No inside curb/rail during Gary Martin's sub-4 Mile - DOES IT COUNT?

Therefore a railing is not required.

Besides that, Martin runs in the middle of the lane, nowhere close to the line.

Is this a record for downvotes? Gary Martin is an absolute smart-running stud, a nice guy, a great interview, a good student, and looks like he works at JPL. And you say "he ignores the rules!" What incomparable arrogance on your part. He runs an awesome race and you say he ignores the rules because there are no cones on the track. I know better than to feed the trolls, and you are most definitely a troll with that comment, but if you're going to be a troll, try not to be so moronic. If you have a problem with cones on the track, call out the meet director, not the athlete. That should be obvious.

USATF doesn't need to recognize it.

USATF is not involved in HS Sports.

A HS meet would not be a sanctioned USATF meet.

USATF does have Youth and Junior Olympic events.

I can TOTALLY see where this would be on the HS record books but not in the Youth or Junior record books because our sport is a potato.

Alan

You come across like one of the many who believe he followed various rules. 'Not looking like a hoodlum' is not a rule. He broke no records, but this event also followed record-breaking protocol not in the least. Ryun and Webb followed all relevant rules AND attended events at which meet organizers also did.

Count this as something meaningful in yoir mind if you wish, but this time cannot be used for meeting any USATF or WA standards, even though WA now allows mile time conversions for 1500 entry. Webb and Ryun's times DID, in fact count towards any federation's qualifying times. This run you are excited about counts for nothing.

Has this guy been DQ’d yet? What a travesty for the sport. It’s ridiculous he would try to pass this blatant cheating off as a new record. I doubt he could even break 5 on a real track. What a joke.

I think most everyone observes the effort as a sub-4 mile. However, we admittedly lose it in some places due to a technicality in the layout.

For instance, USATF would mostly consider this an exhibition and the conversion of the time he ran therefore unacceptable for a USATF 1500 standard. However, the sub-committees that be have the power to give him an entry status if he wanted one.

Great interview

milesplit.com

For The Record: Gary Martin Talks Sub-4 And More

Cory Mull

Archbishop Wood\'s Gary Martin took some time to chat with Cory Mull on his recent sub-4, along with what\'s to come and more

Open link

Gary Martin has run 3 of the fastest 10 times in all high school mile races.

No one else has run more than 1 of them, and Alan Webb's 4:01.81 is the 19th fastest.

Nice interview. Thanks.

Who cares what USATF thinks.

Alan

Last night our mom told me it counts.

A runner can win a race, not be disqualified, and still not have it be eligible for record purposes. An easy example, is a non-certified 5K road course or a point to point marathon.

Regarding Ryun, all cinder tracks in the US had a cement rail; how else would they keep the cinders on the track and not going into the infield or outfield?

Regarding this particular race, there are no officials I can see monitoring the corners. Without a rail, nearly all runners step on the line or at least run far closer to the line than they would on a railed track. It's really rather basic. I've run on tracks with a cement rail, with a metal rail, and with just a painted line, and without a doubt I was much more conscious of foot placement with the railed tracks and even though I was pretty anal about not stepping on the line in unrailed tracks, I probably did if there was traffic, and for sure ran closer to the line when by myself than I did to a curb.

It's definitely worth a second a lap to run 4 inches closer to the curb through two turns.

I don’t know how many times it needs to be pointed out that tracks that aren’t built to have a rail have different dimensions for the inside line and that this track was not designed to have a rail.

This is a HS meet management issue not Martin's issue. On non-rail tracks the meet management should have set out cones along the track. If a field event athlete's approach run (high jump) starts on the track a gap can be set for that approach run. Unfortunately, the meet management did not do their job properly, hence the issue debated on this thread. My hope is that the kid runs another fast time in the next several weeks.

To be clear, I have no problem with Martin's run and whether it could be a record; I love what he's doing. This comment was in the context of someone who was looking for cones on the track.

Martin seems like a good kid and I doubt he's done yet. It does still blow me away the Ryun did this 50 years ago on dirt or cinder track not sure which. How mind boggling that must have been.

Sean at it again..

I think Martin's race should count.. but I think it's a moot point as I think he will be at least as fast next time he races. Not sure how many he has left but I would think he would get better competition each time he races to push him.

Amazing how many awesome high school runners there are now.. boys and girls both.

Doesn't matter since official high school records are not kept, only unofficial.