I can't sprint that fast nowadays. When I was in the Marines 20 years ago, my 3-mile pace was slower than that, and I still had a class "A" run time. This is amazing.
I found out later she was the current world record holder at 10K meters. And she wasn't pushing it that day.
These folks can run like you wouldn't believe.
https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/imag...
I ran a 1/2 marathon where a highly ranked runner was competing in the full.
He passed me at mile 11 of the 1/2, so about 23 of the full. His pace for 26 miles was absolutely faster than I can run for one, maybe two blocks.
Just giant effortless strides, with a damn smile on his face. Iirc, his marathon time was 2:12.
Hell, the best marathoner the US had in the 2000 Olympics ran a 2:30. Literally a half hour slower than Kipchoge.
Curious, but why? That's an extremely achievable time for anybody who is athletic and trains.
(no disagreement that 4:30 pace is vastly more difficult than 6:00)
Not saying that someone couldn’t do that in a PT test but more often than not, people aren’t training to the level they’d achieve that. If they were running distance in high school, sure. It’s an ordinary time for a high school varsity cross country runner.
(Just went back to my logs: when I picked up running at age 34, it took me four months of running ~4 days a week to run a 5k at <6:00/mi. I say this not to brag, but to say that it's a pretty pedestrian time, especially for a young presumably fit marine)
Right, a number of people in my high school did that regularly in PE class (unfortunately, I’d usually come in a half-dozen minutes later…). This isn’t anything special.
Ummm... why? Back then I ran 5 miles 3 times a week. They tend to nudge you out of infantry if you aren't getting a class A PFT; I would usually traipse in at 17:30 or so.