I was reading a mailbag on Deadspin recently and one of the questions was this:
"How many miles would an elite distance runner have to run before you (or an average person) could beat them in a mile race? So, for example, an ultramarathoner runs 100 miles (world record is apparently 12 hours and 27 minutes), and as soon as he/she crosses the finish line, he continues to run and you race him/her for one mile. What’s the break-even point? I say it’s probably less than 200 miles, but not much."
http://adequateman.deadspin.com/what-do-i-do-with-my-grandpa-s-old-nazi-crap-1734776484
I thought this was an intriguing question ripe for the experts on the LRC message boards. Since the original query is vague, I'm going to make it more specific.
How many miles would Mo Farah have to run consecutively for you to beat him in a mile (assume all of Farah's miles have to be at 7:00/mile pace or faster)?
Obviously everyone will have a different answer, but I'd like to hear what people think. How many miles until he could no longer break 4:00? 5:00? 6:00?