Bring mile back???? NAY!!! Drop the mile. 1500 across ALL levels!!!!!

No

I agree completely!

Hammer.

It's a dumb idea.

Disagree! I love the mile and think we should bring it back to NCAA's. Yes, I get the metric system is superior -- centimeters, meters, kilometers generally makes way more sense than feet, yards, miles.

But our tracks are 400 meters and a 1,500 is just silly. Four laps (and, yes, the annoying extra 9 meters) makes for a much more compelling race than 3 3/4 laps (the splits alone are stupid).

That, and this is the USA, and the general public can relate one million times more to the mile than a 1500.

Thoughts?

Mile! wrote:

That, and this is the USA, and the general public can relate one million times more to the mile than a 1500.

Thoughts?

The general public in the USA doesn't know the difference between 1500m, 1600m, and 1 mile.

Mile! wrote:

That, and this is the USA, and the general public can relate one million times more to the mile than a 1500.

Thoughts?

Why should we care about the general public? If they can't even run a mile well, why does it matter what they think about the people who can?

Love that 1500

World wide no-one cares what the US wants in TnF- it's rarely where the $ or action is - so the 1500 ain't going anywhere. And actually the splits are much easier because we use 400m tracks.

However, at NCAA level I think the mile a great idea. There's lot's of kids shooting for 4 mins, and it would make NCAA's special. It's not that hard to measure out 9m......

Ooops...meant to say it DOES make the NCAA's special!

It has nothing to do with whether the general public can run a mile well or not -- it has everything to do with making our sport more relatable to the general public.

And why shouldn't we want more people to be interested in our sport?

All the better if we're much faster than the general public -- I enjoy watching Stephen Curry play basketball because I know how hard it is to make a three pointer, though he makes it look easy.

The fact is, many Americans DO know what they can run -- or could back in gym class -- for a mile.

Practically no one knows what they can run for the 1,500 meters

1500 m is the event. The mile is outdated, doesn't work properly with the extra 9 m and no one in the general public will pay more attention because it is a mile. The races are usually tactical anyway. Hell, most of you clowns don't even understand the basics of a tactical 1500/mile anyway so try learning the sport rather than changing it.

The 1600 is what the event should be.

If we still used 440y tracks, the the mile would be appropriate.

Did you know that a race of 1600 meters in length concludes almost every high school and collegiate T&F contest in this country?

Frankly, I don't really care as much as I pretend to about 15, 16, or mile. They are each a perfectly valid version of the same event.

Now, hep vs dec on the women's side is a much more interesting debate. I hope that that topic gets the consideration it deserves.

Nothing wrong with the 1500m being the event in the Olympics, World Championships, professional circuit (if you ignore the fact that it clashes with the patterned increase in distances from 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m...).

But that shouldn't prevent the NCAA's from using the event that most Americans can relate to.

Look at how Olympics basketball rules are slightly different than the NBA. Look at how the Olympics hockey rink is slightly bigger than the NHL's.

It turn wrote:

Hell, most of you clowns don't even understand the basics of a tactical 1500/mile anyway so try learning the sport rather than changing it.

I assume that's sarcasm. Most clowns here are fitness runners at best, but they are experts in world class race tactics.

The whole bring back the mile thing makes no sense to me. We have it during indoor track and does that make it more marketable? Does the general public get excited about the Sorotos v Ches matchup, because it's a mile? Nobody is going to tune in except the die hards, and we will regardless if it's a mile, 1500, 1600, 2000, 1000, etc.

What's more important is continuing our trend of closing the gap on the rest of the world, and that's not going to happen by running different distances.

Bingo!

ALSO

There is no doubt that the Mile is one of the most important events in the U.S. for the sport, the media and the general public. We began Bring Back the Mile with the insight that the 1500m is essentially only covered in the U.S. during national championships and especially during the Olympics, yet the Mile continues to appear regularly in articles across the country throughout any given year and for all levels of competition (high school, collegiate and professional). In short, Americans "get" the Mile not the 1500.

BTW, we have nothing against the 1500.

More here:

http://bringbackthemile.com/news/detail/the_mile_and_the_ncaa_a_major_opportunity

Imagine all the middle of the road high schoolers working just a little harder to run a sub 4 1500.

Another benefit to 1500 is starting on a straightaway instead of a curve.

The current question is whether the mile should be raced at the NCAA championships and I think it should. My 92 year-old grandma can appreciate a sub-4 mile but if I told her that I had an athlete run a 3:26 1500 she would give me the, "well that's nice honey" treatment. Make my grandma happy, she's 92 and a great woman. Reinstate the mile!

Sit and kick baby. That's all you need to know for world class 800, 1500, 1600, and mile race tactics.

It's also why the sport is losing interest. Can you say boring?