Oregon slights Penn Relays with last-minute 4xMile WR attempt

It's April. They can walk out their back door and race on the fastest track in the United States. Penn Relays is a great experience for HS and college, but why would pro runners race there.

I really do not think there is a ton of interest in this at all. If it was at Penn against other teams ? Maybe? But this looks like a glorified TT of good guys.

I dont understand why they dodge competitions while still do stuff like this. Who cares about a 4x mile time trial.

I am equally confused by the move. If they want to run fast miles, why not just do a straight race? Or why not enter Penn? Since West is British it will not count as a world record. Seems like it could be a publicity thing but the only two pros on the team (that I know of) are teare and Hocker.

I think these lame limited record chasing fanfares are okay occasionally but now this is like two this year already for Cooper and Cole. How about racing people.

Because in this specific race, there is competition, likely the most competitive 4xmile this year considering how infrequently it's run? Having a better track doesn't make up for lack of competition

Now I get that Penn is often windy but that's not a guarantee, the race is also scheduled for Friday at 8:40pm which is ideal for an under the lights record attempt

We're pretty much back to life post-Covid, and crap like this is still going on?

If they're going to take this on, yeah, race everyone else who's doing it. This is midnight 5K all over again. Nike, you suck.

Essentially BTC is ducking the competition. Candy-asses. This is bad for the sport. Race EACHOTHER. I am not alone in stating we're rapidly losing interest in them.

Cole and Cooper are racing the day before. Cole in the 1500 and Cooper in the 5000m. Hopefully they race it and not pace it tho.

It should be recalled that while the atmosphere is fantastic for track, the Penn Relays has a very slow track, so you never get incredible times. It is not a place for record-chasing, but rather a place for competition with an incredible, frenzied-crowd (by track standards).

Seems random, but I've got nothing else to do on Saturday night, so looking forward to it.

Penn relays isn't a good place to attempt a 5K/10K WR, but it probably is the best place to attempt a 4xmile WR for the reasons you laid out. None of the four legs are trying to run a mile/1500 PR, each leg just needs to run "close enough" motivated for 4 minutes, and the two best ways to do that are competition and a crowd, both of which are better at Penn than at the alternative

Plus the 4xmile WR is soft even compared to other relay WRs like 4x1500, so it's not like they need every second from a superfast track

My thing is, if you are going to use up what you would think was a hard effort, why not get in an under distance or over distance real race and race it differently, like completely from the front, no pacing help, of from off the back, same thing. Everything guys do today is scripted to the point of not having to think for themselves, it's get on the train and run last 300M. Create a different plan, execute that. Just a thought.

I think Morgan said he's not running Penn because of Covid. He only just started workouts again after recovering from his injury, and taking time off from Covid made it a no-go. Something else may have come out more recently though.

Entries are here, they list Geordie but not Morgan and no NBP

ID
School/Affiliation
On Athletics Club
Oliver Hoare, Jonas Raess, George Beamish, Joe Klecker
Empire Elite TC
Eric Holt, Colby Alexander, Luciano Fiore, Ben Allen
Dublin Track Club
Andrew Coscoran, Sean Tobin, Paul Robinson, Hiko Haso
Philadelphia Runner TC
Ryan Mahalsky, Zach Michon, Greg Morgan, Paul Matuszak

Overall thought: 4xmile is a lame event. Just race a mile.

Totally agree.

Here's an idea to promote competition:

-Take 16 world's fastest milers.

-Put their names in a hat.

-Draw 4 names per team; (4 teams total; could be more) -Make the meet fun/interesting/hyped/financially rewarding to winners

-4 teams race each other for world record and it will be more competitive. It's a lame event, so who cares if it's mixed nationalities on the relay.

It seems the personal time trial is a favorite of the U of Oregon men. It worked in 2021 when they both ran 3:50i, and they attempted the indoor US record this season in a similar fashion as well. I don't agree with it, but I understand it - controlling all of the variables has a lot of appeal.

That guy can't stay healthy.