Benchmarking your Running Speed

So I've been running up to 1 hour a day, faithfully for 3 to 4 times a week. How do I know my speed ? My simple
formula to estimate my running speed is this below ; Anyway, its common for runners to measure speed in
terms of minutes / km (inverse of distance / time) and then calculate the distance run in an hour by

60 divide by (x) ; x is your time in minutes per km to get your speed in ________ km / hour.

1. Jump on any treadmill, start and after walking some time, get into running, after which you are reaching your
optimum speed ; for me it is about 5 minutes to 5 minutes 20 secs per km.In hourly terms its 11- 12 km per hour
on the treadmill. This is optimal conditions, cool, soft rubbery surface to minimise any impact on your joints.

2. For Road Running, reduce your actual speed by 10 to 15%, so in real terms, my speed is about 5 minutes
30 seconds per km or (60 divide by 5.5) about 10.9 km / hour if I use the 10% reduction formula
or if 15% reduction, then its 345 seconds or 5.75 minutes then its 60 divide by 5.75 or 10.43 km/hr.

3. Go run 10 km on a track (25 laps) to confirm that my time is probably less than 1 hour ; its about
50 to 55 minutes depending on my 10 km runs (time of day,weather etc.). So now I have an
estimate of my speed. Of course there are many other factors like time of day, route,
heat,humidity, wind etc. etc.

4. Compare this speed with the elite runners (mainly African and some American) and these guys can average
(no kidding) 3 minutes to 3 minutes 30 secs or thereabouts for a FULL 42 km (!). That speed is about
17 to 20 km per hour or roughly 2 hours 10 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes for a full marathon.

Imagine,they do 2.4 km (standard physical fitness run) in probably 6 MINUTES.