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How Long Does it take to Jog a mile?

How Long Does it take to Jog a Mile? Guide to Running the Mile

How long does it take to jog a mile? This is a question asked by beginners or even non-runners. While this may seem like a simple question, each person has a different fitness level. That means mile times will vary a lot between each person, which will largely depend on their current fitness, mental ability, and stamina.

Some people like to dive into running fast when they start, while others like to take their time. Either way, it is human nature to want to test yourself over the mile distance and see how fast you can run.

So, let’s find out how long it takes to run a mile and learn a little more about the mile distance while we are here.

Factors That Influence How Long it takes to Jog A Mile

Many factors can influence your mile time. Some of these factors include:

– Age
– Fitness Level
– Weight
– Height
– Running Background
– Altitude
– Weather Conditions
– Terrain

However, for most people, their current fitness level is what ultimately decides how fast they can run a mile. The terrain is another important influence, as the harder the course is, the slower you will run, regardless of your current fitness level.

So, if you are testing yourself over the mile distance, either pick an all-weather running track or a flat road course. That way you will get a much better idea of how long it takes you to run a mile.

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How Fast Should I Run a Mile For My Age?

How Fast Should I Run a Mile For My Age?

As you get older your speed starts to decline regardless of the distance. So, you can’t compare yourself to younger age groups. However, you can compare to others in your same age group.

The record for the fastest mile is 3 minutes and 43.13 seconds by Hicham El Guerrouj. While Sifan Hassan holds the women’s world record at 4 minutes and 12.33 seconds. Unfortunately for us mere mortals, we will never run that fast.

If you are want to know how fast you should run a mile for your age or how long it takes others to jog a mile, check out our table below. It will give you a better understanding of how fast people run the mile.


Average Mile Times By Age Group

Unfortunately, there is no direct measurement of average mile time by age group. However, the data below was collected in 2010 and takes the average mile time during a 5k event. The data was collected from 10 000 runners. So it gives you a rough idea of how fast different age groups can run the mile.

Age Men (minutes per mile) Women (minutes per mile)
16–19 9:34 12:09
20–24 9:30 11:44
25–29 10:03 11:42
30–34 10:09 12:29
35–39 10:53 12:03
40–44 10:28 12:24
45–49 10:43 12:41
50–54 11:08 13:20
55–59 12:08 14:37
60–64 13:05 14:47
65–99 13:52 16:12

As discussed earlier in the article, age plays a role in how fast you can run. That means your mile time will start to decrease once you pass 40 years of age. So working on your speed over the mile distance can help you prevent loss of speed as you get older. This will ultimately benefit you over the longer distances like the 5k, 10k, and half marathon.

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Another study recently done by Medical News Today collected the fastest times of the top 1% of runners in each age group.

The top mile runners in the 17-41 age group can run 6:30-6:38 mile pace. Then Ages 42-61 held a mile pace of 7:03-7:39.

This may seem fast, but not surprising if you want to be in the top 1% of mile runners in the world.

Alternatively, if your goal is to be in the top 50% of all mile runners you will need to run between 8:18-9:45 for ages 17-41. Then from ages 42-46, you will need to run a mile at around 9:54 pace. Unfortunately, there was no more data collection on runners above 46 years of age. But considering the above times, you would expect the mile pace to be around 11 minutes.

Average Mile Times for Men vs Women

Average Mile Times for Men vs Women

While terrain, fitness, and weight can play a large part in your mile times, the difference between sexes can play an even larger part. Amateur male runners are generally 90 seconds faster than females over the mile distance. The main reason is caused by muscle mass and a naturally higher VO2 in males. Because of this males also have more fast-twitch muscles in the legs than females, resulting in faster running times over the mile, 5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathon.

Overall data collected from Strava shows that the average US male runner can run in the mile in 9 minutes and 3 seconds. The female runner on the other hand can run a mile in 10 minutes and 21 seconds. 78 secs

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This gives us a difference of 78 seconds between male vs female runners over the mile distance.

 

How long does it take to walk a mile?

For some people running isn’t something they enjoy or can motivate themselves to do. Typically these types of people would rather walk as a way to exercise than running. So, how long does it take to walk a mile instead of running?

For beginners, walking a mile may seem like a long-distance, but for most people, they walk this distance daily. Whether it be commuting to work, walking around at lunch, or just general movement throughout the day, most people can expect to walk a mile in 15-22 minutes.

According to a study in 2019, data collected showed that the average speed people walk is between 2.5 to 4 mph. So, this gives you a decent idea of how long it takes to walk a mile.

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