Short sprint – True Speed

In Being Fast, I talked about the vagaries of language and mentioned some of the speeds elite runners run at. I thought it would be useful to look at the speed and paces for all the major world records. It only becomes clear when you see these, how fast the best in world are running, and begin to realise how much the rest of us neglect speed.

Men	Perf.		Mi/h	Km/h		Per mile	Per km		Athlete
Top speed			27.8	44.7		2min10	1min21		Usain Bolt
100 m	9.58		23.4	37.6		2min34	1min36		Usain Bolt
200 m	19.19		23.3	37.5		2min34	1min36		Usain Bolt
400 m	43.03		20.8	33.5		2min53	1min48		Wayde van Niekerk
800 m	1:40.9		17.7	28.5		3min22	2min06		David Rudisha
1000 m	2:12.0		17.0	27.3		3min32	2min12		Noah Ngeny
1500 m	3:26.0		16.3	26.2		3min41	2min17		Hicham El Guerrouj
Mile	3:43.1		16.1	26.0		3min43	2min19		Hicham El Guerrouj
3000 m	7:20.7		15.2	24.5		3min56	2min27		Daniel Komen
5000 m	12:35		14.8	23.8		4min03	2min31		Joshua Cheptegei
10,000 m	26:11		14.2	22.9		4min13	2min37		Joshua Cheptegei
Half marathon	57:32		13.7	22.0		4min23	2min44		Kibiwott Kandie
Marathon	1:59:40		13.1	21.2		4min34	2min50		Eliud Kipchoge
100 km	6:09:14		10.1	16.2		5min57	3min42		Nao Kazami
Women
100 m	10.49		21.3	34.3		2min49	1min45		Florence Griffith Joyner
200 m	21.34		21.0	33.7		2min52	1min47		Florence Griffith Joyner
400 m	47.6		18.8	30.3		3min12	1min59		Marita Koch
800 m	1:53.3		15.8	25.4		3min48	2min22		Jarmila Kratochvílová
1000 m	2:29.0		15.0	24.2		4min00	2min29		Svetlana Masterkova
1500 m	3:50.1		14.6	23.5		4min07	2min34		Genzebe Dibaba
Mile	4:12.3		14.3	23.0		4min12	2min37		Sifan Hassan
3000 m	8:06.1		13.8	22.2		4min21	2min42		Wang Junxia
5000 m	14:06		13.2	21.3		4min33	2min49		Letesenbet Gidey
10,000 m	29:17		12.7	20.5		4min43	2min56		Almaz Ayana
Half marathon	1:04:31		12.2	19.6		4min55	3min03		Ababel Yeshaneh
Marathon	2:14:04		11.7	18.9		5min07	3min11		Brigid Kosgei
100 km	6:33:11		9.5	15.3		6min20	3min56		Tomoe Abe

When you compare the men’s and women’s records side by side you see there’s consistently a difference of around 11-12% between them. This is believed to be down to the physical differences between the sexes, that men’s higher levels of testosterone allow them to have bigger muscles which in turn propel them quicker.

Event	Men WR	Women WR	% diff.
100 m	9.58	10.49	9.5
200 m	19.19	21.34	11.2
400 m	43.03	47.6	10.6
800 m	01:40.9	01:53.3	12.3
1000 m	02:12.0	02:29.0	12.9
1500 m	03:26.0	03:50.1	11.7
Mile	03:43.1	04:12.3	13.1
3000 m	07:20.7	08:06.1	10.3
5000 m	12:35.4	14:06.6	12.1
10,000 m	26:11.0	29:17.4	11.9
Half marathon	57:32.0	1:04:31	12.1
Marathon	1:59:40	2:14:04	12.0
100 km	06:09:14	06:33:11	6.5

The two most notable anomalies are at the ends of the spectrum. Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100m world record was set in 1988 but the video evidence shows there was a strong wind that day, yet the wind gauge recorded 0.0m/s assistance. It’s thought to be a faulty gauge. If, however, you add 11% to Usain Bolt’s 9.58s then then the women’s time should be 9.63s which is close to the 10.61s FloJo recorded the next day and the 10.62s she recorded in winning Olympic gold two months later.

At the other end there is the 100km where the difference is 6.5%. At this distance, the best runners are genetically determined towards endurance and lack the fast-twitch muscle necessary for top speed. Their slow-twitch muscle is naturally resilient and the testosterone difference between the sexes is much less of a factor.

Some of the outliers between men’s and women’s records are down to lack of drug-testing or detectability when the records were set, how often the distances are raced and over the past year we’ve seen distance records being broken with championships cancelled due to Covid and runners taking advantage of energy-efficient shoes.

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I’ll return to the point I was trying to make in the Being Fast article, most runners don’t have true speed and that’s because they often fail to train for it. It’s not the only requirement for being a distance runner but it is an important part of it.

My coached sessions are focused on getting you quicker while building the endurance to support it. Everybody’s welcome. In the meantime, enjoy the following video of runners trying to keep pace with Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-2hr marathon pace.