Number of 5 minute miler in USA

and with the population of the US at 300 mil, if you can run a sub 5 mile you are in the 99.8 percentile of all americans

pretty hard to believe, but just take a look around at the mall, fast food places, your office and i guess it makes a lot of sense

LEAF blower

Remember the 600,000 comes from the whole US population. Actually since there are now 300,000,000 people in the US perhaps the number is more like 1.5 million. Surely 1 out of 300 Americans can run a five minute mile.

The formula for number of high school students that can run a 5 minute mile should be very accurate. I stand by my claim that ever high school in the US has at least five 5-minute milers in their student population.

"Leaf"

My mind is fried. I have been doing this ad for hours.

There is no such thing as a "leave." It is a leaf blower.

Wasting Time wrote:

Masters 5 minutes milers = 30,000

There are nowhere near 30,000 masters who can run a sub-5 minute mile. In the SF Bay Area, a hot bed of masters runner with a total population of over 7 million, there are less than 300. Maybe less then 200.

Wasting Time wrote:

The formula for number of high school students that can run a 5 minute mile should be very accurate. I stand by my claim that ever high school in the US has at least five 5-minute milers in their student population.

You're right...I can't possibly argue with that...airtight.

i was the only one in my high school who could break 5 in the mile. i was probably the only one who could break 5:30. since i graduated 5 years ago, i would estimate they've had 2-3 others who could break 5. the high school had about 500 kids.

Stihl makes the BEST chainsaws in the business.

As far as your question and this board:

FPW - probably still could

Dauby - could still do it if he trained

the430miler - need I say more?

Skuj - very likely

malmo - will still do it when he is 95

WiJu - certainly, after cutting the course

brawn - are you kidding me? 4:09, baby!!

Lengthy previous discussion of this issue linked. The first post seems rather similar as well, although the over-estimate has been bumped by 3x.

yeah there is no way that every high school in america has 5 kids that can break 5. espescially when you look at the number of small schools there are that might not have anyone va the big schools that probably do have 5. Also, you can't just count soccer and football and basketball players based on their potential. If they haven't run a sub 5, then they don't go in the stats. You don't figure out the total number of sub 4 milers by saying "well every non lineman pro bowler and every nba all -star had of run track instead of foot ball or basketball they would have broken four minutes, so we'll add them in".

I think 5 is a good number but for a average. I come from a school of about 650 and I was one of two kids who could break 5. However bigger schools nearby had probably 8-12 kids who could do it. I think 5 is a good "average" number for high schools.

In my area there is ~350,000 people (~8 High Schools) and I know most of the sub-5 minute runners. There is probably only 5-10 (me barely included) in all of those people...and that's at ALL levels.

There is no way every HS in the US has 5 sub 5 runners! I would bet the average is 1 per HS.

My high school had about 600 students. My senior year I can recall 12 people running under 5:00. I don't see how there could be so few in an area of 350,000. About half of the male freshmen distance runners at my high school ran under 5.

I remember high school in 1996. NO school in my conference had 5 guys under 5:00. I also remember college. 30? You think every college has a 30 man XC roster?

You can't count soccer players and football studs. If they haven't done it, they haven't done it.

Alan

Terrible average, I was the number 3 runner at a school of 4,000 and my mile pr was 4:54. So we had 3 runners out of 4,000 people who could break 5. Not all schools have a good distance program.

you really have to take into account at the universities that there will be some students there who ran sub 5 and probably still can, but dont do track or xc because either the team is good, or they just dont want to. at my university right now, there are 5 people who i know that have run sub 5, but just focus on school so they dont go out for sports, so i think 30 is a very reasonable number, probably on the low side, but i'll let it slide

5 sounds right...

http://www.clerkofthecourse.com/moc2006/under5.php

48 schools of various sizes and abilities, 202 sub 5's, and this is just one meet, not PR's

I'd say more than 30. There are a lot of regular students that run to be in shape. Some of the other athletes in other sports probably are in shape to and could do it if they just went to the track. I'd say there are probably over 150 in my college that can or already have broken 5 mins.