Eamonn Coghlan's Son Goes Sub-4

Thanks, I guess they are the first Father & Son to do it indoors?

I saw his dad break 4 at MSG as a master

s runner. Amazing.

Name withheld wrote:

That would be the Keinos, if you count 1500s (3:34+3:33). The Centros and Coghlans are pretty even after that.

Facttt wrote:

Do they have the fastest combined personal best mile times of any father/son duo?

I think Billy Konchellah and Yusef Saad Kamel (the athlete formerly known as Gregory Konchellah) could give the Keinos a run for their money.

Centros at 3:36/3:34 are slightly superior to the Coghlan's 3:49/:59.As for Billy Konchella, he never ran the 1500, but is easily the world's fastest rapist ever over 800m.

GoatBeard wrote:

Name withheld wrote:

That would be the Keinos, if you count 1500s (3:34+3:33). The Centros and Coghlans are pretty even after that.

What did the Centros run? 3:57/3:58 is what someone said already in the thread. But Big Eamo Coglan ran 3:49

It is..He did it in a HS meet @ Harvard with a special race just set up for him and his pacesetters. He had been trying to go sub 4 all season as a master and just couldn't get it done until that meet..

Stating the obvious wrote:

Thanks, I guess they are the first Father & Son to do it indoors?

I saw his dad break 4 at MSG as a master

s runner. Amazing.

Rbyrne wrote:

It is..He did it in a HS meet @ Harvard with a special race just set up for him and his pacesetters. He had been trying to go sub 4 all season as a master and just couldn't get it done until that meet..

To: Stating the obvious...can you provide some more info regarding EC breaking 4 at MSG as a master? Rbyrne and others have suggested he accomplished the feat just once; at Harvard.

By the way, I was at the Harvard track on that day and remember the excitement of the crowd during his race. It was electric and one of my fondest T&F memories.

Eamonn's sub-4 Masters mile was run 2/20/94. He had won the Masters mile @ MSG's Millrose Games earlier in the month. The Harvard sub-4 performance as described by Marc Bloom --

"When the mile race got under way, the eager crowd wasted no time in setting the roof to rocking. From high school kids too young to remember Coghlan's 3:49 to the over-40 coaches who had come to pay homage (and just possibly witness 4 minutes of track history), you could feel the electricity in the air, and the fans increased the voltage many times with their shouting and clapping.

Stanley Redwine, an experienced rabbit, led Coghlan through the first lap in 29.23 and the second in just under 30 seconds. Coghlan passed the quarter in 59.10. Perfect.

But could Redwine hold the pace? He was used to leading for 800 meters, maybe 1000. Coghlan would need help for 3/4 of a mile. 'I'm nervous,' Redwine admitted before the race, sensing that he might be part of a historic event, as Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher were when they paced Roger Bannister's historic sub-4 in 1954.

'Good,' said Coghlan. 'That means you're ready.'

All Coghlan had to do was marshall his unique repertoire of speed and hunger - the speed of a man half his age, the hunger of a man running for glory.

It didn't come easily. Again and again, Coghlan felt himself fall back a stride or two. Each time he chided himself: 'Don't let it happen. You knew it would be hard. Stick with it.'

Redwine and Coghlan reached the half in 1:59.44. With his crisp stride, Coghlan took full advantage of the sweeping turns, but inside he hurt. His stomach churned. 'At the half mile, I was saying to myself, "Can I get outa here?"'he admitted later.

The fifth 200 was a tick under 30, the next lap also on target. Redwine pulled Coghlan to the three-quarter in 2:59.22, then packed it in. Coghlan was alone - a harsh reality for a miler racing the clock. 'I went into ... not exactly shock, but ...' Two laps to go.

Coghlan couldn't afford to save anything, and he didn't. This was his final indoor race. 'Run your heart out for this one lap,' he told himself. 'Worry about the last lap later.'

Coghlan's legs wobbled, but he held form and ran the seventh lap in 29.38, his fastest since the opener. One lap more to go. He needed a 31.39.

After his untouchable world indoor record 3:49.78, his 1983 World Championship 5000 win, 11 Irish titles, 30 years of running and 74 sub 4-minute miles, it had come down to this: one lap at a high school meet.

Surprisingly, Coghlan still craved validation. Maybe it was his two near-miss fourths at the Olympics. Maybe that the newspapers back home would chide him. When he jogged a fun-run mile with his son last fall, the stories ridiculed him for running a 7-minute mile.

Going into the first turn on the final lap, Coghlan dug deeper. He pumped, he grimaced, he pumped some more. Did he have enough left? He was still flying when he came off the final turn and sprinted for the tape.

It wasn't the Millrose Games, and it wasn't Madison Square Garden, but who could tell? Who would care? 'It was like old times,' he said later. 'Those last two laps brought it all back to me. My eardrums hurt from all the cheering, but my legs responded.'

Coghlan hit the finish in 3:58.15. Forty years after Bannister, he ran more than a second faster. It was a different kind of mile - less significant, no doubt - but still the culmination of a near-impossible quest. And, beyond that, a race that will stand in the history books forever."

F***ING epic

Doesn't matter. Sam McEntee would destroy him

Getting back to the bashing element to this thread ....

I give him credit. But these kind of setup races really don't say that much about ability.

It means what it means. Young Coghlan has the talent to run 3:59 if everything's perfect.

The crazy Irish press corps immediately starts speculating that he could achieve the "A" standard for the OG's and that's not going to happen.

Blackston wrote:

Getting back to the bashing element to this thread ....

I give him credit. But these kind of setup races really don't say that much about ability.

It means what it means. Young Coghlan has the talent to run 3:59 if everything's perfect.

The crazy Irish press corps immediately starts speculating that he could achieve the "A" standard for the OG's and that's not going to happen.

3:59 indoors in January off little or no speedwork suggests he COULD achieve the A standard. Extremely unlikely but still possible. Haters gonna hate I suppose.

Just looking at the all time list for the indoor mile:

4 Irish in the top 10!!

Of course they will...still be around, but a bit cenial to remember this thread! Getting old is hell!

Blackston wrote:

But these kind of setup races really don't say that much about ability.

It means what it means. Young Coghlan has the talent to run 3:59 if everything's perfect.

This is such bullcrap. I bet you've never broken 5:00 in the mile. Races needing to be "set-up". Bah! A sub 4 mile is equally hard in any kind of set-up. You don't magically get assistance from anyone else.

Here's video of Eamonn talking about breaking 4:00 after 40

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9164741858316320710

Wow, turned down 50 grand! I wonder if the entire race is available?