How Fast Can Humans Run?

Women running fast on a track

The average human walking speed is in the neighborhood of 3 mph (4.8 km/h). How fast do you think you could run at a full sprint? 10 mph? 15 mph? What speed could you average over 26.2 miles?

Below, I have taken several men's and women's world records and calculated the runners' average speed. Usain Bolt has averaged over 23 miles per hour in both the 100 and 200 meter events.

Men's World Records Translated Into Average Speeds

Event Record Athlete mph ft/s km/h m/s
60 m (indoor) 6.39 s Maurice Green 21.00 30.81 33.80 9.39
100 m 9.58 s Usain Bolt 23.35 34.25 37.58 10.44
200 m 19.19 s Usain Bolt 23.31 34.19 37.52 10.42
400 m 43.18 s Michael Johnson 20.71 30.38 33.34 9.26
800 m 1:41.11 Wilson Kipketer 17.69 25.95 28.48 7.91
1000 m 2:11.96 Noah Ngeny 16.96 24.87 27.29 7.58
1500 m 3:26.00 Hicham El Geerrouj 16.28 23.88 26.21 7.28
Mile 3:43.13 Hicham El Geerrouj 16.13 23.65 25.96 7.21
5000 m 12:37.35 Kenenisa Bekele 14.76 21.65 23.76 6.60
10000 m 26:17.53 Kenenisa Bekele 14.18 20.80 22.82 6.34
Half Marathon 58:23 Zersenay Tadese 13.47 19.76 21.68 6.02
Marathon 2:03:59 Haile Gebrselassie 12.69 18.61 20.42 5.67
110 m hurdles 12.87 s Dayron Robles 19.10 28.02 30.74 8.54
400 m hurdles 46.78 s Kevin Young 19.13 28.05 30.78 8.55
4x100 m relay 37.10 s Nesta Carter,
Michael Frater,
Usain Bolt,
Asafa Powell
24.12 35.37 38.81 10.78
4x200 m relay 1:18.68 Michael Marsh,
Leroy Burrell,
Floyd Heard,
Carl Lewis
22.75 33.37 36.61 10.17
4x400 m relay 2:54.29 Andrew Valmon,
Quincy Watts,
Butch Reynolds,
Michael Johnson
20.54 30.12 33.05 9.18
4x800 m relay 7:02.43 Joseph Mutua,
William Yiampoy,
Ismael Kombich,
Wilfred Bungei
16.96 24.87 27.29 7.58

Womens's World Records Translated Into Average Speeds

Event Record Athlete mph ft/s km/h m/s
60 m (indoor) 6.92 Irina Privalova 19.39 28.44 31.21 8.67
100 m 10.49 s Florence Griffith Joyner 21.32 31.27 34.31 9.53
200 m 21.34 s Florence Griffith Joyner 20.96 30.74 33.73 9.37
400 m 47.60 s Marita Koch 18.79 27.60 30.24 8.40
800 m 1:53.28 Jarmila Kratochvílová 15.79 23.16 25.42 7.06
1000 m 2:28.98 Svetlana Masterkova 15.01 22.01 24.16 6.71
1500 m 3:50.46 Qu Yunxia 14.56 21.36 23.44 6.51
Mile 4:12.56 Svetlana Masterkova 14.25 20.90 22.93 6.37
5000 m 14:11.15 Tirunesh Dibaba 13.13 19.26 21.13 5.87
10000 m 29:31.78 Wang Junxia 12.62 18.50 20.30 5.64
Half Marathon 1:06:25 Lornah Kiplagat 11.83 17.36 19.04 5.29
Marathon 2:15:25 Paula Radcliffe 11.61 17.03 18.68 5.19
100 m hurdles 12.21 s Yordanka Donkova 18.32 26.87 29.48 8.19
400 m hurdles 52.34 s Yuliya Pechonkina 17.09 25.07 27.50 7.64
4x100 m relay 41.37 s Silke Gladisch,
Sabine Rieger,
Ingrid Auerswald,
Marlies Göhr
21.63 31.73 34.81 9.67
4x200 m relay 1:27.46 LaTasha Jenkins,
LaTasha Colander-
Richardson,
Nanceen Perry,
Marion Jones
20.45 29.99 32.90 9.14
4x400 m relay 3:15.17 Tatyana Ledovskaya,
Olga Nazarova,
Mariya Pinigina,
Olga Bryzgina
18.34 26.90 29.52 8.20
4x800 m relay 7:50.17 Nadezhda Olizarenko,
Lyubov Gurina,
Lyudmila Borisova,
Irina Podyalovskaya
15.23 22.34 24.52 6.81

It's interesting to note that the 60 meter race has a slower average speed for both men and women than the 100 meter race. This must be because accelerating at the start of a race takes some time.

These world records were last updated on May 5, 2010.

29 Replies

  1. john

    August 19, 2008
    12:23 AM

    chart shows average speed for each..

    what would top or final speed, for instance, in the 100m dash?
    thx

  2. Elite Feet

    August 19, 2008
    6:04 AM

    John –

    I’ve heard that the peak speed for the best 100-meter sprinters is in the neighborhood of 27-30 mph. This will typically be achieved about 2/3 of the way into the race, then the speeds will drop again slightly. Even the best athletes can’t maintain that kind of speed for any distance.

    Often when you’re watching the end of a race it will look like one runner surges out in front of another runner, but in fact both are likely to be slowing down. It’s just that one of them is slowing down faster.

  3. john

    August 19, 2008
    8:55 AM

    i had pondered that with an ‘average’ of 22-23, that the final/peak was 44-46!! thanx for your prompt reply..

  4. joe

    September 25, 2008
    8:06 PM

    Humans an NOT run at 45 mph.

  5. Garritt

    November 20, 2008
    1:19 PM

    I was watching this show that answers questions that most men want to know. One of them was how fast can you go for your muscles to fall off. they said it was about 26.5 mph. Is that true?

  6. Jonathan

    January 10, 2009
    2:09 AM

    Michael Johnson peaked at 27mph while sprinting…

  7. Coolness 12

    April 21, 2009
    5:15 PM

    how fast does the average 6th grader run if he were to run the 100 meter dash at full sprint?

  8. jerry

    August 7, 2009
    1:14 PM

    can Usain Bolt run up to 30mph

  9. Johnny Bravo

    August 17, 2009
    6:49 PM

    With a pair of jet shoes I can run at 100 kph (62.15 mph)

  10. Johnny Bravo

    August 17, 2009
    6:54 PM

    I wanna say as my comrade Willie E. Coyote, you know, he uses a lot of technology, Is my comrade, my amigo.

  11. JJ

    October 29, 2009
    1:27 PM

    Why don’t we have downhill runs for 68 km/h?

  12. travis

    December 9, 2009
    1:21 AM

    2 differant timees some friends and i have ran past a speedometer for about 100 yards and my top speed was 19 mph. none of my other friends could not break 17 mph i think thats pretty good for a 18 year old 5’9 and 150 lbs and no training for running just surfing

  13. T man

    January 3, 2010
    8:57 PM

    I can run 16 mph and i’m 13 1/2 years old. i’m 5’9 to.

  14. calvin

    January 3, 2010
    8:59 PM

    i’m 14 and i can run 14 mph. i’m 6’0 and 180lbs.

  15. Sasha

    January 13, 2010
    3:49 PM

    i’m 16 and i once ran 18 mph-5’4 and 107 lbs :D

  16. Joshua

    January 14, 2010
    8:27 AM

    Over summer vacation in 2009 i ran 15.25781mph

  17. Jeremy

    January 24, 2010
    5:05 PM

    Usain Bolt fastest run is 28 MPH same as Carl Lewis. Bolt is a faster accelerator.

  18. Dillon

    March 4, 2010
    4:07 PM

    That is fast dag.

  19. sparks

    April 6, 2010
    11:08 PM

    i ran 17 mph in 6th grade and have now went to 5 state championships in high school.

  20. Erkki Nordberg

    April 19, 2010
    7:58 PM

    With a bunch of my friends and one more crazier than the others we made him run at a speed of 35 mph. How we did it? We accelerated a car to that speed, then he jumped out of the backdoor and continued running. Ofcourse he didnt maintain that speed, but for a brief amount of time he did run 35 mph… I tried that too, but I fell down at a measly speed of 20 mph. My friend is the son of priest so he might have had some “outside” help :)

  21. brandi

    May 22, 2010
    1:45 PM

    i can run 18 miles per hour and i am only 10. plus i won 1st place at track and field three times. dont belive me? i can prove it.

  22. calvin

    May 22, 2010
    4:33 PM

    i’m 6’1, 235 lbs, barely turned 14 years old, and my average speed is 13.9, but my fastest speed is 17.5 mph. i start off slow, then in the middle of the race i reach my top speed for about 4 seconds, then i slow back down to about 13 mph lol.

  23. RedGen

    May 27, 2010
    10:45 AM

    I feel slow now. Quality work brandi, I belive (sic) you. How could you prove it? No camera is fast enough.

    Sparks, maybe you could run back to English class between races.

  24. Isaiah Davis

    June 18, 2010
    4:45 PM

    Im 13 years old and i can run 20 mph im 5FT 5

  25. Amy G

    June 22, 2010
    11:08 AM

    i have been training for a 5k i am not very fast but for short periods or down hill i can run super fast. i carry a GPS with me to track it, well this morning it said my top speed was 24.3 mph well i didn’t think it was possible till i looked it up. i wish i could keep the speed going. Interesting

  26. Fitness Gyms in Austin

    July 9, 2010
    10:37 PM

    Even after a dozen years, it is amazing to watch Michael Johnson’s World Record!

  27. alex galvin

    July 11, 2010
    1:26 PM

    i can run 20.5mph 33km/h with the gps in my mout that way it mesured it prprley

  28. alex galvin

    July 11, 2010
    1:46 PM

    i did it today again and i got 21mph whawho

  29. Danny

    July 15, 2010
    1:18 AM

    How do you find out how fast you can run in mph? I’m 19 and 6’3, I once raced my friends car and kept up with him at about 19/20 mph, but i cant get anything to really tell me.

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