How Fast Would Usain Bolt Run the Mile?

Three minutes, forty-three seconds, and thirteen hundredths of a second is the fastest that a human has ever run a mile, as far as we know. Hicham El Guerrouj, a Moroccan middle-distance runner who was then twenty-four years old, accomplished the feat in 1999, averaging slightly more than sixteen miles per hour as he sped around Rome’s Olympic Stadium track. A determined wisp of a man, El Guerrouj weighed a hundred and twenty-eight pounds at the time and stood five feet nine inches tall in his running socks. Those few who’ve come close to running a mile as fast as El Guerrouj have been roughly the same size, and that’s not a coincidence: if you wish to run middle or long distances quickly, it helps to travel light.

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