The speed of an earthquake.

Sometime ago, there was a minor earthquake in Northern Virginia that was also felt in NYC.
As I remember it, I was on a comic book forum talking to a person in Reston Va when he said there was an earthquake and he was logging off. I wished him good luck and then felt a tremble myself. We both recall this but the forum we were on went belly up a few years later so it is no longer accessible. It's about 300 miles from Reston to my old house on Long Island.
Does anyone know how fast the effects of an earthquake travel? It's already established that the quake was felt throughout both regions.
My friends are saying the jolt should have been almost instant and don't believe someone in Reston could have posted he was in an earthquake before I felt it only 300 miles away

I'll defer to experts, but my fallible memory says it's related to the speed of sound, which changes.

Google is your friend. Sometimes.
https://www.usgs.gov/natural-hazards/earthquake-hazards/science/earthquake-travel-times?qt-science_center_objects=0#

It's not instant; I felt the 1989 San Francisco earthquake in my car, and remember listening to a local World Series radio broadcast where they reported an aftershock a few seconds before I felt it. According to Wikipedia, a P-wave travels about 3-5 MPH, and an S-wave somewhat slower.

When I lived in Southern California I recall twice watching live TV (once a newscast from downtown and once watching the Rose Bowl game) when an earthquake hit. We lived about 20 miles from downtown/Pasadena. The newscaster mentioned an earthquake and I felt it about 5 seconds later. Watching the Rose Bowl game I felt the earthquake and maybe 5-7 seconds later the camera covering the game started shaking, so I would estimate the waves travel very quickly, for what that's worth.

If there’s an EQ in SF, it would take about 35-45 seconds to reach LA. Early warning systems in various parts of the world are based on this. I was in Taiwan when an EQ hit the Pacific. Cell phones emergency alerts went off and had about ten seconds to prepare ( enough to find a position of safety and shutdown computer systems.

TDG, I think you have the unit of time wrong. 3-5 miles per second sounds more reasonable.

A very scary thing is earthquakes. I just can't understand it, why run under the table? Many assure that you will be bypassed then, what do you think, superstition or not? My opinion yes, most likely run there so that nothing falls on your head.

Having been in two 6.5 EQ that lasted 30-60 seconds, you want to get low to the floor. Think of standing in the bed of a truck and the driver is going forwards backwards as quick as they can. Then add right/left movement.