bring back the mile campaign

My memory is not very good. Can you please tell me who won the mile in the 2004 Olympics? Ok, then just tell me who won the mile in the 2000 or 2004 Olympics. What? The cat gotch your tongue.

Here are just four reasons why this is a good idea:

* Because America understands the "magic" of the Mile, particularly the sub-4 minute Mile. The Mile, like the 100 meters and the marathon, is a running event that most Americans know something about or have a general feeling for (even if you hated it in grade school).

* Because we sorely need to elevate and celebrate Track & Field, create heroes and inspire others to run as well as to create new fans in the sport.

*Because with the groundswell of Mile talent in the U.S. it's important that at every major international competition the USA has contenders for medals, particularly the Olympics.

*Because the 1500 meters, or worse, the misfit 1600 meters, do not have the same historical significance and cultural value as the Mile. There is no 1500 meter equivalent to Roger Bannister's historic and still revered first sub-4 minute Mile.

Also, note that the IAAF still recognizes the Mile (unlike the 1600m, which nobody runs outside of U.S. High Schools) and even though the British as a culture and country have switched to metric (unlike the U.S. where our signs are in miles), they still refer to their middle distance athletes as Milers.

Everybody will have a role a play in the campaign. We plan to elevate and celebrate the Mile as a premier event in the U.S. sporting landscape (not just Track & Field) and do our part to replace the 1600m at the High School level. Tie up your shoe laces...it's time for Track & Field fans to do some work and bring back the sport in the U.S.

Imperial stupidty wrote:

Apologies but I need to clarify. In the US do you sometimes run a 1600m race? If yes that is so dumb. Run either the mile (1609.34m) or 1500m.

Regarding the mile (1609m) surely the mystic of it is almost gone. Breaking the 4min mile is no longer considered particularly special from an elite perspective. Because of history the mile (1609) should be run occasionally but the US should get with the rest of world and adopt the metric system. How long have we been running the 1500m at the Olympics?

A 1600m race is stupid. It is about as important as a 4800m race. Harden up and run an extra 9m (mile) or 200m (5000m).

Your Imperial Highness,

The word is "mystique". You must have been trying to dumb that down for us 'mercans, eh?

Good Lord! Pull your head out of your ass and get a clue.

Romanticizing the mile is a totally male-centric activity. This outdated 4-minute "barrier" was invented and perpetuated by men who need to feel important, but were lacking in any useful or notable skills. It has no real relevance in modern track and field, and as many posters have pointed out, no real relevance outside of the U.S.

Then you're lying about your time. You could have collapsed that last 100 or a natural disaster could have happened. You never ran the mile that fast, you just had the opportunity to.

I disagree entirely with this. The OP was talking about getting the interest of the average fan ... not a former or current runner who knows what a 1500 is. The average casual fan STILL knows that 3:59 MILE is f&*^in-eh badass. No casual fan knows the conversion from 1500 to mile and the fact that you convert it means the mile is the standard in America. And guess what? In America, to attract AMERICAN FANS, you need to run the mile. 5th Avenue mile gets lots of fans. That's the kind of race you need - the big guns going at it over the mile. Lots of people would show for those races.

Talk about window dressing. "The groundswell of Mile talent in the U.S." is going to get better because there is a mile instead of 1500 in one or two of the competitions they do every year? Give me a break. Almost everyone else in the world runs the 1500 and understands distances in terms of meters. For elite athletes, you have to run more like 3:48 to be one of the best in the world. 3:30 in the 1500 is a much more symbolic barrier today.

In fact, the only track meet I even bother watching anymore is the Prefontaine Classic, precisely because it features the mile and two-mile distances, with the most depth on American soil.

Who can forget Alan Webb's historic, prep 3:53, Mottram's effort to break 8:00, Ritz's 8:11, the fact that the Pre mile is likely the only place a sub-3:50 mile has the potential to be run at an American meet in any given year, and so on and so forth?

Don't most "all-time" lists feature the mile and two-mile, with conversions FROM 1600 and 3200 thrown in, at least at the prep level?

We measure speed in miles, fuel usage in miles, distances between locations in miles, yet, we use the metric system for track? When did we foolishly implement that system anyway and why?

The mile is as good a place to start as any, because it has the potential to capture the imagination of the public. When I introduce non-running friends to buddies that ran 4:0x for the mile in college, or even sub-4:00, they are always awestruck. If I said so-an-so ran 3:5x for the 1500 or 4:0x for the 1600, the conversation would quickly die out.

I don't see the USATF doing much else to effectively ignite interest in the sport.

Skeptic of it All wrote:

But the 1500 is a different race then the mile, that 100 makes the race a completely different beast.

LOL!!

Flashback and memo: Even some of America's formerly great 1500 meter runners with an eye on the Olympics considered themselves "milers."

"After high school: Quade won the Pac-10 1,500 championship his senior year at the University of Arizona. After completing his college eligibility, he ran what remains the fastest mile by a runner from Washington — 3:54.6 in 1989.

"I think I'm the future American miler," he told The Seattle Times a few days after the performance. He had run a 3:55.63 mile weeks earlier in the New York Games. His best indoor mile was 3:57.1."

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20050426&slug=flashback26

I'm sure if you asked Jim Ryun, Marty Liquori, Steve Scott, Alan Webb, and a whole host of others, they'd say the same thing.

All you jerks who say we should run Olympic distances—let me know who won the last men's 3000m at the Olympics eh?

I support bringing back the mile 100%. The 1600m is a misfit and the 1500m is bollocks anyways. Oooohhh 3.75 laps, I'm enthralled.

Why does it have to be an either/or situation?

Just run the mile MORE OFTEN than it is run now. It does not have to completely replace the 1500 or 1600. Has anyone considered this?

One thing you didn't mention is that the mile is not dominated by Africans yet, or any black people for that matter. So that might help with general public interest. The distance is a good compromise for people's attention spans.

Plus I think milers are hotter in general than other runners. I'm a longer distance runner myself but I think I naturally have a miler's body, and the most attractive female runner I know runs the 1500. She's really hot.

This is correct. Most people identify with the mile and the marathon. One of the premier European meets in Oslo used to feature the "Dream Mile," and all of the big guns used to aim for that race. I can remember Cram breaking the WR there as well as Joe Falcon's incredible come-from-behind sub-3:50 win. Peter Elliott too, among others. That was THE race to go for a fast time. It was called the DREAM MILE for heaven's sake. As far as I know, it still is, though not as heavily profiled anymore.

In any event, let's not pretend that the rest of the world ONLY cares about the metric system or that this is even relevant to the discussion. I might become more interested in track if the mile was the featured event, and it would be great to see it start at the high school level. Garner the interest early. [/quote]

Oslo still have the dream mile. But last year when they used all their money to bring Usain, they couldn't afford anyone else and the rest of the meeting was terrible, same thing this year only he is running 100m this time. Woho. Who cares.

Sad that Oslo who used to be such a great arena for middle and long distance and world records destroys itself because of the stupid directors love for Usain.

I am trying to understand exactly what is to be accomplished here.

Is this like Occupy Wall Steet with a bunch of protesters without specific solutions or is there more?

I guess the one thing is to get rid of the 1600 at high schools.

So you have to present this to each state and have someone in charge change the rules and then re-line all of the tracks. It may catch on as more states do it.

NCAA's - are we talking about changing the NCAA championship from 1500m back to the mile?

And regionals and conferences?

It could happen. I don't know how likely but the logistics aren't too difficult.

USATF - I just don't see that changing from the international distance.

So it would mean converting college mile times for qualifiers for collegoates to participate, logisticly a bit murky as I said earlier.

More mile races at elite meets. Americans to go overseas to hit WC standards for the 1500.

Why lie and add 17 seconds (which is a really fast conversion by the way, the WR is only a 16 second spread)? When someone asks what your mile PR is just give your 1500 with an Astrix.

"How fast did you run the mile Dad?"

"I ran a 3:54 fifteen hundred!"

Skeptic of it All wrote:

Why lie and add 17 seconds (which is a really fast conversion by the way, the WR is only a 16 second spread)? When someone asks what your mile PR is just give your 1500 with an Astrix.

"How fast did you run the mile Dad?"

"I ran a 3:54 fifteen hundred!"

The mile WR is slow so the true conversion is faster than 16 seconds for that speed. Also, consider that 20seconds is 5:20 pace.

Men are Silly wrote:

This outdated 4-minute "barrier" was invented and perpetuated by men who need to feel important, but were lacking in any useful or notable skills.

That's just not true.

I think the bring back the mile campaign is a good idea - I think I was a sophomore in hs, a runner for 2 years, before I quite understood what the 1500 was. I knew it started somewhere other than the finish line, but that was about it.

it would be a good, albeit minor, way to boost popularity of t/f.