But most of the 85% of people who don’t run couldn’t run a quarter mile at any speed
Any speed? I’d be rather surprised if anywhere near 42.5% of the population (especially if also counting people outside the US) would be unable to “run” a quarter mile in 10 minutes if they tried to.
Personally I can run for one (1) minute before I’m too out of breath to continue; a quarter-mile is short enough that walking for a majority of the time would still finish it in under ten minutes, but I’d certainly struggle to run it.
I guess it depends a lot on how strongly motivated they are. You could probably force most people to do a quarter mile run with threats and violence. I was thinking of “If this person tried do a quarter mile run (with no walking) would they succeed or give up?”
I think this is interesting as both a semantic and empirical question! If we’re allowing people to walk, or to run a few steps at a time and then take a break, the number will be a lot higher than if we’re only accepting a gait that is a) continuous, and b) would merit disqualification from a walking race on ~every stride. Even on the second definition, I’d expect that a large majority of non-elderly, non-infant people could do it if they really had to. But I’m not sure how to come up with a good estimate.
Any speed? I’d be rather surprised if anywhere near 42.5% of the population (especially if also counting people outside the US) would be unable to “run” a quarter mile in 10 minutes if they tried to.
Personally I can run for one (1) minute before I’m too out of breath to continue; a quarter-mile is short enough that walking for a majority of the time would still finish it in under ten minutes, but I’d certainly struggle to run it.
I guess it depends a lot on how strongly motivated they are. You could probably force most people to do a quarter mile run with threats and violence. I was thinking of “If this person tried do a quarter mile run (with no walking) would they succeed or give up?”
I think this is interesting as both a semantic and empirical question! If we’re allowing people to walk, or to run a few steps at a time and then take a break, the number will be a lot higher than if we’re only accepting a gait that is a) continuous, and b) would merit disqualification from a walking race on ~every stride. Even on the second definition, I’d expect that a large majority of non-elderly, non-infant people could do it if they really had to. But I’m not sure how to come up with a good estimate.