Which Track Lane Is a Mile?

100 meters: the length of one straightaway. 800 meters: roughly ½ mile or 2 laps around the track. 1600 meters: roughly 1 mile or 4 laps around the track.

Where does the mile start on a track?

In the case of the mile, you first find the finish, then knowing you are running 9M “longer” than 4 laps you need to go behind the finish line and you'll see a line across all lanes, indicating the start of the mile. It's from there you run 9M to the “finish” then 4 more laps and voila.

How do you tell if a track is a mile?

If you sometimes run on a track (at a local high school, for instance), it's easy to measure your distance. Most tracks are 400 meters (about 1/4 mile) and 1 mile equals 1609 meters. That means that four laps and nine meters equal 1 mile, but for easy math, most runners just use 400-meter splits.