Don't know why this is important but I did try to run an all out mile about 4 weeks before a marathon with my son who ran track in the 8th grade.
Marathon- 2:58 Spring 07
Mile- 5:18

I found the mile harder....man I thought I was going to die at the end of that...LOL.  By the way, my son beat me by 26 seconds, he ran 4:52.  I stayed on his heals through the first 800 meters then he started to pull away.  By the fourth lap he was a full straight away ahead of me....ahhhh to be young!

7/06: mile 4:59
10/06: marathon 2:47

Looks like I need to start working on my mile time huh?  LOL

Mile 5:48  08/06
Marathon 3:16 10/06

Southern Man


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We're on a road to nowhere.  Come on along.

Wow, this is really eye-opening!  My mile time seems really slow compared to you other marathoners.  This was my PR marathon. I've run other marathons between 3:00 and 3:05 but never beat my mile time of 5:54 during that training, it was usually right at ~6:00.

Marathon time (4/2001): 2:58:05
Best mile time trial (4/2001):  5:54

I agree.  Do you think the mile times that most people have posted are actual races or just mile's done as part of training?  My mile time that I posted is not a race but a 1 mile course (it's a loop), no grade to speak of and I just run it as fast as I can like two weeks before my marathon.  I've found that I can add 1 minute to this mile time and use that as my goal pace for the marathon.  I figure the elites are running 5 minute miles for the marathon and I also figure that they can run 4 minute miles, so if it's good for them it must be good for me too!