who is your favorite miler of all time?

WAIT

The mile has had two constants regarding competitors over the past 15-20 years.

1- a new EPO user Lighting it up - EL G, Morcelli, Lagat, Baala, Cacho, Ngeny, Komen, Ramzi.

and 2 - Kevin Sullivan

and for that reason, Sully gets my Vote.

ps. the guy had is achilles completely detached from his calcaneous and returned to finish 5th in the games in one of the most doped/rabitted finals ever.

brie felnagle...for obvious reasons

ALAN WEBB. So inspiring to my own running.

any miler that goes 4:29.9 or faster

rail trail runner wrote:

jim beatty

the first sub 4 minute miler indoors (3:58.9). thanks to wide world of sports, i watched this as a 12 year old. his running opened me up to the world of track and field. beatty's running helped make me aware of bowerman's oregon teams, elliot's villanova teams, mihaly igloi, tom o'hara at that time.

from this starting point i have enjoyed peter snell, dyrol burleson, jim ryun, dave wottle, steve scott, ovett, coe and cram with great insights of what it takes to succeed. beatty was a little guy who had a goal, positive attitude (rarely found in lets run posters) and a huge heart. i was able to catch the running fever because of a great runner --- jim beatty.

If you are going to nominate Beatty (and I agree) you can't leave out Jim Grelle - they battled it out in a bunch of those Wide World meets.

I was going to comment on my suspicions when I saw people naming #1 and #2 on you list but didn't. Confidence of drug-freeness is probably my forst criteria for judging my favorite. I'm feel that there have been some people run super fast in the mile who were 3:57 milers juiced to world beating status. Just my opinion.I like the 800/mile in part because many different body types can excel for different reasons -- truly world events.

Hold the fone wrote:

WAIT

The mile has had two constants regarding competitors over the past 15-20 years.

1- a new EPO user Lighting it up - EL G, Morcelli

good of you to recognize jim. he certainly had o career many of us would like to call our own and yet few know how accomplished his career is. i was lucky to meet him this summer at a barbecue.

Hicham El Guerrouj....so smooth

Webb and El G. I've met Webb and he's the shit!

1. Webb

2. El G

3. Lagat

4. Ngeny

what to do wrote:

Agree completely with fUrCeOsNhN. Landy >>>> Bannister. If Landy had been afforded the kind of tracks that Bannister got to compete on in England, and teammates who were willing to time trial him through more than two thirds of the race, Landy would have beaten Bannister to the 4 minute mile. I've always held the impression that Bannister was really full of himself and ran for the media attention it brought him, whereas Landy loved the inner struggle of running and ran for himself.

You have to hand it to Bannister though. When they finally went head-to-head, he took Landy down.

Hold the fone wrote:

WAIT

The mile has had two constants regarding competitors over the past 15-20 years.

1- a new EPO user Lighting it up - EL G, Morcelli, Lagat, Baala, Cacho, Ngeny, Komen, Ramzi.

and 2 - Kevin Sullivan

and for that reason, Sully gets my Vote.

ps. the guy had is achilles completely detached from his calcaneous and returned to finish 5th in the games in one of the most doped/rabitted finals ever.

Yep, yep, yep!

Sully is pure class.

In Canadian terms, we might refer to him as the Steve Yzerman of middle distance running.

I'm another Canadian who is going to say Sully. Sometimes I've felt that he didn't put himself into the thick of things enough (with his kick, who could beat him if they were level with 100m to go?) Still, the fact he's still at it somewhere like 16 years after first breaking 4 minutes is inspiring to no end, plus in interviews he comes off as very balanced and humble.

Yes, and they both went under 4:00 in a great race. If you ranked the top milers of all time neither would be in the top 10 but Bannister would be above Landy, no doubt about it. I am just a Landy fan because of his attitide-he was definitely humble and was willing to train hard, especially compared to bannister. And in a sport of good people, he is one of the first that comes to mind.

The Perfect Mile has got to be my favorite running book ever. I've read it at least half a dozen times over the years. Great read, brilliantly researched and written.

Coghlan is my favorite miler of all time by far.

CRAM!!! Hands down the best every. Don't forget the summer of 85!!!!!!!!!!

CRAM!

Niyongabo gave his spot to Dieudonne Kwizera.

I think some people forget the generation spanning entries in Atlanta.

I believe Bile and Cruz were both there.

There's a great bio of Elliot: *The Golden Mile (The Herb Elliott Story as Told to Alan Trengove)*, originally published in 1961. Out of print, of course, but consult a librarian if you're interested - you can get it through interlibrary loan.

random wrote:

I may have only ran a 4:08, but I'm my favorite. I'm undefeated in the mile, and surprisingly enough my 1500m PB is only 4:01 (HS)

guess what, when you ran your 408 mile, you had to come across the 1500meter mark in atleast 353. therefore, your 1500meter pr is 353, not 401.

wake up and smell the see weed.