A Magic Mile

One mile: 1,760 yards, or 1,609 meters for those who work in metric. Having run a couple of marathons and plenty of half marathons a mile doesn't feel that far...

That is until you start to think about how fast you can do a single mile.

Once a year those chaps at Marathon Talk hold the Magic Mile challenge. Run one mile as fast as you can, log your time on their website and get an aged graded score based on the world record for your age grade.

Sounds simple. Let's have a look at some times shall we?

My PB (Pace m/m)

Marathon 3:12:05 (7:19m/m)

Half Marathon 1:29:26 (6:49m/m)

10 Mile 1:06:34 (6:39m/m)

10k 39:44 (6:23m/m)

5k 18:43 (6:01m/m)

My projected times.

I thought I'd punch my 5k pb into a pace calculator and see what it thinks I should be doing for a mile (see left). According to this app I should be doing 5:37 for the mile. Now I know pace calculators can always be a bit (very!) subjective - just look at my projected marathon time!

According to my Strava profile my best estimated 1 mile time is 5:25. I'm impressed with that, didn't think I'd be under 5:30. But how does that stack up against the world record? The current 1 mile world record is held by Hicham El Guerrouj at a blisteringly fast 3:43.13. Hmmm, not much chance of getting near that is there? Okay being a veteran now let's play the age card and see what the V35 record is. Ah. 3:51.38 by Bernard Lagat. 

So what can I target for one fast mile? I'd like to break 5:20 and think I can. Right now I'm not in marathon training and have only just started to build the miles up toward my October half marathons so I'm feeling fresh. I've only recently PB'd at 5k and am now starting to consistently break 19 mins for that distance. You heard it hear first, under 5:20 for a mile. Now I know it's a mile according to my Garmin so not 100% accurate but it will be close enough.  

The Magic Mile runs from today (28 July) to 10 August; I'm going to complete my mile as part of the UK Run Chat virtual event on 6 August. So just one shot at that mile. I can't wait!