Running Literacy Test

[Sasha Pachev]

Thanksgiving is a good time to educate the non-running members of your family about running.  As part of that, I propose we conduct the following test of their running literacy, and report back the results (does not have to be accurate, just a rough feel):

How long is a marathon?

How many miles are there is in a 5 K?

What is the world record in the marathon?

What pace per mile approximately does it take to run the world record in the marathon? (As a bonus, take them outside and have then run that pace for 100 meters if they can)

Who is Haile Gebrselassie?

Who is Paul Tergat?

Who is Ryan Hall?

How fast does the average runner run a marathon?

[Michelle Lowry]

Well that's bad that I can't even answer all of the questions correctly. . . I will work on studying up so I can pass this test myself before subjecting my running-ignorant family to it. 

My mother-in-law asked me why I couldn't just run 5 miles this morning.  I just laughed. 

[Superfly]

What about "Who is Superfly?"

[Scott Zincone]

I know that last one...It's Jimmy Snuka.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Snuka

[Dawson Hinton]

I have to agree with Michelle-- I need to do some studying myself before I feel as though I can give that quiz to others.  I have only been running myself since February, and I can see that I have a ton to learn.

[Jon Allen]

I quized my mom, dad, two sisters, and bro-in-law.  My dad is a runner, my sis and bro-in-law are engineers (hence a good grasp on numbers), and all have been around me enough that they have some knowledge of running.

Marathon- everyone know 26.2 miles
5k- answers were from 3 to 3.1 to "just under 5 miles"
World record- "Around 2 hours", with one answer of "2 1/2 hours"
Pace- one answer of 4:30 min/mile, 2 answers of "about 13 mph" from the engineers
Haile- no one knew, though most guessed he held the world record in some event
Paul- same as Haile.  One even guessed Haile is current WRH and Paul is former
Ryan- same.  Though one guessed he is the American record holder.
Average- 1 answer of 3 hours, other answers around 4.5 hours.  Pretty close to actual answer of 4:45.