In the Olympic Marathon (distance = 26 miles + 385 yards), the great Moroccan Ma
ID: 2076450 • Letter: I
Question
In the Olympic Marathon (distance = 26 miles + 385 yards), the great Moroccan Marathoner Hassan Ben is in 1^st place with exactly 2 miles to go and exactly 400m ahead of the great Irish runner Shamus O' Jones. Ben Sobhr is running at a pace that would cover a marathon in 2 hr and 10 minutes; and he maintains this pace, neither slowing down nor speeding up. At what average pace per mile (?min + ? sec/mile) must O'Jones run the remainder of his race in order to catch Ben Sobhr at the finish line? 1 mile = 5280 ft = 1760 yards, 1 in = 2.54 cm, 1 ft = 12 in, 1m = 100 cm 1 hr = 60 min, 1 min = 60sExplanation / Answer
Converting everything into mile and minute seems a perfect way to start solving this problem.
385 yards = 385/1760 = 0.21875 mile.
Therefore, total distance of marathon = 26.22 mile.
1 in = 2.54 cm, therefore, 1 ft = 30.48 cm = 0.3048 m
Therefore, 400 m = 400/0.3048 = 1312.33 ft = 1312.33/5280 mi = 0.2485 mile
Distance of Jones from the finish line = 2.2485 mile
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Distance of Sobhr from the finish line = 2 mile
His pace = 130/26.22 = 4.958 min / mile
At this pace he will cover the remaining 2 miles in
2* (4.958) = 9.916 min = 9.916 min
So Jones has to cover 2.2485 mile in 9.916 min to catch Sobhr at the finish line.
Therefore his pace must be = 9.916/2.2485 = 4.41 min/mile
= 4 min 24.6 sec/mile