How Fast Can Humans Run?
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?
I've been wondering how various world records in running would translate to my colloquial speed unit of MPH, so to appease my own curiosity I've compiled the tables below.
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 | 9.69 s | Usain Bolt | 23.07 | 33.83 | 37.12 | 10.31 |
| 200 m | 19.30 s | Usain Bolt | 23.17 | 33.99 | 37.30 | 10.36 |
| 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 | 58:33 | Samuel Kamau Wanjiru | 13.44 | 19.72 | 21.64 | 6.01 |
| Marathon | 2:04:26 | Haile Gebrselassie | 12.64 | 18.54 | 20.34 | 5.65 |
| 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 | 37.40 s | Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell, Dennis Mitchell, Carl Lewis -also- Jon Drummond, Andre Cason, Dennis Mitchell, Leroy Burrell |
23.94 | 35.10 | 38.52 | 10.70 |
| 4x200 m relay | 1:18.68 | Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell, Floyd Heard, Carl Lewis |
22.75 | 33.37 | 36.61 | 10.17 |
| 4x400 m relay | 2:54.20 | Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Tyree Washington, 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 that the 60-meter dashes (and in the men's case, 100-meter dash) don't produce the fastest average times. This must be because accelerating at the start of a race takes some time.
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
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.
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..
September 25, 2008
8:06 PM
Humans an NOT run at 45 mph.
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?
January 10, 2009
2:09 AM
Michael Johnson peaked at 27mph while sprinting…
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?
August 7, 2009
1:14 PM
can Usain Bolt run up to 30mph
August 17, 2009
6:49 PM
With a pair of jet shoes I can run at 100 kph (62.15 mph)
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.
October 29, 2009
1:27 PM
Why don’t we have downhill runs for 68 km/h?
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
January 3, 2010
8:57 PM
I can run 16 mph and i’m 13 1/2 years old. i’m 5′9 to.
January 3, 2010
8:59 PM
i’m 14 and i can run 14 mph. i’m 6′0 and 180lbs.
January 13, 2010
3:49 PM
i’m 16 and i once ran 18 mph-5′4 and 107 lbs :D
January 14, 2010
8:27 AM
Over summer vacation in 2009 i ran 15.25781mph
January 24, 2010
5:05 PM
Usain Bolt fastest run is 28 MPH same as Carl Lewis. Bolt is a faster accelerator.
February 7, 2010
3:41 AM
humans were not ment to run very fast because we didnt have to becuase humans are mentally stronger then physically(thus why humans are the smartest organisms).
that is why humans were not made in the dinosaur or mammal time becuase we wouldn’t physically survive.
March 4, 2010
4:07 PM
That is fast dag.
March 4, 2010
4:07 PM
real f**king fast