I'm declaring WAR!!
(As has, in a much more "gentlemanly" manner, the group "Bring Back the Mile"! Their website is bringbackthemile.com.)
The war is against those abominations, those inventions, those (choose any nasty epithet!), that ONLY United States High Schools use, the 1600 and 3200 meter distances.
Here's a bit of history.
When I began running in January 1962, and for about the next 18 years, tracks in the US were 440 YARDS around, and were mostly dirt.
Then Tartan began changing the texture of tracks.
But with those welcome changes came another.
Besides the track's surface, they changed the circumference too!
They "went metric"., meaning those 440 yards became...400 meters.
So now (starting around 1980), if you wanted to run a mile, you had to measure out the extra "yardage" to make the meters into...miles!
We found out that a mile is about 1609 meters.
Two miles, therefore, is double that, or 3218 meters.
Even wanting to run a 6 mile, or a 3 mile (instead of the Olympic distances of 10000 and 5000 meters) took some re-measuring....or maybe DE-measuring!
(Meaning, having to SUBTRACT 188 yards from the 5000 to get back to 3 miles, or 376 yards from the 10000 to return to the 6 mile!)
We Americans, most of whom are STILL as fearful of "metrics" as we are of AIDS, cling to the "English" distance measuring elements of inches, feet, yards, and...MILES!
I remember the first time I drove into Canada via the Peace Arch in Blaine WA.
I'd been a runner for many years by then, so I knew how to translate meters into miles.
Well, here I was, leaving the USA and I-5 behind, heading into Canada to visit my favorite city, Vancouver B.C.
I get through the guard station (luckily!!) and find myself on Canada Highway 99.
The first sign I see says "Speed Limit: 100 KM Per Hour".
I thought, these Canadians are SPEED DEMONS!!
Then I realized the sign meant NOT 100 MILES Per Hour, but 62 Miles per hour...which is what 100 Kilometers is in distance!
(I knew people who ran 50K's, and even some who ran 100K's!!)
Suffice to say, for Americans, even in the 21st Century, the Metric System is confusing!
Yet High School Federations adopted that system, and when tracks changed to 400 meters, they changed the 1 Mile to...1600 meters, and the 2 Mile to 3200 Meters.
NOT their actual lengths of 1609 and 3218 meters, easily attainable by, you know, taking a damn Measuring Tape, and measuring out those "extra" meters, marking the track at that point (like some did by placing a plaque on the curb, indicating that was the starting line for the 1 or 2 mile), and then running the MILE and 2 MILE, instead of those abominations, the 1600 and 3200.
Some have suggested using the Olympic Metric distances of 1500 and 3000, instead of going back to the Jurassic era, where MILES and MILERS ruled!!
In my opinion, ANYTHING would be better than the 1600-3200, even the 1500 and 3000.
As readers of this blog know, my "DDD" lists are the Top 24 Performers of All-Time in the World, US, Collegiate, and HS categories.
Let's take a look at my HS DDD's.
A few FACTS:
First, I do NOT list any 1600 or 3200 times!
Nor do I list times converted from the metric to the English distances, such as adding 1.08% to a 1600 time to get a Mile time.
You can't use a formula, no matter how scientifically valid it might seem, to "predict" human endeavor!
Especially a human IN MOTION; i.e. a runner!
So my "MILE" lists are REALLY Mile lists (same with 2 Miles).
They are PURE, devoid of the infections known as 1600-3200 times!
My Boys Outdoor Mile list has 15 times on it dating from 2000 forward.
There's enough MILE races run, and enough good runners in recent years, that most of my Top 24 are relatively recent.
However, the remaining 9 times come from the previous century.
And SIX of those remain from as long ago as 1964!
The Boys Outdoor 2 Mile is the same.
There, 11 marks date from the 20th century, and TEN of those from 1979 or before!
(Remember, the US "went metric" around 1980, thus explaining those "1979 or before" marks!)
The Girls lists are only slightly better, but that's mainly due to the "Renaissance" in Girls middle and long distance running these past several years!
Nonetheless, the Girls Mile list still has 5 marks dating from 1982 and earlier.
And the 2 Mile Girls list has six marks from the 70's!!
And that's DESPITE the change to the 1600 and 3200.
The just-finished Arcadia Invitational gave me one example I'd like to use to close out my "thesis" (Fancy name for a RANT!! LOL)
Alexa Efraimson ran 9:55.92 for 3200 Meters, winning the race easily, leading all the way.
(Luckily, she was timed at 3000, so we have her time there to "legitimize" her race.)
ADDED HOURS LATER: Her 3000 split was 9:23.24. This makes her 21st A-T HS!!
That 9:55.92 will NEVER find its way onto my lists!
Thus, it's as if she's never run 2 Miles--which she has NOT!!--and perusers of my book will think it odd that the 2nd fastest Miler of All-Time can't run twice the distance fast enough to make even 24th place on my list!!
But what if the Arcadia officials had changed the 3200 to 2 Miles?
How long would it have taken Alexa to run those extra 18 meters?
Surely fast enough to EASILY make that list!!
Since last year, when Mary Cain transformed long-standing HSR's into MINCEMEAT, Alexa Efraimson has slowly but surely been labled "the next Mary Cain".
(Elise Cranny too, but to a lesser extent!)
Why?
As I stated before, Alexa's first 2 races THIS year were almost CLONES of Cain's first two races in 2013!
Efraimson's age and class level this year match Cain's age and class level from 2013.
Meaning Alexa's now a 16 year old HS junior, whereas Cain was the same in the 2013 Indoor season.
Cain then ran 9:02 (on an OT) and 4:32 for the Mile.
Efraimson ran 9:00 (on the same OT) and...4:32 for the Mile.
But then they moved in different directions.
Cain continued racing against Professionals.
Efraimson's next two races (at NBIN and Arcadia) were against....other HS'ers!!
Not a Professional.....or a Rabbit....in sight!!
And thus, Mary broke more records, while Efraimson has run slower than she's capable.
What does all this have to do with the premise of this post?
Just what I said!
Read those 2 sentences again.
"Cain continued racing against Professionals.
Efraimson's next two races.....were against...other HS'ers."
Tell me, students, what distances do HIGH SCHOOLS run?
Correct!
The 1600 and 3200 Meters!!
What do Professionals (and Collegians) run?
The Mile and 2 Mile, or the 1500 and 3000. (at least when racing those range of distances!!).
THEY don't use the 1600 or 3200.
World, US, and Collegiate lists don't need to convert Meters into Miles, because to THEM, the only place a 1600 exists is as a leg in a Distance Medley Relay!!
(I'm okay with that! To a degree!)
So when Mary Cain wants to race a MILE, she needn't worry about having to race the 1600 instead!!
(Ditto with the 2 Mile and 3200, as witnessed by her racing against Tirunesh Dibaba and other Professionals in Boston last year...over 2 MILES!!)
Efraimson, meanwhile......UNLESS SHE TURNS PRO TOO!!....will have to continue to race mostly 1600's and 3200's for this season and in 2015, until she graduates.
In my opinion, that alone is a GREAT reason for her to turn Pro NOW.....or this summer, after her 11th grade term is over, just as Cain did after HER 11th grade term!!
I wish I felt differently.
I wish I could stand by, and let the "authorities" have their way, and accept the 1600 and 3200 as legitimate!
At least for the sake of athletes like Alexa Efraimson!!
But I refuse to!
I will stand with the 99% of the WORLD that looks at the numbers "1600" and "3200" and asks.... WTF is THAT???
Support "Bring Back the Mile", please.
I do.
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