Bring Back the Mile

Everyone in the country should know who Bernard Lagat is.

Everyone in the country knows who LeBron James, Payton Manning, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, and Michael Johnson are. They are the best at their craft: forward, quarterback, swimmer, sprinter. Lagat? I don't know. Alan Webb? Maybe. Jim Ryun? Steve Scott? Vaguely. Everyone in the country should know these names.

The Mile should be as easily celebrated as the 100 Meter Dash for the casual sports fan. It is four minutes long and fits into most attention spans of the American couch potato. It is more dramatic than stock car racing, more exciting than golf, and not as time-consuming as any of the Big Four team sports. As a student, athlete, and coach of track & field of course I am going to have these feelings, but I am also the guy who can sit happily and watch a marathon or 25-lapper on the track and not get bored so I get pissed when they go to commercial in any event longer than four laps. I'm an adult so I appreciate that not everyone is going to share my feelings on the 10,000 meter, but surely we can all get together for less than four minutes and watch the Mile, right?

Alan Webb had a chance to bring the country back to the Mile in 2001. ESPN broke away from SportsCenter then to show his attempt to break Jim Ryun's national high school record in the Mile. He did so. To my knowledge, ESPN hasn't done that since and instead has broken away from Lagat winning distance races to go to an attempt at a no-hitter a few years ago. I swore off ESPN for a whole month after that I was so pissed. I know a whole month--I really showed them.

Back to Webb... he had his chance. It has been a topsy-turvy decade for him. He went to Michigan and then left that great situation for reasons passing understanding. He had his best season ever in 2007 setting the American Record in the Mile, and then followed that up in 2008 with one of his worst seasons. He has gone through coaches and training partners and is still kicking. He is trying to make it to London this week in either the 1500m or the 5000m. I don't expect him to make it in either event. Anyway, he had his chance.

Why isn't the Mile the premier event in track and field? How is it not celebrated by sports fans and casual fans alike? Part of it is our doing... in a lot of states, high school associations run the 1600m instead of the Full Mile (1609 meters). On the world stage they run the Metric Mile (1500m) and the 3000m instead of the 3200m or a true Two-mile. Confused yet? In college indoors they run a full mile but outdoors they run the 1500m at championship meets. Pick a distance and go with it, people! In this regard, I feel we (the USA) should just do ourown thing: The Mile. I feel that is the most commonly asked question of a runner from a non-runner: "How fast do you run the Mile?" I usually just tell them my 1600m PR and not bother with the global-political sports landscape.

Another issue is coverage. NBC, ESPN, etc. are great... for televising sports that do well on television: football, basketball, and even soccer is getting good pub. Track just doesn't work on television to me (it can it just doesn't with the team sports' suits running the show). It does work very well online though with knowledgeable people and analysts who care deeply about our sport. Think Ryan Fenton & Flotrack.org, Doctor Bob & distancepreps.com, and Jason Byrne & Milesplit.com. When these guys get the chance to be the central body for covering our favorite events in the sport they knock it out of the park (forgive the baseball analogy). When I see that NBC or ESPN has the video rights to an event I groan because I know the coverage is going to be piss-poor to lukewarm at best.

If these guys had the sort of power (and probably more importantly money) to get the rights to cover our sport 24/7, it could go a long way to getting people more interested in our sport. Even if it didn't, maybe more average people would be able to pick Lagat out of a line-up...or at the very least be able to not only watch but really enjoy the Mile.