upcoming mile races and events

August 9 - 22nd Annual Checkers Mueller Mile in Buffalo, New York. Road mile, tends to be won 4:20-4:30

not THAT mueller wrote: August 9 - 22nd Annual Checkers Mueller Mile in Buffalo, New York. Road mile, tends to be won 4:20-4:30

A Buffalo News Runner of the Year Race, no less.

I also found the Plates Mile which takes place on Morrie Silver Way, Rochester, NY. race entry includes 1 cotton t-shirt, 1 ticket to the Red Wings 5th July baseball game and 4 10oz "trash cans" each containing mac salad, home fries and meat hot sauce. the race starts 45 minutes after the baseball game ends, approx 8:30 p.m. you have to run 1 mile while consuming the 4 trash cans. the 2018 winner was Nicholas Neamtu who did 7:48. there is no barf count on the results.

a slightly more refined version of this is the Mighty North Fork Vineyard 1 mile run at Duck Walk Vineyards, Southold, NY in which each participant receives a free glass of wine, although race rules don't stipulate whether this is before, during, or after the race.

cheers.

DC Road Runners Track Championship - Mens Elite Mile

Dunbar High School, Washington, DC Saturday 21 July 2018

conditions were not conducive to fast times so Jack Bolas' meet record from 2015 was safe.

1 13 04:03.7 Willy Fink

2 14 04:26.8 Matt Lange

3 64 04:35.8 Colin McGrath

cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiGdT-9DCr0&feature=youtu.be

I clicked "post" prematurely. what I meant to say was that conditions were not conducive to fast times (see the video) so Jack Bolas' meet record from 2015 seemed safe, but Willy Fink defied the odds. having run a personal best 3:57.69 at the Carolina Track Fest the week before he must have had hopes of running the first sub-4 in the District of Columbia. he didn't quite get that but he did set a new meet record, a Dunbar High School track record and the fastest mile yet run in the District.

cheers.

running a sub 4 mile is what percent harder when you are way out in front from the start.

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

7%

10%

More

Hotel Warner West Chester Mile

West Chester, PA

08/09/18

Elite Men's Mile top 4 went 4:00 last year (11 under 4:05)

Elite Women's Mile top 2 went 4:30 last year (6 under 4:35)

also has elite 800 M/F and "citizen mile" heats, I will be racing the citizen mile and looking forward to spectating the elites

- RunnerSam

Speaking for a small fraction of the LR Gang who are interested enough to give the stream or the meet website some traffic but not interested enough to search for it:

LINKS PLEASE !

RunnerSam wrote: Hotel Warner West Chester Mile West Chester, PA 08/09/18

a quality event. Kyle Merber holds the meet record with 3:56.19 from 2016 in a close finish with four men under 3:57.

cheers.

Jeebus, is it really that hard to highlight the name, right click and choose search ( google | bing | duckduckgo) for this

LINKS PLEASE !

It was nice of you being a good sport and posting those links.

I do not seem to remember you posting during prior seasons. You recent stuff has been very good.

I will keep an eye out for your posts

Thanks.

Tom

it is often mentioned on this forum that America takes the mile more seriously than almost anywhere else in the world, but I wondered if it was possible to quantify that idea, so I thought it might be interesting to take a look at sub-4 miles by country.

apart from giving Americans something to crow about I thought this might be interesting reading for adventurous miler's who want to find somewhere a sub-4 has not been run before. there has not so far been a sub-4 in Afghanistan, Belize, Colombia, El Salvador, Mongolia, North Korea, or Zimbabwe, for example. but for slightly less adventurous souls there are always more pleasant places to try such as Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, and Bulgaria, and if you're not into that whole "countries starting with the letter B" thing, then what about Cuba, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Seychelles, Thailand, Uruguay, or Venezuela?

and, from the department of weird but true things, if you add up the totals for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, it comes to 1066, one of the most important dates in British history.

country / miles

United States 3042

England 948

Norway 383

Ireland 317

Germany 278

South Africa 206

Italy 184

New Zealand 170

Sweden 134

Australia 126

Canada 122

Switzerland 110

Belgium 97

Spain 60

France 57

Scotland 55

Northern Ireland 40

Finland 36

Slovakia 24

Wales 23

Monaco 20

Jamaica 19

Russia 17

Denmark 16

Netherlands 16

Czech Republic 14

Croatia 14

Austria 12

Luxembourg 11

Greece 10

Japan 9

Kenya 6

Indonesia 3

Hungary 2

Estonia 2

Portugal 2

China 2

Guadeloupe 1

Puerto Rico 1

Romania 1

Turkey 1

Jersey 1

cheers,

Sir Walter Miler Meredith College, Raleigh, NC Friday 3rd August 2018

now in its 5th year this event has seen 26 sub-4 miles with 9 in each of the last two years. the meet record is 3:54.57 from Kyle Merber in 2016. confirmed entries include:

Craig Engels - outdoors he has a 3:57.67 pr finishing 2nd to Drew Hunter in the 2017 edition of this race, but he ran 3:53.93i at the David Hemery Invitational in Boston earlier in the year.

Cristian Soratos - this will be his first Sir Walter Mile. he set a new outdoor pr 3:56.21 at the Carolina Track Festival on 14 July but he ran 2 seconds faster at the Millrose Games in Feb 2017.

Lopez Lomong - another man making his debut in Raleigh, he was 2nd in the Morton Games mile in Dublin last month in 3:56.58 (3:41.56 +) and ran a 3:40.17 1500m in Belgium last week.

Robert Domanic - has an outdoor pr of 3:54.73 from June 2017 and hasn't raced since finishing 5th in the US Championships in Des Moines in June so he could be fully rested and raring to go in his debut at the Sir Walter Mile.

Sam Prakel - an Oregon Duck who has taken a while to fully fledge but seems to be rounding into some form with his recent win in the Cork City Sports Mile, and then three days later he also won the Morton Games Mile in Dublin in a pr 3:55.80. if you're a gambling man, I would suggest a modest wager on this man would be well rewarded.

other known milers entered for Friday's action include, Pat Casey (3:52.62, 2014), Ben Blankenship (3:53.04, 2017), Sean McGorty (3:53.95i, 2016), Johnny Gregorek (3:54.94, 2018), Graham Crawford (3:56.05, 2016), and Hassan Mead (3:59.89, 2016).

cheers.

Sir Walter Miler Raleigh, NC Fri 3 Aug 2018

Lopez Lomong records the 2nd fastest mile on North Carolina soil, the 7th fastest mile in the world this year, and leads home a star-studded field with 13 men under 4:00 who between them have torn up and re-written the record book to the extent that the ten fastest miles in North Carolina history have been run in the last two years.

pos / name / team / mark / 1500m

1 Lopez Lomong NIKE/Bowerman 3:53.86 3:39.40+

2 Johnny Gregorek ASICS 3:54.53 3:39.91+

3 Sam Prakel Unattached 3:54.64 3:39.52+

4 Pat Casey Under Armour 3:54.66 3:39.80+

5 Ben Blankenship NIKE/Oregon Tr 3:54.88 3:40.34+

6 Craig Engels NIKE/Nike Oreg 3:55.12 3:40.44+

7 Sean McGorty Unattached 3:55.21 3:39.97+

8 Hassan Mead NIKE/Oregon Tr 3:55.91 3:40.35+

9 Charlie Marquardt Bryn Mawr Runnin 3:55.97 3:40.96+

10 Robert Domanic Unattached 3:56.66 3:41.40+

11 Graham Crawford HOKA NJNYTC 3:56.79 3:41.80+

12 Jacob Thomson adidas/Boston At 3:57.07 3:41.08+

13 Cristian Soratos adidas 3:59.16 3:43.20+

the North Carolina record list now looks like this:

3:53.85i Edward Cheserek (KEN) Winston-Salem, NC 3 Feb 2018

3:53.86 Lopez Lomong (USA) Raleigh, NC 3 Aug 2018

3:54.02i Matthew Centrowitz (USA) Winston-Salem, NC 30 Jan 2016

3:54.53 Johnny Gregorek (USA) Raleigh, NC 3 Aug 2018

3:54.57 Kyle Merber (USA) Raleigh, NC 5 Aug 2016

3:54.64 Sam Prakel (USA) Raleigh, NC 3 Aug 2018

3:54.66 Patrick Casey (USA) Raleigh, NC 3 Aug 2018

3:54.88 Ben Blankenship (USA) Raleigh, NC 3 Aug 2018

3:54.94 Colby Alexander (USA) Raleigh, NC 5 Aug 2016

3:55.12 Craig Engels (USA) Raleigh, NC 3 Aug 2018

cheers.

it's probably worth mentioning that several of those guys ran pb's last night: Johnny Gregorek 3:54.53, Samuel Prakel 3:54.64, Craig Engels 3:55.12, Sean McGorty 3:55.21, Hassan Mead 3:55.91, Charlie Marquardt 3:55.97, and Jacob Thomson 3:57.07, in addition to which both Marquardt and Thomson broke 4:00 for the first time.

cheers.

Emsley Carr Mile Alexander Stadium, Birmingham Sat 18 Aug 2018

the Emsley Carr Mile is one of the most famous mile races in the world. it was started by Sir William Carr and named to honour his father, Sir Emsley Carr, a former editor of the News of the World, with the aim to promote and encourage the running of the first sub-4 minute mile. it was first run in 1953 when it was won by Gordon Pirie in 4:06.8 from Wes Santee (USA) 4:07.2, Bill Nankeville (GBR) 4:13.8 and Chris Chataway (GBR) 4:14.8. the first sub-4 in the Emsley Carr Mile was run by Derek Ibbotson in 1956 and since then there have been a further 368 sub-4's in the race and the meet record currently stands at 3:45.96 by Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR) from August 2000.

the race trophy is a leather-bound book signed by all previous winners, a veritable who's who of 1 mile racing over the years, who include Derek Ibbotson (1956), Jim Beatty (1962), Witold Baran (1964), Kip Keino (1966), Jim Ryun (1967), Filbert Bayi (1975), David Moorcroft (1976), Sebastian Coe (1977), Steve Ovett (1979), John Walker (1987), Saïd Aouita (1989), Haile Gebrselassie (1999), Hicham El Guerrouj (2000), Bernard Lagat (2009), Leonel Manzano (2011), and Asbel Kiprop (2014).

among those running on Saturday will be James Kiplagat Magut (KEN) 3:49.43 2014, Nick Willis (NZL) 3:49.83 2014, Vincent Kibet (KEN) 3:51.17 2017, Ryan Gregson (AUS) 3:52.24 2010, Charlie Grice (GBR) 3:52.64 2016, Chris O'Hare (GBR) 3:53.34 2017, Jakub Holuša (CZE) 3:53.46 2015, Stewart McSweyn (AUS) 3:55.97 2017, and Drew Hunter (USA) 3:56.72 2018. on the event website Paul Chelimo is listed with a pb of 4:08.06 but he actually ran 3:58.59 at the Camel City Invitational in February and ran a pb 2 miles of 8:20.91 in May so given the age of some of those pb's this looks to be a fairly open race but the meet record looks safe this time around.

cheers.

Men's Elite Mile, West Chester PA Thu 9 Aug 2018

pos / mark / name / ioc

1. 3:57.27 Johnny Gregorek USA

2. 3:57.44 Julian Oakley NZL

3. 3:57.87 Rob Napolitano USA

4. 3:58.26 Jake Edwards USA

5. 3:58.95 Daniel Herrera MEX

6. 3:59.80 Alfredo Santana PUR

7. 4:03.85 Charlie Marquardt USA

9. 4:05.42 Chris Marco USA

10. 4:07.71 Derek Gutierrez USA

11. 4:08.43 Brandon Hudgins USA

12. 4:10.41 Ford Palmer USA

cheers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FYTUDIOrLg

although folks are eagerly awaiting the Minnesota Mile on Friday and the 5th Avenue Mile on Sunday, the summer track season is over and I thought it might be appropriate to summarise what has happened in the mile this year.

number of sub-4 miles in the year

243 - the last time there were more than 200 sub-4's in a year was 1986 when there were 202, and the most in a year before 2018 was in 1985 when there were 210 sub-4's. for comparison, last year there were 175 and in 2016 there were 162.

debut sub-4 milers

58 men ran their first sub-4 mile in 2018. the earliest was Alfredo Santana (PUR) who ran 3:59.07i in New York on 13 January, and the latest was Ben Flanagan (CAN), who rounded out an excellent season in which he won the NCAA 10,000m, won the Falmouth Road Race and went sub-4 for the first time at the Long Island Mile at Bay Shore, NY on 5 September.

youngest debut

there are a small number of folks for whom I do not have dates of birth, but, excluding them, the youngest debutant was Cooper Teare (USA) who ran 3:59.29i for 4th place at the Dr Sander Invitational in New York on 27 January aged 18y 162d.

oldest debut

Valentin Smirnov (URS) ran 3:36.14 for 1500m at Chekbosary in July 2011 but didn't get round to joining the sub-4 club until this year when he ran 3:56.06 to win a race in Moscow on 4 February aged 31y 356d.

fastest debut

Samuel Tefera (ETH) finished 2nd in the Bowerman mile in Eugene on 26 May in 3:51.26 and is 2nd fastest miler in the world in 2018 on his debut sub-4 mile at the age of 18y 215d. honourable mention to Charlie Marquardt, who has a full time job and trains in his spare time but debuted at 3:55.97 in the Sir Walter Raleigh mile at Raleigh NC on 3 August. the 3rd fastest debut of the year.

most sub-4's in one race

13 men went sub-4 in two different races this year. on 3 August in North Carolina at the Sir Walter Raleigh Mile 13 men were led home under 4:00 by Lopez Lomong (USA) in 3:53.86 with the 13th man being Cristian Soratos (USA) in 3:59.16 while in Birmingham, England on 3 August in the Emsley Carr Mile Stewart McSweyn (AUS) led home the baker's dozen in 3:54.60 and the tail-end-charlie was Timo Benitz (GER) in 3:59.86.

most sub-4's in the year

Samuel Prakel (USA), Rob Napolitano (USA), Eric Avila (USA), and Craig Engels (USA) all ran 6 sub-4 miles in the year. honourable mention to Ben Blenkenship (USA) who ran 5. 11 men ran 4 each.

state records galore

Edward Cheserek (KEN) set state records for the mile in three different US states. he started with a 3:54.73i at Albuquerque, NM on 27 January, then ran 3:53.85i in Winston-Salem, NC at the Camel City Invitational on 3 February and followed that with 3:49.44i in Boston, MA at the David Hemery Invitational on 9 February.

other state records to fall in 2018 are:

Alabama - 3:59.41i Brian Shrader (USA) Birmingham, AL 19 Jan 2018

District of Columbia - 4:03.70 Willy Fink (USA) DC Road Runners Track Championship Washington, DC 21 Jul 2018

Vermont - 4:12.74i Jack Pinho (USA) New England Div III Indoor Championship Middlebury, VT 17 Feb 2018

as ever, corrections, amendments and additions always welcome.

cheers.