If everyone in your HS graduating class had to run a mile today, what would the times be?

my class is slightly older than 86. i would not suffer to beat your winning prediction. parts of the year i should beat it for 6 mile pace as well. but not at this moment. i would guess many of my classmates would be best off maybe walking. honestly most werent running that far back in high school. except in the crazy pe class unprepared "way"

Median times of everyone who doesn't DNF:

Class of 2026: 7:00

Class of 2016: 8:00

Class of 2006: 9:00

Class of 1996: 10:30

Class of 1986: 12:00

Class of 1976: 15:00

Class of 1967: 20:00

Those are the men's times, women would be about 2 minutes slower.

I'm class of 1979, so interpolating....looks like you think fastest would be 7:45, with 80% DNF and median time among finishers around 14:00. I think that's too pessimistic., I can run around 6:00 (5:56 last year) and would likely be the fastest unless someone has been stealthily training. I know most of the others (N = 23 in graduating class). I'd say 20% DNF and median time among finishers maybe 8:00. A bunch of them play tennis or are otherwise active.

This being a running site, the winning times are way off.

You seem to think the majority of people in their forties won’t finish, which seems unlikely. Most healthy people can at least walk the distance if they get to a point where they can no longer maintain the running form. Maybe you meant not finishing under 10 is considered DNF.

I could maybe see the 20% DNF if they had a strategy of walking the curves and jogging the straights, instead of trying to run the whole thing and giving up halfway through.

But an 8:00 median time for male finishers for the class of 1979? No way, even the class of 1999 wouldn't be able to pull it off.

I’m class of 95 and I’d probably be around 5:00-5:05 depending on specific training. 6:15 would be slow half-marathon pace.

Anything slower than walking pace (20 minutes/mile?) would be considered to be DNF.

Most people in their 40s could definitely finish, but not in their current state. They would have to train a bit for a month or two.

I think you are way off. Here is my thinking for thinking for men. Will draft in two responses

Class of 2026: These are 18 year olds. Fastest time will depend on a specific class. My HS class size is ~100 men. Most play sports and a mile isn't that far. I'd guess the fastest time is typically 4:20-4:40. Median time 6:45. 1% DNF

Class of 2016: These are 28 year olds, mostly drinking too much but most are still somewhat active. Likely no track runners so fastest time 5:15. Median 7:30. 2% DNF

Class of 2006. Not that dissimilar to class of 2016. You may even have a few more who are getting back into running. Fastest time 5:00. Median 7:45. 5% DNF.

Class of 1996. These are 48 year olds so father time is starting to bite just a little. Definitely more pot bellies and less activity. Still, a few in decent shape. Fastest time 5:45. Median 8:30. 8% DNF.

You are on crack, my 70 year old obese mother could walk a mile in 20 minutes if she tried. She’s missing a kidney and has bad knees but she can walk a moderate pace for ~20 minutes.

Can they even run a mile?

On second thought, maybe this is too location-dependent. I'm sticking with those winning times for a small-medium school in the Deep South, but if you went to a large school in somewhere like Colorado, the winning times would definitely be much faster.

Class of 1986: 58 year olds. Real slowdown starts but with a couple guys in good shape. Fastest time 6:30. Median 9:30. 12% DNF.

Class of 1976: 68 year olds. Now you see fastest time start to drop quickly. Fastest time 8:15. Median of those who finish 12:00. 20% DNF. Too optimistic? It think 4 out of 5 68 year olds can walk/jog a mile.

Class of 1966: 78 year olds. Fastest time 12:00. Median 16:00. 50% DNF. DNF rate goes up because 20 minutes a mile is no longer walking pace for most 78 year olds.

Class of 1956: 88 year olds. Fastest time: 15:00. Median 18:00. 90% DNF.

Hopefully, daytime. I have other things to do afterwards.

You guys are just pissing in the wind here. There is no way to answer the question other than to conduct an experiment, a time trial, and it would be skewed greatly by a lack of participation by those who are unfit. So keeping pissing in the wind here.

yeah on second thought 8:00 median was maybe too generous. I was probably thinking of the top 25-30% or so. But I still say once you exclude the very heavy subgroup (DNF), among the rest it would be maybe 9:30--10:00, not 13-14.

I'm picturing my average friend in his mid-60's--walks a lot, goes to the gym some, plays tennis fairly regularly, is slightly or not at all overweight. If I went out and ran my easy warmup pace (10:00/mile), he could keep up for a mile given incentive and race effort.

My school has 6 senior guys this year under 4:40. I am class 1986 and can run 6:20.

Not location dependent, LR board readers dependent. The former classes of LR posters are going to be biased fast because LR posters, at least the older ones, are somewhat likely to be the fastest ones of their classes. I'm class of '87, and highly likely to be fastest of the 390ish people in my class by at least a minute considering I was already fastest back then and was competitive for overall wins in local races into my later 40s. Haven't raced in a decade, but I'm sure I can hit sub-6. Maybe sub-5 if given a few months to train for it.

If you haven’t raced in a decade and you are approaching 60, you will not be breaking 5 minutes again. That I can tell you.