walking. The dude jumped a small fence and disappeared.

- You gotta love when these people are scared of cities (oooooh!)

- In an "urban environment" straight line speed is not that helpful, you need to be ready to avoid or push through obstacles and react quickly

- 400 hurdles is the best answer i suppose

- maybe work on some bullet chess to improve your processing speed?

I'd say a 400/800 specialist. I don't think any pursuit would last very long. As a 400/800 runner you'd have enough speed such that with a small head start they aren't going to catch you in a couple blocks, and being able to run several blocks at a high speed is plenty. No one's chasing you for a mile, criminals typically aren't dedicated endurance runners, and no one is going to be running a sub 4:30 mile off no training through the streets of New York.