What if the full mile was instead contested in place of what is now the 1500M?

A lot more falls. Starting on a curve in a competitive field will result in a lot more falls compared to starting on a straight like the 1500.

How is 1500m "metrically sound?" Do they race 5500m, 10,500m?

The "metric mile" is the 1000m. That's what a mile is, 1000 paces. The Romans invented it and then the backward primitives of medieval Europe screwed it all up.

You want a distance close to the English mile on a metric track, go 1600m. 4 laps. No special start lines needed.

Bad Wiggins is back baby!

1. No, but 1500m is 30% of the length of 5,000m, and 15% of the length of 10,000m. That's the beauty of the metric system, it's just percentages.

2. As many people have stated over and over when this discussion comes up, starting on a bend would be carnage. Unless you want to reduce the field size to 8, and start in lanes, then starting on a straight is far more practical.

Let’s just call the mile race what it is: the 1609.34m.

Moran

Moran

Record would be 3:42 low, and running sub 3:47 would alot less special than it is right now. Top 15 or so all-time would probably all be under 3:44.

Jakob would have broken 3:43.13 by now, just by virtue of getting so many more bites at the apple. He has been in WR shape the last two seasons imo.

There would also be way more times in the 3:45-3:46 range given how many DL races have been won in 3:28-3:29 over the years.

Josh Kerr would be champion, the best imperial 1500m in the world, one of the best runners in the world

Yes, and 1600m is 32% of the length of 5,000m, and 16% of the length of 10,000m. That's the beauty of the metric system, it's just percentages.

On the other hand, a mile is (3.2 + \pi*i)’th of 5K where i is the sqrt(-1), so it can not be expressed as any real percentage.

When it comes to the WC and the Olympics, I don’t think there’s ever been a 1500m vs mile debate.

As always, there’s no need to use “full”. It’s not the “Millrose Full Mile” or the “Bowerman Full Mile”.

Interesting proposition... And it makes sense.

However, we still have mile races and this doesn't seem to be an issue. Nobody seems to be falling on the first turn in the races we already have. Perhaps there aren't enough mile races for this to show up statistically.

Would running the mile instead of the 1500 at the WC or Olympics have changed any of the results in the last 4 years?

How many miles is a full mile? Asking for a friend.

342 no way. The equivalent is 325 something. The current mile and 1500m WR translate about the same

Dude, this one is really easy to research - no pride in what you post here?

The equivalent mile time to the 1500m record is 3.42.40 based off the points scoring tables which, for the one millionth time, aren't absolutely perfect but have proven to be pretty darn good in assessing relative performances. Put it this way, they certainly aren't 6 tenths of a second off over a distance like the 1500m/mile.

So for the record, 3.26.00 = 1302 points, and 1302 points in the mile is 3.42.40. Not only this, of all the MD records (let's say 800-5000m) the mile is by far the weakest at 1292 with the 800 being 1301 points, the 5000m being 1302 points and the 3000 being 1319 points.

Bottom line, the post you replied to is 100% correct. If the mile was run as frequently as the 1500m is/has been the record would well into the 3.42's already. El G would have done it himself (he ran 3.43.13 despite running a fraction of the mile distance that he did versus the 1500m in his career). Ingebrigtsen was capable of running inside 3.43 last season - his 1500m time from Monaco was already equivalent of the mile record but with his prowess over 2000/3000m, that extra distance suits him because of his strength and power in the later stages of races (ie. he can run the requisite 3.28.1 through 1500m and handle the 14.7/8 seconds for the final 109m (low 54 second speed).

Then I'd lose my identity.

I came to identify myself as a 1500 meter runner, though I was never any good at it.

I never competed in a mile race.

Are you suggesting the mile travels through another dimension? Complex numbers are vectors

This would explain why the mile is so hard to run