Sacred Haven of Debauchery

You don't need to be a professional athlete to run it in eight and a half minutes, although I think my four years of basketball and another year of soccer helped.

Actually, that result should qualify you for the Candidate Master of Sports (CMS) level (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%B3_%D0%BD%D0%B0_3000_%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2). In our class, only 2-3 athletes run it in under 10 minutes, and they all have sports titles. But eight and a half minutes is out of the question.