> That site seems pretty bogus.
I agree, my point was that the fastest "average" time I could find (regardless of quality of the source) was still sufficiently slow enough compared to the 8:00 pace figure that 8:00 is in fact not slightly above average.
Lets pick a real race. Say the 2015 Chicago Marathon.
Let's look at men 30-34
http://results.chicagomarathon.com/2015/?pid=list
3200 people there finished. So let's take middle, #1600: 4:11, which is 9:34 pace.
8 min pace is 3:29, which is something like finish 700 / 3200 in that age group.
So to me, finishing in 700th place out of 3400 people in a race is "slightly above average". But who cares, even the 9:30 pace is far above the 16 minute pace of OP.
Realize too, that many people running a marathon are running their 1 lifetime marathon - they never ever plan to run another. Drop all those out, and you will find 3:30 may be about average or even a tad worse among people who are serious runners.