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?
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.
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.
March 4, 2010
4:07 PM
That is fast dag.
April 6, 2010
11:08 PM
i ran 17 mph in 6th grade and have now went to 5 state championships in high school.
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
June 18, 2010
4:45 PM
Im 13 years old and i can run 20 mph im 5FT 5
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
July 9, 2010
10:37 PM
Even after a dozen years, it is amazing to watch Michael Johnson’s World Record!
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
July 11, 2010
1:46 PM
i did it today again and i got 21mph whawho
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.