“This argument about time doesn’t make sense to me. Place and winning is important of course, and comparing times Times course to course is impossible. But I think it’s pretty obvious that course records are the most legitimate way to compare across years, as there is no way to say who was “better” when they were both the champion of the same event in different years. I have honestly come to believe that this time-matters-not attitude is actually the belief held by many runners that never won anything. Had they won anything substantial they wouldn’t covet victory so much, and they would begin to desire to make a mark in history, rather than simply beat their peers.”
Exactly! Time and records don’t matter to people who will never achieve them! Ask anyone who has been around the sport for 40 years and they will tell you the creation of MileSplit completely changed the dynamics of high school running. Why? Because competitive athletes WANT to see their name on the ‘List’ and will work harder to get there. Yes there were some good runners in the 1980’s and 90’s but very few compared to today. In 1985 no one in PA had any idea what times the kids in California were running. Today the PA kids raise the bar to chase Nico Young’s 8:40 2 mile time, whereas in 1990 they set their goal to beat last year’s state championship winning time of 9:28. The greatest and most competitive athletes don’t desire to to just be the best in ‘today’s race,’ they want to be the best ever! I don’t know Colton Sands or Dylan Throop but I have to assume that after their spring track seasons were cancelled, and they trained alone during quarantine, they had their sights set on Patrick Anderson’s 15:25. And had Sands been healthy and Throop been hydrated they may have been able to do it—but it wouldn’t have happened regardless because the course was too long!!! The greatest athletes have Micheal Jordon like competitiveness. He didn’t desire to be just the MVP that season, or the best of his era, he wanted to be the greatest EVER!
Now for the other reason why records and accurate courses matter. Imagine the feeling of a coach as you run to your 7th girl after she just finished her final high school race of her senior year at the state meet and you tell her “You just ran 21:59, a new personal RECORD and over one minute faster than last year.” She doesn’t care that she finished 150th. She just PR’d and improved by over 1 minute from last year. That’s what makes this sport so great!!!!