1500m has got to be the most stupid, ill-conceived and ill-educated distance ever

Phil Fondacaro wrote:

Any race over one lap should be an integer number of laps. The 1500 and 5000 are both dumb on a 400m track. The solution, though, should be to switch all major events to a 500m track. Racing 500m and 1000m will allow new records to be set, ease of recording and making sense of splits, and leave in the past some questionable drug records. Also, steeple should be built directly into the 500m track so the race can be exactly six laps.

flerfologics wrote:

Pointless distance wrote:

Watching them today, stupid.

Everyone knows it came from a 1609m mile.

"The 1,500 meters has been part of the Olympic program since 1896, reflecting the French origins of the modern Olympic movement and its founder, Pierre de Coubertin. It’s also the distance used at the world championships and at the NCAAs. But the mile, just 109 meters longer, is a far superior experience for athletes and spectators."

Lame. Nobody normal could name 1500m PBs as the distance is The Mile.

They should scrap it as it's a non-distance. Something else that has been wrecked by inept non-British second-class europeans.

What next 25.9 mile marathon?

9670m 10k?

4894m 5k

Waste of time for a non-event.

Are you a flat earher? Why do you hate the metric system? Because it's based on the circumference of the globe?

European in America wrote:

4 Minute Mi-liar wrote:

That is because they are used to it.

95-96% of the world uses the metric system. Time for the USA to get on board. Well a long time ago they should have. Oh, and scrap the 1600 & 3200 high school events. Either go 1500 & 3000 or go back to the one mile and two mile.

1500M Is the Worst wrote:

Scrap the weird 1500M and 3000M. 1600M and 3200M should be universal, except they can keep 3000M for Steeple.

1500isdumbaf wrote:

This gets posted a lot on here but I agree. The 1500 is the only event in track that is always compared to something else. If you throw a shot put far or run a fast 200 everyone just says, wow thats a great 200 or wow thats a great shot put. Run a fast 1500 and everyone is like "Wow you ran 3:50 1500, that's like a 4:08 mile!"

flerfologics wrote:

Pointless distance wrote:

Watching them today, stupid.

Everyone knows it came from a 1609m mile.

"The 1,500 meters has been part of the Olympic program since 1896, reflecting the French origins of the modern Olympic movement and its founder, Pierre de Coubertin. It’s also the distance used at the world championships and at the NCAAs. But the mile, just 109 meters longer, is a far superior experience for athletes and spectators."

Lame. Nobody normal could name 1500m PBs as the distance is The Mile.

They should scrap it as it's a non-distance. Something else that has been wrecked by inept non-British second-class europeans.

What next 25.9 mile marathon?

9670m 10k?

4894m 5k

Waste of time for a non-event.

Are you a flat earher? Why do you hate the metric system? Because it's based on the circumference of the globe?

Gordie3 wrote:

When I was brand new to track I always thought the 1500M was such a weird distance

6 years later and I still think the same. Just... why does it exist? 3.75 laps... what??

I would rather see a full mile contested more regularly. That's how it was back in the olden days anyway, right?

The 1500/1600 are dumb and it should've just remained a full mile to begin with

John Wesley Harding wrote:

Napoleon FTW wrote:

Even if he was worth 1:42, he was within 2 seconds of sub 2:10, and 800 has already gotten 2 seconds faster than 1:42. So yes they could break 2:10 if they started trying all the time. They should!

What is this logic. Seb Coe, far and away the best miler among sub-1:42 guys, ran 1:41.73 and 2:12.18.

You’d see a handful of guys running 2:12/2:13 every year, but sub-2:12s would be rare (2:11.99 being like 1:42-low/3:28-low, maybe) and 2:09.9 would be 1:40.91/3:26.00 level (not that either Rudisha or El Guerrouj had the tools to do it, and I don’t know if anyone ever has).

yawn37r8r wrote:

I personally like the 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200...then again, that's what we ran when I was in high school, so I'm biased