Who wins in a race? Is there a disparity?
You can suggest an exemplar of your preferred special forces if you like.
What kind of race? In a marathon the marathoner wins easily. In a 50 mile march with a 50 lb. ruck the marathoner is going to have a much tougher time.
I figured a straight up marathon was implied.
OK. Straight up marathon? Olympic marathoner wins every time. I don’t think there’s much doubt about that.
Ok, marathoner wins. You would be hard pressed to find anyone but a marathoner who would have a chance. Now I assume Navy Seals do some endurance exercises and are the kind of exceptions who would stand a chance, but they’d lose anyway. They just won’t have as much experience as anyone who could fairly be called a marathoner. The Navy Seal only wins for large values of Navy Seal, or small values of marathoner.
Of course, the Olympic Marathoner wins. That’s the precise event that they’re training for, and if the Navy Seal could compete, I think the US Gov’t would probably send them to the Olympics. Now, I don’t doubt that that the SEAL could put up a very respectable time, a Boston qualifier easily, and maybe even good enough for the Olympic trials. But honestly, unless we’re talking about some no-reputation third world country other than Kenya and Ethiopia, the marathoner is going to take first place. That’s their home field, so to speak. Other distances, either longer or maybe shorter, the SEAL might have a good shot. But you’ve specifically picked the Olympian’s specialty, so I think they’ll win basically every time.
does the navy seal get to use his weapon?
Only for a few minutes. After that the marathoner is out of range.
That is interesting. It all started from a thought: Why dont you see military types dominating at sports? Since as pravnik said, they train with a pack. If you take that off, suddenly they have a hell of a lot more “snot” available. Plus they are selected for a near indomitable spirit.
Local to me is the Canadian Death Race, and I thought a seal or person of that type would find that sort of thing “fun”.
I’m not personally familiar with either sort of athlete, so it was an unknown to me. I don’t believe I even know anyone in the regular military.
Long-distance runners tend to be very skinny. I’m guessing this gives them some physiological advantage - heat regulation, or just plain not having to move so much mass. I doubt many SEALS are very skinny. On the other hand, the SEAL would probably be able to march 50 miles with a marathon runner or two strapped to his back.
It’s not even close, the marathon leaves the SEAL in the dust. Training for a marathon is a specific skill, and unless you are training for that specific event you don’t stand a chance. Military special forces need to be good at lots of things, and they need much more muscle mass than a marathoner can carry.
There are very few if any events that a SEAL would be beat an Olympic athlete. There’s no reason for them to be that good at any of those specific skills, and the Olympians are the best of the best. It’s not even close.
There’s also the fact that marathon running means turning your brain off and doing the same thing for 2-3 hours, exercising mainly the lower body, and then eating a big recovery meal and going home and sleeping it off.
This bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the demands of a military operation. You do see military personnel who run marathons. They tend to be upper brass and desk jockeys. The fighters and workers have more important ways to spend their time.
Which is to the SEAL’s advantage when the marathoner trips the pre-placed mines.
According to this site a Navy Seal has to be able to run 1.5 miles in boots and pants in 10.5 minutes. Hereis a chart for marathon runners telling them the time they will run at various mile rates. To run a 2.11 marathon you have to run 2 minutes per mile faster and for another 2 hours.
You know this kind of question is what started the Iron Man Triathlon, right? 
And btw, in the first IMT, a Navy Seal took second of the 12 people that finished (only 15 participants) and legend has it he would have won but ran out of water during the marathon leg and started drinking beer.
Thanks!
I read an article a few years ago (when the wars were in full effect) that there was a navy SEAL shortage, so one of the recruitment drives the navy was looking into was going to ultra marathons and trying to recruit those people. Some marathons are multi-day, go over 100 miles and take place in hostile environments like deserts. The navy figured people who enjoyed those activities would be physically resilient, fit and like being challenged physically. I think they also looked into people who played water polo because they were comfortable in the water.
So it is a chicken/egg issue. Special forces soldiers would make good endurance athletes, but good endurance athletes would also make good special forces soldiers (at least when it comes to the ability to withstand pain and have stamina and fitness. It says nothing for the ability to engage in teamwork, put your life on the line or to kill people).
I don’t think military types would be at any advantage over a civilian who trains hard. If anything the special forces type would probably have a laundry list of injuries due to their training that a civilian wouldn’t which would put them at a disadvantage. I’m sure special forces types could compete at a high level, but civilians who dedicate themselves exclusively to endurance sports and who are at lower risk of injury are going to win most of the time.
I don’t think SF soldiers are particularly extraordinary athletes. They are going to be in the top 1%, but you will be able to find people in most gyms that can match them. The difference between a SF guy and a normal guy is the ability to keep going through an incredible amount of suck. So yeah, a olympic marathoner will smoke a Navy Seal, but that guys probably going to quit after a short time sitting on a dock with freezing ocean spray hitting him.
all things be equal, put a marathoner in boots and carrying a 100 lb rucksack, it would be close. Straight up race, a marathon runner will every time.
oh…
what do the call a marathon runner in Africa?
fast food
Marathoners, like all athletes, are specialists - they have to do just one thing really well.
SEALs, OTOH, are generalists - they have to be able to run, sure, but they also have to be able to swim, shoot, think under fire, follow orders, remember complicated plans, operate complex equipment, hide and sneak, navigate, climb, strategize, lead… even if you found an individual who could do all of these things at the highest level and was still an Olympic-level runner, there’s no way you’d be able to dedicate enough training to running. After all, he has to practice all that other stuff, too.