Takshaka is right. Most mobs caught you in classic (could outrun you). I believe a very few might have only run about the same speed as you.
Particularly at lower levels, mobs *would*, definitely, always, catch you. I remember being whacked in the back repeatedly as I ran to the guards. Sometimes I did not make it to the guards alive. We definitely could NOT outrun stuff very often.
They changed this in 2004-ish? so that you could run the same speed as most stuff at low levels up until level 10 or so. Maybe you could even outrun stuff slightly until level 10 or so. Maybe at later levels too - I don't know what it's like on live today.
I think it was a slight speed buff that PCs got (or a slight speed nerf that all mobs got) that made PCs and NPCs run the same speed, or PCs even a little faster. This was not documented and not in the patch notes (they never put stuff like this in the patch notes) - but it was definitely noticed by all and written about elsewhere at the time. I think this is what you are remembering, Onadan. It sounds like it is still this way on live.
Assuming PC and NPC are unbuffed, then the classic behavior that I recall is...
1 - There are some faster mobs and slower mobs, although *most* move at a single "almost universal" NPC speed.
2 - PCs have the same base run speed for their entire lives (unbuffed and unencumbered). All races and classes are the same. You run the same speed at L1 as at L60.
3 - You should not be able to outrun many, if any, mobs (unless you're strafing or something - in which case you might be able to outrun (or at least maintain a lead on) *some* mobs).
4 - You should be able to outrun some stuff - JUST BARELY - if using strafing or jumping (esp. over very hilly terrain) or with Lev (esp. over very hilly terrain).
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