quadbravo

Someone collected times and averaged them over thousands of races by time. "Average" is slower than you think. http://www.pace-calculator.com/average-5k-pace-by-age-sex.php Up until the mid-50 age bracket, the average is about 9-10 minutes per mile.

Under "20" is slow for XC? Really? This tells me you never ran in HS or college. At a HS XC meet you might see the very fastest varsity runner come in at the high 14's /low 15's. These are extremely fast times and worthy of collegiate scholarships. At the frosh level you will see most of the pack come in around 18-19 min.…