Mile conversion between guys n\' girls?

Only your perception wrote:

I am. Our women had no problem putting 3 women on the starting line in the 5k-10k and the marathon in Athens. Our men could not do the same. The numbers that were used by the IOC were to create the same number of entries in both the mens and womens fields. Thus the times were equivelant on a world scale. So yes are women are certainly as competitive on a world scale as the men (according to the IOC and IAAF). Obviously this board is male dominated. Therefore you have a large contingency of men trying to justify there own inadequacies. The question is why couldn't the men put three 5k runners on the starting line? Lack of coaching/incentives/opportunities? Is it physical. I really don't know.

Good one, I agree. Let's take it one step back. How come that there were 3 women on the starting line for the marathon without problem, same for 5k, but were so far of the world class during high school and college? Maybe the lower standards for women during early stages of their running carrier gave them opportunity to develope fully as distance runners, whereas guys were pushed to perform at very young age and skiped very important stages in training over the years. That's just speculation.

To the previous poster- no, girls in my HS and college/university didn't work harder, were sloppy and fat, despite that they got full rides (not true for all of them, but in majority).

Ma. wrote:

Well, are you trying to justify your own level of performance, jaguar1? I am not trying to attack you, but why we shouldn't compare to the best?

This has nothing to do with me. It's just not accurate to use an adjustment of ~30 sec./mile difference between males and females. That's like saying a 4:30 high school male miler is equivalent to a 5:00 female miler.

Why isn't it accurate? What's the basis for your claim?

Personally I don't go for "X seconds per mile" stats. I think percentages are much more reasonable as they scale with the individuals you're comparing (e.g., a 30 second differential at 5:00 pace is not the same as a 30 sec diff at 8:00 pace, let's say for very young runners).

i usually just use the iaaf. scoring tables, they seem to give a very accuarte comparison across all events for all genders. I was orginally baffled as to the comparisons among distance events and sprints, i wondered how such slow print times where compared to realativley decent distance times. I then discovered that the reason for this may be the improvement between a sprinter and a distance runner, while i may improve up to a minute or more or a 5k a 100m runner may only improve a few tens at the absoulute most over a similar time span. look up the tables and you will see what i am talking about. http://www.iaaf.org/downloads/scoringTables/index.html

i usually just use the iaaf. scoring tables, they seem to give a very accuarte comparison across all events for both genders. I was orginally baffled as to the comparisons among distance events and sprints, i wondered how such slow print times where compared to realativley decent distance times. I then discovered that the reason for this may be the improvement between a sprinter and a distance runner, while i may improve up to a minute or more or a 5k a 100m runner may only improve a few tens at the absoulute most over a similar time span. look up the tables and you will see what i am talking about. http://www.iaaf.org/downloads/scoringTables/index.html

jaguar1 wrote:

running fan wrote:

A 4:20 for a guy is way better than 5:20 for a girl.

My guess is you're a guy.[/quote]

That is sort of offensive. It doesn't matter what sex I am since I can compare numbers as well as anyone else. In my state (MN) 44 high school girls broke 5:20 in the 1600 this year. Only 9 guys broke 4:20. Check for yourself on the honor rolls at raceberryjam.com.

Couldn't the reason for this disparity have to do with a possible lack of depth for women at the elite level compared to men? Do Kenyan, Ethiopian, and Morrocan women have the same opportunities to run as men from those countries? And if they do, are they in an environment that encourages females to run as much as males?

I'm not sure if there is a difference. However if fewer women are allowed to compete in east Africa, or participating isn't as encouraged as it is for men, then women's distance would be much less deep for women than men since those countries dominate distance running. Thus it would be much easier for any nation to put 3 women on the line for the distance events.

And in the US where male hs runners with Frank Shorter's PR's are discouraged from continuing distance running (he was a 4:30 miler), women's distance running in this country should be deeper than men's.

Now I really see the pointlessness in comparing times. Maybe I'm just trying to justify my horrible inadaquecies.

This thread is full of bitter males, it’s hilarious lol.

I like to use the 45s conversion at a semi-competotive HS level and 30s comversion at elite level. So a 5:45 girl = a 5:00 bly and a 3:50 man = a 4:20 woman.