5-mile WR carrying 56lb. backpack easy to beat...

I believe that most of the Army/Military guys along with the hikers put a little common sense to this issue.

I love this thread.

Forest firefighters are required to complete 3 miles on a track in under 45 minutes with a 45 lb if I'm not mistaken. One of my mates completed the thing in around 26-27 minutes and was a 31-32 10K runner in college. Like many of you have indicated - breaking this record would not be easy! The individual would definately have to be on the bigger and stronger side. Anyone under 150lbs would crumble under that kind of weight after a few miles.

I think the mechanics/technique involved would prove VERY difficult to master, running with a pack on your back is a lot different than running with that much fat. I doubt a 150 lb runner would have much of a shot at this record.

However if you think a 56 lb pack is heavy to hike with for that distance, or hard to lift onto your back, I'd suggest some more time in the weight room! C'mon guys, does, your wife carry in the heavy groceries for you??? ;)

Paddy Doyle is a freak

1mi with 40lb pack: 5:35

Push ups in one hour on the BACKS of his hands: 1,303

That\'s a pretty formidable man to beat...

A kevlar canoe weighs around 55 lbs. I've portaged those for .75 miles and it sucks. There is no way I could run with that. I went on a canoe trip with a guy who could carry a full pack and the canoe and outdistance me (carrying nothing). That was impressive.

I have to agree w/ all the military guys here. My first year of ROTC, we loaded 2 30# sandbags into rucksacks (plus M16, canteens, web gear etc) and set off on a 12 miler. I weighed a whopping 117#, so I was lugging over half my body weight. barely broke 3hrs, rubbed all the skin off my little toes (had to wear sandles for a week, still have the scars). it's a hell of a lot tougher than it sounds. we used to run 10k's w/ boots and 35-40# of gear as well. was too young and dumb to figure out why my feet hurt all the time - xrays a few years later showed lots of old stress fractures. i would recommend attempting a different WR : )

godspeed wrote:

Five-Mile Speed March With Pack

The fastest time to run five miles while carrying a 25.4-kg. (56-lb.) backpack is 36 min 49 sec, achieved by Paddy Doyle (GB) at the Royal British Legion Runathon, Stoneleigh Park, Coventry, England, on May 9, 1999.

I got this off of

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com

It seems like this wouldn't be too difficult for a lot of fit people to beat (especially guys) on a flat course. Maybe I'll go try for the world record this weekend hahahahahahah. I bet Paula R. could do it on Sunday if she were so inclined. 56lbs is a big difference but were only talking like 7:20 pace here......

I'm curious...why 56 lbs.? That seems like such an odd number to break a world record with (as opposed to 50, 55, or 60 lbs). Is that some military or hiking standard weight that I'm unaware of?

I'm a runner (2:26 marathoner) and a hiker (avg. 17 miles per day or so on 3-4 day hikes).

Last spring I was on a team that did an adventure race that required me to carry 50 lbs (in sandbags) in a pack for five miles as part of the race (also involved canoeing, archery, running, plant identification). My partner in the race was a former elite miler (who also haunts this message board), who carried 40lbs in his pack (our wives carried 10 and 30 lbs, respectively).

I think we would both say that it was MUCH harder than we imagined. Since we knew our advantage would be on the "hike/run with weight" part of the event, we tried to hammer along the largely flat trail. The best I could muster was running at a decent pace for 2-3 mins max before walking another 1-3 minutes. Granted, the weight was not distributed well, but it is hard to imagine anyone going much faster than 8 minute miles carrying 50 lbs plus. The record is solid. We probably did the distance in an hour at the fastest.

AH States in reply to me WDOWTIN

I think the mechanics/technique involved would prove VERY difficult to master, running with a pack on your back is a lot different than running with that much fat. I doubt a 150 lb runner would have much of a shot at this record.

However if you think a 56 lb pack is heavy to hike with for that distance, or hard to lift onto your back, I'd suggest some more time in the weight room! C'mon guys, does, your wife carry in the heavy groceries for you??? ;)

MY REPLY: PLEASE READ MY POSTINGS AGAIN. I NEVER STATED THAT I COULDN'T LIFT A 56 POUND PACK. IF YOU WERE TO READ MY POSTING YOU WOULD NOTICE THAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT SOME/MAYBE MOST DISTANCE RUNNERS. I MYSELF CARRIED A PACK MANY OF TIMES IN THE ARMY. I WAS UTILIZING AN EXAMPLE WHEN I WAS IN AIR ASSAULT SCHOOL. PS: SINCE YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT ME GOING INTO THE WEIGHT ROOM (I BENCH PRESS AROUND 300 PDS. NOT BAD FOR A FORMER TRACK/DISTANCE RUNNER HUH? LOVE PUSHUPS/DIPS/PULLUPS) I AM CURIOUS IF YOU "AH" HAVE EVER BEEN IN THE ARMY OR MARINES OR IF YOU HAVE, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN COMBAT ARMS (INFANTRY, ARMOR, ETC) AND/OR ATTENDED ANY SPECIAL SCHOOLS (RANGERS, SPECIAL FORCES TRAINING, AIRBORNE, AIR ASSAULT, PATHFINDER, JUNGLE WARFARE, ETC.) I JUST HATE WHEN PEOPLE REPLY TO A POSTING WITHOUT TRULY READING IT FIRST. PLEASE "AH" READ MY POSTING NEXT TIME. I AM NOT MAD AT YOU BECAUSE I AGREE with you THAT THE GUYS THAT CANNOT LIFT THIS WEIGHT ONTO THEIR BACKS MORE THAN LIKELY DO NEED TO GO TO THE WEIGHT ROOM)

ANYWAY ONCE AGAIN THAT RECORD (56 pound pack -- 7 min mile pace for 5 miles is truly amazing!!!)

I'll agree that this would be way difficult. my toughest hiking/running experience came doing a rescue in southern colorado last summer. I was carrying 60-70 lbs. worth of climbing pro, med stuff, and a backboard. We moved as fast as possible, it was more scrambling than running, up 4000 feet elevation in about 3.5 miles. we got up in about 45 minutes, but hurt pretty bad the next day.

It would be very difficult for a person of any strength to hike any distance with 56 lbs. If you think that it wouldn't be too heavy to hike with, as your post suggests, then you probably haven't had much experience with backpacking. I suggest trying it with anything over 30 lbs for much distance at all and see how easy it is. And in regard to your comment about spending more time in the weight room, keep in mind that we are runners here, we don't know what a weight room is.

here is my guess, your spine would shrink about 3-4 inches, followed by your knees becoming your ankles.

nice record.

For kicks let's say 36-minutes for 5-miles with a 56-lb. pack is akin to a 24-minute 5-mile and assume someone out there could knock it down to 34-minutes which would be akin to a world-record pace of 22-minutes for 5-miles.

That's a 12-minute differential for five miles at 56 pounds. Almost 2:30 per mile (150 sec.) for 56 lbs. or close to 3 seconds a mile slower per pound of weight.

So if this is how much each pound of excess backpack weight affects performance, does a runner's performance increase relatively with each pound lost i.e., extrapolate/hold true for athletes trying to shave off 5-10 pounds at the beginning of their base-building phase?

I went on a month long mountaineering trip with a group of about 12 a couple years ago when I was in about 31 min 10k shape and 141 lbs. Hiking rough off trail with a pack weight of 60-90+ lbs (after a resupply, carrying heavy skis, etc.), I could carry the weight fine. 3 weeks into the trip I even (mostly_ ran up a really steep hill (almost 1000 ft in a mile) with the 90 lbs, amazing myself. But I had to work really hard to keep up with the everyday pace of the two 6'+ guys in our group going during most of the hiking portions of the trip. Their long strides just ate up the ground, even though one of them was a smoker. So basically, I think you need to be a pretty big guy to carry that weight well. The women in our group held their own carrying just as much weight and a higher percentage of their body weight, but I was impressed by how the big guys could put distance on me during the hiking.

In one backpacking trip in Yosemite, I arrived 1.5 hrs before sunset at the trailhead (at 8000'?) had to run 10 very hilly miles with 45 lbs (carried too much camera gear) to reach my planned campsite by dark. It took me 2 hours, so it was 12 min. miles on hilly trails at altitude unacclimated. Not fast, not slow... don't know what I can conclude from that actually.