Why Do College Coaches Hate The Mile?

As an engineer, the 1500m run is an OCD nightmare. Base 10 is so arbitrary.

3 and 3/4 laps, really? I propose that worldwide, the event becomes the 1600m -- the 4 lap race. Close enough to the mile that you don't have to fudge your times when someone asks for your mile PR, and 4 nice round even laps that can be run anywhere in the world.

If you want the mile, then we better change all the other events too, 6mile, 3mile, 880yds, and so on!

No one has ever broken 4:00 in a 1600m event

Strange that the mile and 100 yard dash are one of the few running events the general public really understands.

BraveRifles! wrote:

No one has ever broken 4:00 in a 1600m event

This is a false statement

Who has done it?

BraveRifles! wrote:

Who has done it?

Obviously, everyone who has broken 4 in the mile.

[quote]toro wrote:

The English ran their events in yards and fractions of a mile so a quarter mile track worked well to run the 100, 220, 440, 880, mile, 2 mile, 3 mile, 6 mile.

Actually, the English ran 880, mile, 4 mile, and 10 mile and only moved to 3 and 6 miles in 1932 to conform to the Olympic distances of 5000 and 10000 meters.

I don't see any problem with mixing metric and English distances and when I directed the Baltimore RR Summer Track series I scheduled events based on whether we were using a 400m or 440yd track. Qualifying for international championships is not the main purpose of NCAA competition.

The mile is perceived just the same way here in Blighty. More so, perhaps, as Bannister got there first.

I fondly remember the Oxford/Cambridge match in 1990, when Simon Mugglestone (English schools XC champion, Euro Junior 5000m champion, later that summer outkicked John Ngugi, and - for the sake of another thread running tonight - a bit of a party animal) decided to have a crack at the mile instead of the 1500. Everyone was really happy to switch and it added a lot of atmosphere and publicity - especially when he took Sir Roger's stadium record and ran 3:58.9. See page 80 here, with Sir Rog in the background...

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ouac/info/history.pdf

Switching 1500 to mile when there is no chance of a sub-4 seems pointless to me. But for something like NCAAs where there is a reasonable chance of a sub-4, I am willing to bet that 98% of the crowd, and 99.9% of the athletes with a soul, would jump at it.

And any selection board too dumb to do the maths and consider mile times is plain retarded.

pancake 2 wrote:

BraveRifles! wrote:

Who has done it?

Obviously, everyone who has broken 4 in the mile.

You are a moron. The mile is not the 1600. The statement was no one has ever broken 4:00 in the 1600 event. This statement is false. Alan Webb ran 3:59.86 back in 2001 in a 1600 race.

haha YO wrote:

You are a moron. The mile is not the 1600. The statement was no one has ever broken 4:00 in the 1600 event. This statement is false.

I'm not a moron. You are. And I knew someone would reply with this cute semantic crap. (I must be psychic, because I can predict stupid replies before they even occur.)

The 1600 is an event. The mile is an event. The way the guy asked the question made it obvious he was talking about the 1600 event which, GASP, is not the mile.

It's official, you are a moron.

1600m are covered within the mile event, so yes, many have done it.

(You're a moron.)

You don't get it. The question was has anyone ever broken 4 in a 1600m race. The race was lined up on a 400 meter track and they ran 4 laps, no more, no less. It should be pretty obvious but you are missing it. The answer is yes, Alan Webb broke 4 in a 1600 race running 3:59.86. Obviously he split faster when he ran his 3:53 mile but that is not the 1600 record because that was not run in a 1600m race.

Do you understand? It is not that complicated.

Actually Webb's 3:59.86 was for a mile (indoors), not 1600m.

http://ny.milesplit.com/articles/20940

But yes that can be a 1600m record since the distance was covered.

Like when Jesse Owens would break the 200m record concurrent with 220 y record or Ryun's 800m PR is actually from a 880 y race.

Even if you don't catch a split for the distance, the time for the longer distance counts as the time for the shorter distance.

Back to the other point, I do not believe anyone has broken 4:00 in a 1600m race.

I stand corrected. It was listed as a national record for 1600 and as I remember Alan Webb had broken 4 at Arcadia. Turns out they ran the mile but they actually took a split at 1600 where he ran 3:59.51. Not sure what the fastest 1600 race time is. I would guess around 4:04.

I was actually in a race once where the Enclave ran a 1600m race in the middle of a high school meet.

It was more for training purposes and promoting the sport.

Ronnie Harris won in 4:00 and change.

Fernandez ran 4:00.29 at CA state. I believe that is the fastest 1600 in a 1600 meter race. (One that is exactly 4 laps of a 400 meter track.)

As to the argument that people don't know the 1500 but they do the mile, it is silly for lots of reasons. the easiest way to explain it is to talk to the millions of people who watch football games or baseball or basketball and ask them to explain their favorite sport to you. Most - over 50% - have little understanding of the sport. I barely know anything about baseball and hockey, I don't even like baseball, but it they fit well with my social scene. I know a lot about football and basketball and must constantly tell people I watch the games with about the rules and the nuances of the game.

People watch sports for three reasons

1) Social

2) Gambling

3) Excitement

Track has one of the three (it is or can be exciting). Unfortunately that is the least of the reasons people watch the sport. understanding it is not a reason people watch sports.

Challenge for the Brojos... ask any non football player where the initial kickoff takes place from and find out how many fans stopped watching the game when they changed it.

Ask any non basketball player where the three point line is (feet away from th hoop) and how many fans were lost when the NBA instituted it.

Ask a non hockey player where the crease is.

Ask a non baseball player what a ground rule double is.

I have no idea as to the last two answers yet I'll be watching the cup this spring and will probably catch a couple series games next fall.

Why don't they just stop making people run the mile in high school and make them run the 1500 and then people will start understanding what the time is.