1500 Mile conversion

yes, my brother. he ran a 3:58 1500m back in college in the early '80s and then went around telling everyone he was a 4:15 miler. (95% of people could identify with the mile, not the 1500m at that time). I told him that the 17-18 second add, conversion was for 4 minute or better milers; not his pace/speed; but he took the 17-18 seconds and 'ran with it'.....for 25 years now! I don't even say anything anymore.

Curvilinear regression based on actual performances from shorter to longer distances puts the conversion at 1.0802.

A 4:00.00 mile would equate to 3:42.18 for 1,500 using this method.

A 4:30.00 mile would equal 4:09.95 for 1,500.

And so forth.

Having a 1500m PR of 3:42.1, I could say that I have run the equivalent of 3:59.9 with the 1.08 conversion.

But I usually just say it equates to 4 flat.

Back then I didn't care about sub 4 because the real event was the 1500.

I even had a chance to run in a sub 4 attempt after the '96 Trials but just decided to leave the Trials as my last race.

Now I wish that I went for it.

I was never a sub 4 minute miler.

toro wrote:

Having a 1500m PR of 3:42.1, I could say that I have run the equivalent of 3:59.9 with the 1.08 conversion.

But I usually just say it equates to 4 flat.

Back then I didn't care about sub 4 because the real event was the 1500.

I even had a chance to run in a sub 4 attempt after the '96 Trials but just decided to leave the Trials as my last race.

Now I wish that I went for it.

I was never a sub 4 minute miler.

Thank You that is what this sport needs, men of honor like you.

I'd say most people go with a generous conversion from 1500m. But really once you're running the 1500m (in college and beyond), the mile doesn't really matter - until you get near 4 minutes.

The quick conversion is 1.08, but I think that 1.079 might be a little closer. The standard conversion 4-min point is 3:42.22. Using a fixed number of seconds only works in a very narrow range. Clearly for a 7-min mile, 18 seconds for 109.344 meters is not very accurate.