New h.s. 2 mile record!!!

RunnerSpace wrote:

We were worried that the National broadcast wouldn't show him much so we put a solo camera on him for the whole race.

Here is his full race!

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2011&event_id=120&video_id=48108

Thank you very much for this RunnerSpace.

Lukas the King wrote:

Lukas was Footlocker champion at freaking 16, German was nothing but well beaten 3rd over 20 seconds off 1st and 2nd place, STFU already. German's biological age was 28 at 18, he's 45 now at 20.

CA XC course record and ran in flats (not spikes) in not ideal conditions on a possible "off" day.

DaveW wrote:

The problem here is that these type of running message boards were started in the late 1990's or early 2000's when distance running was at low ebb from HS through the professional ranks. These sites were populated by bitter runners from the 1970's-1980's who never profited from running, missed the 1980 Olympics and were pissed off by the emergence of the East African runner and possible PED situation. Cetainly their bitterness can be understood, but the narcissism that led to downgrading anything that wasn't from the past only highlights the reason why this sport is not bigger than NASCAR.

They sort of shot themselves in the foot, didn't they?

Awww, how cute these kids. Well, they seem to grow up so fast.

Lukas the King wrote:

Lukas was Footlocker champion at freaking 16, German was nothing but well beaten 3rd over 20 seconds off 1st and 2nd place, STFU already. German's biological age was 28 at 18, he's 45 now at 20.

nobody gives a rat's ass about cross...

track is where it's at: GF ran faster than LV at age 17 and faster at age 18...

'nuff said...

This was not a downhill or wind-aided race. He seems more like a front-runner to me. If he is helped by guys in the lead, it will bode well for his future. If you think giving talent its due is an obsession, then I think you are a bit odd.

I think there is new talent that will record the next few years of running history. I have no idea how far down times can go, but I am already amazed and a little concerned.

If you ran a two-mile in 8:20 in 1972 you would be considered one of the best in the world.

Oregon Sux wrote:

Lukas had the privilege to run with such talented athletes that helped him out (hint: he got help to break the record, he didn’t do it on his own). If the high school German Fernandez was in this race, he would have gone faster than 8:29.

Have you followed German's career at all? He clearly races better when he is in front. Why would you think he would have run better had he been in a race with professional runners. Unfortunately he has shown he is not a racer. He needs to be in control of the race, like he was in his ONE exceptional college race, when he led the indoor mile from wire to wire. More than likely German would have run much slower with professional runners. The proof is in looking at his results and racing tactics over his high school and college career.

Exactly.

Well German did set his 5000 AJR not leading at USATF's.

Great run by LV. But as a "semi-purist", I do have to take off "points" for him not really running "high school track" as far as dual meets, leagues, sections, state champs. ALL the record holders before him ran a "real" high school season.

There is something to be said about helping your TEAM win a league, section, or state championship; AND jumping in a (pro) race and hitting a fast time.

I thought people hated German on this board and now people are jumping up and down saying he was better than Lukas? Why is this even an argument? They are both talents! Today a record was broken, the bar has been raised! Maybe now we'll see more American high schoolers shooting for the 8:30's and 40's, not just sub 9!

[quote]classof89 wrote:Well German did set his 5000 AJR not leading at USATF's.

quote]

Good point. It just seems like for the majority of his career, his best races came when he was winning from wire to wire and in the races he has dropped out or just not performed well, he was behind or racing others. I like German and hope he turns things around, but he just doesn't seem like a "racer" to me and I don't think he would have run faster with a bunch of world class guys 50-100 meters in front of him.

Now all 4 of the last HS 2 Mile record holders have come to live in Eugene later on. Pre, Nelson and LV for the Ducks and Virgin fro Athletics West.

Right on! A focused race for Verzbicas, he knew his limits and it paid off. I have to doubts that Webb's HS record is in jeopardy. Most of Lukas goal of competing (September) in the World Junior Triathlon series. Nice!

Pardon my spelling errors too much wine.

Age? wrote:

Now all 4 of the last HS 2 Mile record holders have come to live in Eugene later on. Pre, Nelson and LV for the Ducks and Virgin fro Athletics West.

Forgot a guy named German? Maybe?

lol@tards.. wrote:

nobody gives a rat's ass about cross...

track is where it's at: GF ran faster than LV at age 17 and faster at age 18...

'nuff said...

Not while spending most of his HS career doing triathlon training, lol.

I do agree that no one gives a rat's tail about XC. Track is for men. XC is for those who don't want to put it on the line for all to see.

The dude had a personal rabbit for 2800m of the race. A PERSONAL RABBIT. Impressed, but not impressed at the same time.

Oregon Sux wrote:

He needed pros and elites to do it while Fernandez did it by himself with no one’s help, just sayin'

I know he used to great things, but what has he done for us lately?

Yes, thanks X2 RunnerSpace!!

waitwut wrote:

RunnerSpace wrote:

We were worried that the National broadcast wouldn't show him much so we put a solo camera on him for the whole race.

Here is his full race!

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2011&event_id=120&video_id=48108

Thank you very much for this RunnerSpace.

Oooh, dear! He had help! Well, we'd better not say Bannister ran the first "real" sub-4, then. And since so many people's PRs come in races where they followed faster runners around the track, let's just admit that those times don't really count either.

When we look through running history at all the runners who either set records or missed them, there are always numerous "could haves," record attempts made in what turn out to be less-than-ideal races, and various other missed opportunities. Maybe Lindgren cooould have run 13:30 in high school iiif he'd had a rabbit going that pace and iiif he'd run on the fastest track there was. He might also have run in the 8:20s for 2 miles under ideal circumstances. Those races never happened, though. Maybe Ryun cooould have beaten Webb in both a high school only race and in the Pre Classic. But those races never happened either. The mile record is now Webb's and the 2 mile record belongs to Verzbicas. The luck factor - some people getting in just the right races while other people miss out - is always part of it, but the runners who do get the best chances actually have to take advantage of the opportunities and run really, really fast to get records. A 3:53 mile ain't gonna run itself, no matter how perfect the race is. Whatever people think might have happened with some other former high school stud in the race, Webb and Verzbicas actually hammered their bodies to the tune of 3:53 and 8:29, and the other stud just didn't get the chance to face the same level of competition or didn't do it on his own. Opportunities and a little luck are often part of setting records.

So Verzbicas has the record, and it's an extremely good one, even if he was "aided" by hanging pretty close to a world class field for over half the race and had Stephen Haas help him out for most of the rest of it. Pre, Virgin, Nelson and Fernandez aren't at the top any longer - Booooo Hooooo! I personally think Lindgren was as good as any of them, but he never ran 8:29 in high school, so Verzbicas has the record - say, didn't this paragraph start with that?

Just curious - was there a 2,000 split in this race? Verzbicas looked like he might have beaten Rupp's 5:18.5 high school record. He had to have broken the 3,000 record of 7:59.83 by a good chunk.