The World Indoor Two-Mile record

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Seriously?

This has been even attempted, what, three times in the history of athletics? Funnily enough, always at the meet in Birmingham.

Hardly anyone even goes for the mile record, anymore. Outdoors. Let alone Indoors.

Sorry Mo, this smacks of "the promoter and my agent realised this was there for the taking" and it's UK Athletics' shame that you were asked to "attempt" it.

[longeared]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

This thread should have been called "Andy Vernon Is Right"

[San Bernardhinault]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

A bunch of the guys I normally cycle with a now-too-injured-to-run formerly fairly serious athletes, and one of them claims to have specialised in the 2-mile. I always thought it was a particularly odd event to focus on.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

Bit of a throwback to the 80s when promoters would have Coe, Ovett or Cram running the 1000m or 2000m for the sake of a record attempt.

[Satchmo Distel]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

The thread title is a little inaccurate because it's actually a "world best time", not officially recognized as a "world record" by the international body.

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/birmingham-farah-indoor-two-miles-world-best

"Promoters" = Andy Norman, who, some would say, prostituted the sport

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/sep/28/guardianobituaries.obituaries

It's good that Farah gets to have a media profile in the winter months but I think this gimmicky crap tarnishes the sport a bit.

[ursus arctos]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

Smart track coaches would often carry a "specialist" two miler, as they can be a stong source of points for team competitions, given that it isn't unusual, particularly in high school, for opponents to not even field opponents.

50 laps indoors is dead boring, though.

[San Bernardhinault]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

Very interesting, Ursus. That makes a lot of sense.

[3 Colours Red]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

ursus arctos wrote: 50 laps indoors is dead boring, though.

An indoor track is 200m.
2 miles is 3,218m and bits.

That's just over 16 laps...

[Hugh Fatbastard]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

The thought of rounding 64 turns in the same direction is doing my knees in.

edit - that's probably not right. Is it one long turn at either end of the track, or two, with a short, straight bit ?

Either way, ow, my knees.

[ursus arctos]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

Some US indoor tracks are less than 200 metres.

Two turns; it's an oval. But yes, you are always leaning on your inside (left) leg.

[Bored Of Education]

The World Indoor Two-Mile record

Great, yet another distance that Farah runs in less than half the time that I do.