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Steve Rogers has been shown to be a little inept when it comes to technology, so it's unlikely he uses Runkeeper to track his runs. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he runs through the National Mall in Washington, down by the Potomac river, but after that my ability to find the route failed.

Based on the landmarks he passed in the order of the opening sequence, where did Captain America run, and more importantly what was the length of each loop?

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  • Note that the vast bulk of viewers have no idea that these various monuments don't form a circular track
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 12:41
  • He got Wong to be the timekeeper, who gates him to beginning upon completion of each circuit? He’s not running about four miles upon each Wilson pass, but rather about 24,870 miles upon each pass?
    – Silly but True
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 13:06

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Check out this link. It shows the whole route and matches it to the movie scene by scene. (on archive.org)

The route is 4.615 miles long. According to Sam Wilson (Falcon) in The Winter Soldier, it takes about 30 minutes for the typical military-grade runner to complete. If you are not superhero material like Sam Wilson is, I estimate it will take you about 45 minutes. Note that on minute 00:01:31 in the film, Wilson comments "You ran like 13 miles in 30 minutes" to Captain America. This is because Captain America is seen passing him on three occasions, which leads us to assume that he completed the circuit three times. 4.66 miles x 3 = 13.98 miles. Captain America would complete this route in just 10 minutes. I really don't know how all the passing is possible because the route doesn't seem to be a closed circuit. Captain America might have been running additional segments just to pass Sam Wilson.

enter image description here

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    Wouldn't it be possible that after point C, instead of turning left after the Holocaust museam towards the Memorial, the route goes along Independence Avenue and loops in front of the capitol? That way it's a closed loop and he could effetictively have run 3 laps.
    – Nzall
    Commented Mar 11, 2019 at 15:06
  • Captain America could be “Indian running” Wilson in large loops; Wilson like most is doing math on the route miles, not on the repetitive circuit loops actually run by Rogers.
    – Silly but True
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 12:42
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The first time Rogers passes Wilson they are on the Tidal Basin path heading toward the Jefferson Memorial. Rogers next passes Wilson directly in front of the Jefferson Memorial, again overlooking the Basin lake and the Washington Monument obelisk. The third pass occurs in the front of the Lincoln Memorial, just before Rogers turns east along the Mall toward the Washington Monument.

There's no obvious loop in the area other than around the Tidal Basin, but that's only a couple miles around. There are lots of beautiful places to run in that part of D.C., and there are trees and buildings all around so you can't just look and spot someone running miles away. So realistically Wilson couldn't know how far Rogers had run.

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Rogers returns from point F to point A, along the E-F route to restart? Not exactly sure this would be possible, based on the running speed shown. Even though Rogers is in what seems to be a continuous sprint for the duration. If 3 circuits is 13.98 miles, that's nearly 28 miles an hour. 28 mph is a mile in just over 2 minutes.

I ran Track & Cross Country so here's a further running breakdown:

Rogers' average time (based on circuit completion, not accounting for finish to start segment)

  • 1 mile, 4 laps (approx 1600 meters): 2 minutes.

  • 1/4 mile, 1 lap (approx 400 meters): 30 seconds.

  • 100 meters, 1/4 lap (shortest sprinting segment): 7.5 seconds.

  • World Record for 100 meter dash: 9.58 sec.

Therefore Rogers MUST maintain an average greater than a 7.5 sec 100 yard sprint for over 14 miles. (which for Captain America sounds awesome). BUT, if other experts examine his running speed in each clip, I doubt he's moving quite that speed.

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  • Great! Could you also answer the question about the landmarks?
    – Gallifreyan
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 7:57
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It would be possible for him to start at the first point, then continue to the Inlet Bridge, past the Jefferson Memorial and to the Lincoln Memorial before taking the straight down through the National Mall and when he reaches the front of the US Capitol, doing a loop down Independence Avenue back to the start. That way you would still have the left turn at the US Holocaust Memorial whilst looping the route around.

this image shows the route he would have taken and the possibilities to loop it back around

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    Are you asking if, or stating that, this is the route?
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 12:08
  • Sorry if I was unclear, this is the route that he takes but I was unsure as to which way he takes to effectively run 3 laps. This was a suggestion as to how he could have ran 3 laps whilst maintaining the original path.
    – user564789
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 13:59
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    Cool. And is that meant to comment on scifi.stackexchange.com/a/115673/23243 by providing a further clarification?
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 14:31

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