Measuring Run Distance Using a Football Field

For many of us without access to a gym or to a treadmill at home may only have tracks at schools which encircle the football or similar field. While this may be easy to get to and use you may wonder how many laps around a football field is a mile?

For the standard running track that encircles a football field this one mile distance will be roughly 4 laps. A standard track will be 400 meters around but note that this is measured from lane 1 which is just a bit less than one-quarter of a mile.

So if you are looking to put in a specific mileage for your runs you will want to stay to the center as this will give you the best interpretation if you don’t have a Garmin or other similar run tracker to give you more clear details.

How Many Lengths of a Football Field is a Mile?

If you are not interested in track running and have access to a football field you may wonder how many lengths of the field would give you a mile. Since the endzone to endzone is 100 yards. So when you convert this to feet it comes to 300 feet and there is 5280 feet in a mile.

5280 / 300 = 17.6 Laps

So you are looking at 17 and a half laps basically when running endzone to endzone, this would be very helpful for someone who maybe plays football or other grass based sport so you can get a feel for grass or turf.

Things to Consider When Using a Track

When you choose to use a track to run you want to make sure you follow the guidelines and the official school rules along with some of the lesser known “rules of the road” that are to help everyone enjoy their runs.

Validate Open Times Prior to Use

Since many of these tracks are at schools they are frequently open after school hours as long as no events are previously planned.

Make sure to be in communication with the school as the their times it is available to you to use so you don’t get banned.

Run the Correct Direction

Many may approach the track and think that they can just run and be fine but this isn’t true as there is a correct direction to run on a track which will ensure existing runners or people who start after can run right also.

Which direction to run on a track then? The most common direction to run on a track is counter-clockwise, many people who are not versed in running will default to a clockwise run on the track but make sure to check with the rules in general to make sure.

Don’t Wear In-Ear Headphones

While it may feel good to groove to music out on the track you need to pay attention to others on the track and not be in the way of their progress, the easiest way to accomplish this is use of bone conduction headphones like the Aeropex.

These headphones don’t cover your ears so you can still hear everything in the area and respond to runners on the track with you, though they don’t produce large bass they are awesome for music once you get used to it.

Use of Lane One

The final thing to learn about track running is around lane one, it is space that is typically avoided to allow faster runners access to pass by the main bulk of runners on the track at the same time.

If you are running on a track with others take the time to move just outside of lane one to be considerate of others and allow those working on their running to pass you as necessary.

Final Thoughts on How Many Laps Around a Football Field is a Mile

Getting yourself out and running is a tremendous way to help deal with relieving stress and getting in a workout for your cardiovascular system. This is a key to helping you stay healthy and increase your vitality.

If this is too much to handle and you don’t want to deal with schools and rules then look below at our options to get amazing cardio workouts at home instead as maybe that is the right move for yourself!