"Everyone in my unit used to run 7 miles at 6 minute pace"

wddxx wrote:

Also, please answer my question:

In a down year, if the 1st ranked boy ran 14min and the 10th ranked boy ran 18 minutes, would you still call the 10th place boy time great just because he's so highly ranked?

No but that is a pretty extreme case, there is a need to use a combination of absolute time and relative performance. 14.30 for a HS boy will always be a good time even if the HS record is 13.30, thats almost a half mile behind by you estimation. For this case how ever 18:30 is still pretty good it is both in the top .1% of historical performances and fast enough to win many state championships.

Everyone ran a 4:30 mile in high school...

Duh.

I usully say we would have run faster but our XC coach who used to be in the army always made us do 155 push ups in 2 min before our runs for a warmup...We did it but it was a little tiring and I think we should have only did 130 or so.

If she was half a mile behind the top-ranked girls in the country...those top-ranked girls would have to be going about 16:00 for 5K. Which, clearly, they are not.

http://usa.milesplit.com/rankings/2012/cc/hs/f/5000m

18:30 is a great time for a high school girl. You obviously don't know what you're saying.

I've only read the OP's post.

People in the service always say they run a lot faster than they are capable of running.

I know so many 4:45 milers who couldn't run a step before or after joining the service.

Military intelligence?

Everyone is so hung up on the past. I live in the present. And it feels really good. Except that my sister keeps putting little dresses on the little guys on my running trophies, and my parents favor her. So I keep mum. Other than that. I'm cool. Here. Now.

For all of the in informed and to whom this may apply. The United States Marine Corps has a fitness test, and for those who get perfect scores receive a 300(pts) and therefore one is able to deduce that because it is a timed 3 mile run and a perfect run is 18 min (i.e. 6min mile pace) than it is not out of the ordinary for one to run that fast. Secondly, as a USMC VET I can attest to the fact that while in I was in the best shape of my life and therefore did timed runs consistently which as a result ran (8 miles w/6 min mile pace. We all started with 3 and worked upward. I would also like to state that I was never the fastest. I was fast but not nearly as fast as the one percent in the special operations community. I rated myself a little better than average among my peers. Hope this cleared things up.

For all of the in informed and to whom this may apply. The United States Marine Corps has a fitness test, and for those who get perfect scores receive a 300(pts) and therefore one is able to deduce that because it is a timed 3 mile run and a perfect run is 18 min (i.e. 6min mile pace) than it is not out of the ordinary for one to run that fast. Secondly, as a USMC VET I can attest to the fact that while in I was in the best shape of my life and therefore did timed runs consistently which as a result ran (8 miles w/6 min mile pace. We all started with 3 and worked upward. I would also like to state that I was never the fastest. I was fast but not nearly as fast as the one percent in the special operations community. I rated myself a little better than average among my peers. Hope this cleared things up.

I work down the street from a joint forces base and there is a 5 mile loop outside the base that is used for timed fitness tests. I see troops out there frequently and people timing them. I've run the loop numerous times with a GPS and every mile marker is off by at least a couple hundred yards. Also, I live in an area where there is a significant number of Navy and Marine Corps personnel and there aren't too many of them running races of those distances and paces. A couple of the local service challenge races don't produce any times close to that. So, bottom line is you were probably running short miles. But hey, made you all feel good about your fitness - morale builder.

Just an across this post. I was interested in the average run pace for the US Army, not the PT test standards. I served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, Infantry, and attended Recondo School. We averaged about a 7:00 minute mile for our daily 4 mile conditioning run. In my parent unit we ran at 8:00 per mile plus or minus 15 seconds, usually a 4 mile run.

I also served in the 10th Mountain Division where we ran the same pace.

Today, I am 54 years old and running at a 9:00 minute pace for half marathons. I can run about an 8:40 for a 10k on a really good day. LOL.

BTW in the Army we didn't sit around all day jaw jacking and shooting at cans. We trained, deployed and fought to keep this country, my country free. Enjoy it.

Thanks for bringing up a dead thread. But I doubt your claims of pace hold much water if properly measured. But hold on to your glory days of Operation Urgent Fury

Dude, you are a dick.

No chance.

KD wrote:

Dude, you are a dick.

Please stop, you're making me blush

KD wrote:

Just an across this post. I was interested in the average run pace for the US Army, not the PT test standards. I served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, Infantry, and attended Recondo School. We averaged about a 7:00 minute mile for our daily 4 mile conditioning run. In my parent unit we ran at 8:00 per mile plus or minus 15 seconds, usually a 4 mile run.

I also served in the 10th Mountain Division where we ran the same pace.

Today, I am 54 years old and running at a 9:00 minute pace for half marathons. I can run about an 8:40 for a 10k on a really good day. LOL.

BTW in the Army we didn't sit around all day jaw jacking and shooting at cans. We trained, deployed and fought to keep this country, my country free. Enjoy it.

Actually you aren't old enough to have fought to kept America free as no one you fought was interested in attacking or occupying American soil

brogan1 wrote:

One of my old friends in the marines said that one guy in his group ran a 5k in 11 minutes. I told him that it was a lot faster than the world record. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, "He did it".

My cousin told me that when he was in the army they had to do 1,000+ pushups everyday.

People in the military like to make things up and there is no way to reason with them.

Wow. I came into this thread to post the exact same stories....again Of all the lies military personnel told me over the years these stick out the most.

A few of my college xc & track teammates went into the military and they were at least much more honest about the training. They said it was a joke if you played a college sport. Cake walk. It is meant to be difficult for people that were never really active to begin with. It kinda has to be, otherwise there wouldn't be enough people to fill the military.

lol:

wddxx wrote:

Third, 7 miles at 6 minute pace is hardly exceptioal. Anyone remotely athletic should be able to do that after a period of training.

MORE elitist nonsense. ANYONE who is REMOTELY athletic can do 7 miles at 6:00 pace?

The girl's time, according to you, was mediocre yet she received D1 scholarship money.

Dude, step out of the Runners' Hall of Fame for a brief bit. And good luck peddling your theories to sensible knowledgeable people.

The "field mile" strikes again.

I went back a few years ago and ran the "mile" that we used to run in high school dressed out in football helmets. On my Garmin 610 GPS, the "mile" was about 0.85 miles. It appears that there are "field miles" all over the world at military bases.