at Chicago which is a pretty fast course 3300 broke 3 hours. Out of 52,000 + So on a fast course with people that trained for this race only 6% could run that fast.
running under 3 hours is a legit achievement. you have to have talent and still put in serious work to do it.
as to the q posed by op - i dont have an answer to that.
If you mean completing a marathon in just under 3 hrs, a rough equivalent in tennis might be achieving a 5.0 player rating. Pros are rated 7.0. Strong D1 collegians are generally rated 6.0.
UK population approx 70 million. So, approx 35 million men. If we take out the under 18s and over 60s (only 30 sub 3hr marathons by guys aged 60+) we probably end up with around 20 million men aged 18-60.
6,600 is 0.033% of 20 million.
Therefore - if wanting to find comparative sporting achievements we need to look at things that have been achieved by less than 1% of the population.
If you mean completing a marathon in just under 3 hrs, a rough equivalent in tennis might be achieving a 5.0 player rating. Pros are rated 7.0. Strong D1 collegians are generally rated 6.0.
HoLeeFuk! I could have been a 5.0 tennis player?! I play a (very) little tennis now and 5-Ohs are pretty dam good.
Surprised no cyclists have weighed in even though they'd be one of the most obvious comparison sports.
While unsure myself if this is an apt comparison, how about biking a century (100mi) in under 4 hours?
Are you biking this century by yourself or in a pack?
Riding a century under 4 hours by yourself is about like running a 2:20 marathon.
Riding a century under 4 hours in a pack on a flat course is probably easier than running a 3 hour marathon.
Not true. A sub 4 century on any normal road course is not easy, peloton or no peloton. Id rate it more like a 2:35 marathon. Yeah you could concoct some scenario where you ride the entire time in the draft on new asphalt on a Nascar racetrack and then you could probably do 100 miles in 4 hrs averaging under 200 watts but that's just not how cycling works in the real world.
Also 4 hrs by yourself on a roadbike solo is more like a 2:12 marathon.
at Chicago which is a pretty fast course 3300 broke 3 hours. Out of 52,000 + So on a fast course with people that trained for this race only 6% could run that fast.
running under 3 hours is a legit achievement. you have to have talent and still put in serious work to do it.
as to the q posed by op - i dont have an answer to that.
6:52 pace doesn't require serious work. 6:00 pace requires work. 5:30 pace serious work post college with job , family ECT !!
at Chicago which is a pretty fast course 3300 broke 3 hours. Out of 52,000 + So on a fast course with people that trained for this race only 6% could run that fast.
running under 3 hours is a legit achievement. you have to have talent and still put in serious work to do it.
as to the q posed by op - i dont have an answer to that.
6:52 pace doesn't require serious work. 6:00 pace requires work. 5:30 pace serious work post college with job , family ECT !!
6:52 for one mile does not take a lot of work (granted fewer than 10% of world population could do that if we all had to run a mile tomorrow), 6:52 for 26 does. Maybe not for you - congrats you are talented. Again why can only 6% of people that train to run 26 miles be able to run 6:52 - because it is not easy. No it is not elite I get that. Dunking a basketball is not elite - but it takes serious work to be able to do it if you are not super talented or tall.