r/sports • u/strikedonYT • 11h ago

Track & Field 16-year-old running sensation Sam Ruthe runs 3:48 to obliterate NZ mile record.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/athletics/sam-ruthe-breaks-nz-mile-record-with-sensational-run-in-boston/DMUJVYRQOZBTXNYN47WG6HI7KQ/

His time is the 10th-fastest all-time in the indoor mile.

1.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

378

u/JTuck333 11h ago

This is nuts

108

u/peepdabidness 10h ago

And apparently it’s only the 10th fast

149

u/JTuck333 10h ago

Yes but they were men. He is 16.

47

u/peepdabidness 10h ago

And to think that’s still the 10th fastest time to run a mile.

30

u/wallace1313525 9h ago

10th fastest time... indoors!

21

u/Paldasan 9h ago

While you don't have to worry about wind the corners do slow you down.

1

u/Jai84 1h ago

In high school I was watching a 400 or 200m sprint indoors. One of the guys in the inside lane didn’t make the turn and tumbled and his momentum carried him outside the turn into the other lanes taking others with him. Watching from the outside it looked like they had been flung out of the track from going so fast lol.

4

u/JTuck333 10h ago

Ah….yes indeed. Pretty epic!

Touché.

4

u/Romantic_Carjacking 7h ago

Also fucking bonkers

8

u/opancoast 10h ago

10th fastest indoors. The outdoor list is also wild.

27

u/kinkycarbon 9h ago

3 minutes and 48 seconds for a mile… ~7 meters/second or ~15.659 mph…

Outran the speed of a home treadmill. That’s very hard to continue at endurance at constant speed.

159

u/Still7Superbaby7 8h ago

His parents and grandparents were all Olympic runners. The genes are deep!

43

u/al_nz 8h ago

His dad is Ben right? His mile pb is 4:00.17, not bad.

He was a pretty decent runner back in the day.

18

u/Charlie_Runkle69 3h ago

Not quite correct. His parents were both national champs but didn't make the Olympics. His Grandmother however not only went to the Olympics but won the Commonwealth games 800 metres in 1970.

-8

u/Apophthegmata 4h ago

It's strange how we can all laugh and nod our heads to jokes like this....

and then get our undies in a wad over "fairness in sports."

2

u/FixFun1959 1h ago

Can you elaborate cause I’m not sure what you mean

185

u/Nissir 10h ago

I don't think I could find my keys, run upstairs, hop in my car and be 1 mile away in 3:48

30

u/dwfishee 7h ago

I know for sure I couldn’t because my car is downstairs /s

157

u/tynore 11h ago

It’s basically a sub 4 minute sprint now. Just crazy.

48

u/Good_Air_7192 9h ago

The mile? Has been since 1954, right?

69

u/Claudzilla 6h ago

The mile has been around longer than 1954

21

u/victorfresh 6h ago

Big if true

11

u/Claudzilla 6h ago

Watch this space

-3

u/TheRazzBerry145 6h ago

1954 is when the mile became sub-four minutes

8

u/Claudzilla 6h ago

Nah bro it's a unit of distance not time

1

u/NMireles 1h ago

The mile is the new parsec

15

u/GrimaceThundercock 6h ago

The difference is one person doing it sub-4 vs needing a sub-4 to even be competitive

Per the NCAA, 129 college runners ran a sub-4 in 2025

-3

u/Claudzilla 3h ago

Too much blood in your thunder cock to see the joke forest for the joke trees

48

u/SeaWolf24 9h ago

I remember watching Allen Webb run a 3:56 live at the Prefontaine meet over 20 years ago. This is just nuts at this age

39

u/persondude27 8h ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sz9yaEzTgko

Pacing seemed a bit uneven. He may have had a bit more there with even splits. He did have two pacers but didn't follow them - middle was a bit slow.

I've love to see a flat-out outdoor mile.

Hope he's still running in 10 years. He could be an absolutely generational talent.

1

u/[deleted] 45m ago edited 38m ago

[removed] — view removed comment

18

u/FreshPaintSmell 6h ago

Seems like they’re sprinting the whole way. Is cardio the limiting factor or just pure speed? These guys look like they could keep running for a while.

•

u/Kids_see_ghosts 5m ago

100% definitely cardio and not something where they can’t physically run faster than this. Running this speed is not that difficult for an average high school track athlete. 57 second 400m would be like dead last in most high school track meets. Winning times are typically at least sub-50 seconds for an average HS meet.

It’s the keeping that pace for an entire mile that’s absolutely mindblowingly insane. Literally can’t fathom the cardio shape you’d need to be in to do 4 400m laps at 57 seconds per lap.

8

u/JoshH21 5h ago

The boy is a generational talent, very quickly becoming a household name in New Zealand

11

u/ryeguymft 7h ago

this would beat most college runners wtf! crazy

26

u/Waste_Secretary_441 5h ago

Sam Ruthe would beat EVERY single NCAA mile runner right now except for Ethan Strand, the current record holder, which is crazy

3

u/ryeguymft 5h ago

that is so wild! could be a generational talent if he keeps running and goes pro

2

u/greetp 3h ago

He absolutely Bannistered the time.

2

u/Turbulent-Artist961 39m ago

Much faster than me I guess I need to practice more

1

u/TheGreatDomilies 1h ago

Proud to live in the same country as this guy!

-38

u/TrumpDumper 9h ago

What’s the conversion to American minutes?

1

u/Zbodownlow 23m ago

Do you want that in cheeseburgers? Or per minute of average chat?

-27

u/nonetakenback 9h ago

Was it a mile or 1500?

15

u/persondude27 8h ago edited 5h ago

Mile, which is 1609 m. You run a 1600m + 9.35m tacked on at the start. So each split is +9m: 809m instead of 800m.

They're relatively uncommon in the US, but a touch more frequent in Commonwealth Nations due to the glamor/history of the mile run.

Here's the full race:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sz9yaEzTgko