Why Do College Coaches Hate The Mile?

The 1500m is one the dumbest events ever. When will we realize that America doesn't give a crap about the rest of the world. If you want to spark more interest into track go to the mile, like the poster said above they get it a lot more. 1500m means jack sh*t to people. That's fine for the rest of the dopey world to have their stupid metric system but here in America we use the American system created by Americans. Lets do away with all metric events and run distances that American's can understand. It's time to go back to the 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, mile, 2 mile, 4 mile, 6 mile events. Enough with the foreigner metric garbage already!

The debate exists because some people are prioritizing mass appeal and others are looking at the athletes' best interests.

Personally, I think we should run the international standard event. Track and field is a global sport and our finest runners should be able to prepare and compare themselves to what the best in the world are doing.

irunsome wrote:

Pat Henry (Texas A&M),Erik Houle(Southern Utah University)among others proposed that the mile be included as an official event in the NCAA's. 218 (out of 265) coaches voted against the proposal!

What do college runners think about this? Should the mile replace the 1500m in college track & field?

Every time someone excitedly asks me about my fastest mile, I slowly watch that excitement drain from their face as I try to explain..."well, technically... I've only run 4:11, but I've run 3:50 in the 1500 (his first yawn), that's what they run internationally (his second yawn) so that’s what we run here too. (third yawn, eyes closed) The conversion is somewhere between 16 and 18 seconds depending on...(mouth open, head back, audible snoring)...[pause, he stops my explanation]..."Hey man, I gotta go feed my dead goldfish."

Same question, I answer: 4:07 high, 4:08 low. “Wow! That’s fast! Have you thought about trying to break four? How do you train for that? What’s the world record? Are you close?....(as they ask questions and I answer them, in my head I’m thinking, I’m actually pretty slow. Well, maybe better than average for an unsponsored 34 year old, but 7 seconds, that’s like from here to that tree- ... wow, that’s only from here to that tree. spread that out over 4 laps and 9 meters, if I could just get to 2:58 all aerobic- oh crap, is rent due this week? We need groceries. Do I run or take that job tomorrow?...)

they used to run the 3 mile and the 6 mile as well but they changed it to 5k and 10k so we could be better prepared to run against everyone else in the world that uses those distances 1500 is different than the mile even though it is just a little different but i think it should stay the 1500 just for international experience purposes

stuck with match.com wrote:

haha YO wrote:

As long as the 1500 is run at the Olympics and World Championships it should be run at the NCAA championships. End of story.

What your small little brain fails to ecompass is that there is more excitement in a mile than 1500m. Its thrill of having somebody go under four. The NCAA is not bound the IAAF they should realize there is more interest in the mile than the 1500m. Nobody in America cares about 1500m. I think the USATF should also switch to the mile. Just have the trials for the 1500m be a mile race.

No Way wrote:

I don't think you do recall correctly... 1500m is just 1.5km, a nice round number for the metric folk.

[quote]tony reali wrote:

[quote]forgive my ignorance wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something because I'm fairly new to the sport, but where did the idea of 1500 come from? Why not do an even four laps?

On a 400m track, 1500 can pretty nicely laid out. You can start with a full straightaway before the first turn, and finish with a full straightaway as well.

Of course, the same logic would lead to running a 500, a 700, a 900, etc, and we don't do that.

The story I have heard is that we used to do the 600 yard run indoors because on a standard 160 yard track, it was three and three quarter laps, so you could start and finish with a straightaway. The 1000 yard run was the same--6 full laps plus a straightaway.

All this is pretty silly, but silliest of all is American high schools running 1600 and 3200 meters.

[/quote]What your small little brain fails to ecompass is that there is more excitement in a mile than 1500m. Its thrill of having somebody go under four. The NCAA is not bound the IAAF they should realize there is more interest in the mile than the 1500m. Nobody in America cares about 1500m. I think the USATF should also switch to the mile. Just have the trials for the 1500m be a mile race.[/quote]

Then why not have the 1615 m run...going under 4 would be more exciting for that distance than 1609 m...OR how about the 3:59.99 minute run for distance!!!

Amuricans don't care about the rest of the world. The winner of the MILE at the NCAA championship should be the world champion(but only if they aren't 'ethnic'). We don't need to send our boys to no stupid Olympics.

who cares?

1500 meters is close enough.

I have to agree the World championships do 1500 meter and it is also done at the olympics. That is pretty much the end of the discussion.

haha YO wrote:

As long as the 1500 is run at the Olympics and World Championships it should be run at the NCAA championships. End of story.

Well said.

Its kinda like the whole foot locker vs. NXN. Do you go with years of tradition or something that is a little cooler. In this case just like with Foot locker tradition is the better choice.

I wasted my time reading the argument from other people and decided that someone should post a good reason for the mile.

I understand that it is hard to break tradition, especially in a sport like Track. However to switch to the mile you wouldn't lose very much tradition. People can still go for the 1500m records during the season.

We all know how wussy people run in championship races so the NCAA championship records really don't mean that much.

I guess it kinda would be cool to see the run the mile since its an American thing. (A dumb American thing) but the existence of the mile itself typifies the American culture so much that I guess we could afford the switch.

In the end I must accept that the fact that the rest of the world focuses on the 1500 is an overpowering argument. At least the other side has a little representation.

I don't know who the person above me is but well said. I am a proponent for the mile but it really isn't a huge deal to me.

I must agree that the people in favor of the mile have the dumbest arguments.

We run the mile in gym class so we should run it at NCAA's are you kidding me.

How about this one: Cars are advertised based on how many miles per Gallon not 1500 meters per Gallon therefore we definitely should do the mile at NCAA outdoor.

Mile rhymes with Nile which is the longest river in the world.

Perfect reason that we should run the Mile at NCAAs

Solution to the question: how fast can you run the mile.

Just know your converted time and say that instead of giving them the whole lecture on 1500 vs the mile. If they seem interested about a deeper discussion talk about that. That what I do, and it works all the time.

HA HA!!!

Seriously are some people really so dramatic over giving people a converted time. It not hard to say I run a 4:08 mile. Or you can slip in slight ambiguity. I've run about 4:08 if you worried about deceiving people.

Why would runners be worried about deception every college athlete I have every met fudges their number in some way. Its kinda like at the start of the race how do you feel? Well I did a hard work out 2 days ago and am kinda sore then they bust out a 3:45. I didn't sleep well and feel like crap and run a 13:55 5k. I run 90 miles a week.....on what messed up GPS.

Especially the slower people a 4:15 miler will probably say 4:10 or 4:11.

Glorpy wrote:

Especially the slower people a 4:15 miler will probably say 4:10 or 4:11.

Yeah you have to do altitude conversion, wind conversion, solar conversion.

I also helps to account for the position of the moon adding a slight degree of extra gravitational force.

So a 4:15 mile under those conditions is more like a 4:05.

I just want to save people the long discussion and tell them I am a 4:05 miler.

[/quote]

Yeah you have to do altitude conversion, wind conversion, solar conversion.

I also helps to account for the position of the moon adding a slight degree of extra gravitational force.

So a 4:15 mile under those conditions is more like a 4:05.

I just want to save people the long discussion and tell them I am a 4:05 miler.[/quote]

ROFL......

That is so true

It doesn't happen as often in college but it is rampant in highschool.

Just like those people who give their XC times as if the course was accurate. Hey I have run a 13:48 5k in cross country. Since grass is slower than a track and there wasn't the best competition, I didn't go all out. Also altitude conversion that puts me at about 12:45 5k. Watch out Bekele I just in highschool and have my eye on you.