Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile

I had no idea this even existed until the New York Times posted an article on Sunday about its results. The Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile is pretty self-explanatory as it is a race that is a mile long going south on Fifth Avenue from 80th street to 60th street. Two Olympians fresh from competition in Beijing took part in the race -Bernard Lagat and Shannon Lowbury- both finished in second place. While the participation of these two athletes is what prompted the New York Times to feature the article, I didn't really care too much about them.
What caught my attention about this race other than the fact that it was in New York City, was the result times. They were ridiculously fast. The winner of the men's mile race timed in 3 minutes 50.5 seconds, and the winner of the women's race timed in 4 minutes 18.6 seconds. New York Times writer Frank Litsy explained the course as "it runs slightly downhill for the first quarter-mile, significantly uphill for the next quarter-mile and slightly downhill again for the last half-mile." With so much downhill running, the speed is obviously faster, but I was shocked still. Could you even imagine running that fast?
What also seemed really cool about the race was that it was open to anyone who wanted to run the mile. It was reported that people of all ages came and did the mile, including a 98-year-old man who walked it, taking 22 minutes 10 seconds to complete it.