The indoor 2-mile is always an interesting race. When I was in sixth grade, I went to the 1973 Sunkist Games at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. The 2-mile featured Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter and Lasse Viren. Many saw this as a revenge race for Pre's 4th place finish at the Munich Games 5000. Pre won in a time of 8:27. It was an exciting race. At the same meet, Jim Ryun beat his old friend and nemesis, Kip Keino, in the mile. Time wasn't that fast, like a 4:06, but it was still awesome to see these legends run in person. This was a time when elite runners were totally approachable. At the LA Sports Arena, fans could go to the mezzanine level and see the runners warming up. I got Pre's autograph, and he was totally cool. Ryun was busy giving an interview. It was surreal. That type of thing doesn't happen today.
The indoor 2-mile is always an interesting race. When I was in sixth grade, I went to the 1973 Sunkist Games at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. The 2-mile featured Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter and Lasse Viren. Many saw this as a revenge race for Pre's 4th place finish at the Munich Games 5000. Pre won in a time of 8:27. It was an exciting race. At the same meet, Jim Ryun beat his old friend and nemesis, Kip Keino, in the mile. Time wasn't that fast, like a 4:06, but it was still awesome to see these legends run in person. This was a time when elite runners were totally approachable. At the LA Sports Arena, fans could go to the mezzanine level and see the runners warming up. I got Pre's autograph, and he was totally cool. Ryun was busy giving an interview. It was surreal. That type of thing doesn't happen today.
And don't forget, that was in the day when it was 165 yards per lap on a lumbar yard (wooden track). Awesome stuff back when there were five big west coast indoor meets with Sunkist, LA Times, Jack in the Box, Portland and Cow Palace.
You could make a good argument for 8 of the different guys to win
Beamish - 3k steeple WC gold, 1500i WC gold
Fisher - 3k and 5k indoor WR, outdoor 5k/10k Oly bronze, won this race last year
Hocker - 1500 and 5k golds, 2nd last year under the WR
Kerr - 1500 WC gold, 1500 Oly silver, won this race two years ago
Robinson - 4th at WC 5k, 3rd at WC 3k indoor, though only 4th in this race last year in 7:30
Strand - 2nd in the US in 1500, just beat Reynold in 2k XC, 7:30 pb after XC 2024, first year as a pro
Wightman - 1500 WC silver in Tokyo, 1500 WC gold in Eugene, though hasn't raced much 3k+
Wolfe - Looks to be in top form as top American at World XC, 7:30 pb after XC 2024
And then maybe an argument for Kurgat (top 8 in Oly and WC 5k/10k)
I don't think Teare or Blanks have a shot to win.
Kerr will get food poisoning or a last minute injury once he realizes that Hocker and Fisher are going to crush him, like Nuguse was going to do last year in the mile
This post was edited 41 seconds after it was posted.
ndxc02 wrote: Kerr will get food poisoning or a last minute injury once he realizes that Hocker and Fisher are going to crush him, like Nuguse was going to do last year in the mile
Be real. Kerr holds the WR in the event and dog-walked fisher last time they raced 2 miles.
This could be a UNC-dominated race. Remember the last time Wolfe and Strand lined up together on the track? NCAA record.
Both of these dudes have the speed to stay with a hot race from the jump and say what want about Beamish and Hocker's kicks, but good luck staying with either of these two if it's close.
Strand and Wolfe are healthy and coming off of, really, the only 2 impressive performances at WC (albeit in two different disciplines).
Does Fisher still have the kick? Only a year removed from one of the best indoor seasons of all time, same with Hocker.
Wightman and Kerr don't really interest me. Neither have been particularly sharp for even a moderately sustainable time in the last 5 years- I don't think they will have the base to blow this one out.
Blanks is fine, but won't hold up in this race for better than 5th place.
Final prediction assuming a balls to the wall fast race:
Like I've said elsewhere, I won't be surprised if Jakob skips a lot of the Indoor season, and times his build differently. The meat and potatoes for 2026 is breaking outdoor WR's.
Having said that, Henrik's instagram said something about heading to training camp. Not sure if this involves Jakob.
I don’t think it does as Jakob recently started posting on Snapchat and he’s not there. Obviously there is a chance that the posts are old and he is reusing old pictures but I doubt it.
Went and checked his wifes snapchat, after going through a number of posts about their dogs she said he was packing his bag for a couple of weeks worth of stuff.