Is It Possible to Run a Sub-3 Minute Mile? Breaking Down the Ultimate Speed Challenge

The idea of running a mile in under three minutes sounds completely impossible—and right now, it is. The current world record stands at 3:43.13, and even that has only been achieved once, by Hicham El Guerrouj

back in 1999. No one has come close to breaking 3:40, let alone 3:00, but that doesn’t stop people from wondering: if the conditions were absolutely perfect, if technology kept advancing, if we found a once-in-a-lifetime athlete, could it ever happen?

To even attempt it, a runner would have to hold an almost unimaginable pace. A sub-3 mile would require running at 24.6 mph, or roughly 17.86 meters per second, for a full mile. That means covering every 400m lap in under 45 seconds—not once, but four times in a row. That’s nearly the speed of Olympic 400m runners, except they’re done after one lap, and this hypothetical runner would need to keep going. Even the world’s best 800m runners, who are built to sustain top-end speed for longer than sprinters, still wouldn’t be on pace for a sub-3 mile.

The best middle-distance runners today, guys like Jakob Ingebrigtsen or Yared Nuguse, can barely dip under 3:45 even with pacing and state-of-the-art shoes. And while someone like Usain Bolt was clocked at nearly 28 mph in his fastest 100m race, he could only hold that speed for a few seconds before slowing down. The gap between where we are now and where we’d need to be for a sub-3 mile isn’t small—it’s massive. It’s like comparing the speed of an F1 car to a bicycle.

Even in perfect conditions, it’s hard to imagine. Maybe if the race was run on a downhill course with just the right incline to assist speed without making it impossible to control. Maybe if the air resistance could be reduced with some kind of aerodynamic formation of pacers, like Kipchoge had for his sub-2-hour marathon. Maybe if the shoes became so advanced that they actually acted like tiny trampolines, returning more energy than we ever thought possible. Even with all that, though, we’re talking about a physical effort that seems beyond human capability.

But records are meant to be broken, and the limits of human performance are always shifting. There was a time when breaking the four-minute mile seemed impossible, and now it’s a standard for elite runners. No one thought a marathon could be run under two hours, and then Kipchoge did it—granted, under controlled conditions, but still. The science of running is evolving every day, from altitude training to biomechanics to nutrition. If someone with the absolute perfect physiology came along—maybe a runner with an unheard-of VO2 max, insane efficiency, and the ability to resist fatigue in ways we haven’t seen—it’s hard to completely rule out the possibility.

Of course, that runner doesn’t exist yet, and maybe never will. Right now, a sub-3 mile is still in the realm of science fiction. The mile is unique in that it requires both sprinting ability and endurance, and no one has ever been able to merge those two extremes in a way that could bring them anywhere near three minutes. Even if someone could run an 800m at the necessary pace, they would still have another two laps to go, and there’s no indication that the human body can handle that kind of sustained speed.

So no, a sub-3 mile isn’t happening anytime soon, or maybe ever. But that won’t stop people from chasing faster times, and who knows? Maybe in 100 years, with advances in training, technology, or even human evolution, we’ll be having a very different conversation.