Shannon Rowbury, New USA mile record!!!

...but what high school kids want to know is how fast can she run the 1600?

Talk about a distance that's even more irrelevant to the world!

It is clearly inferior to SFH 3:57.40/1500, which converts to approximately 4:16.4 mile. In addition, it is not quite as good as SR's 4:00.3 (4:19.5). But note that she now has four marks within +/- of 4:01.0 or its mile equivalent. Not seen since SFH and likely not the end of her improvements.

John Cook, best active coach in US. Best trio of runners.(male or female) Try to get into this training group,not happening. It will be an exciting next couple of years for this group. Possible Oly. gold in 2012?

just sayin wrote:

John Cook, best active coach in US.

That's pretty much what I was thinking, too. I've never heard any allegations regarding Coach Cook and PEDs. For the record, I know Shannon and I find it REALLY hard to imagine her using anything other than hard work to get better as a runner. We're not BFFs or anything, but I've run with her and worked out on the track at the same time.

Are people trying to break into that trio and getting turned away?

There are some meets that do run the mile instead of the 1500. Every year there are a couple of quality mile races.

There are very few mile races for women outdoors. In 2007, almost the entire "Top U.S." list came from the Falmouth Mile, because that's pretty much all there was.

Sorry for the typo. Of course Lagat ran a 3:32.75 not the 4:32.75. I realize that the mile is rarely run now days, but that didn’t stop Alan Webb from getting lots of publicity when he broke the USA men’s mile record last year.

I also realize that Rowbury didn’t break the “official” women’s mile record which druggie Slaney still has. And yes, perhaps Slaney wasn’t doping in the 1980s when so many other top runners were doping. But she failed a drug test in 1996, and that’s good enough for me to discount all her times as a pro. No one but Slaney knows when she began doping. Personally, I don’t think athletes caught doping should be allowed to own national records set anytime before they were caught (unless perhaps they can convince authorities of a date they began doping). Yes, I don’t believe Slaney doped in high school and probably not in college. But I find it difficult to believe Slaney wasn’t doping at the peak of her pro career when she was one of the fastest distance runners in the world and running against a lot of Eastern European runners who were doping to the gills.

With today’s drug testing, especially the lack of sufficient out-of-season testing, almost anyone who is careful and smart could be doping and not get caught – at least for a while. But today’s drug testing is far superior to what it was in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and out-of-season surprise testing is on the increase. I know a few people who know Rowbury and they would be shocked if Rowbury was doping. With a few exceptions which I won’t name, I feel most top US runners today are probably not doping. A greater risk of getting caught and stiffer penalties appear to be deterring most US runners from doping. USADA has improved their testing by targeting suspicious athletes and yet they haven’t caught any top performers in 2007 of 2008. Still no one can know for certain who is/isn’t doping, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this.

But a little evidence should be provided by those who say they suspect someone of doping (e.g., relationships with coaches, trainers, doctors involved in past doping incidents, suspicious rapid performance increases, signs of steroid rage, changes in physical appearance such as excessive facial hair on women, change in voice, lack of being tested, even a close match to the typical profile of caught dopers).

Here are the top four USA 1500m performers:

Mary Slaney 3:57.12 AR

Suzy Favor Hamilton (SFH) 3:57.40

Ruth Wysocki 4:00.18

Shannon Rowbury 4:00.33.

Avoiding the argument that the mile is infrequently contested, Rowbury is now poised to take over the #3 spot in the “metric” mile, only behind druggie Slaney and SFH. Given Rowbury’s young age of 23, and that she has run three races under 4:02 in this her debut season, it appears that she has a decent shot at the American 1500m record in the coming years. SFH ran her 1500m PR at age 32 and Ruth Wysocki at age 27.

FYI, the women’s world 1500m record of 3:50.46 was set by China’s Yunxia Qu at the infamous 1993 meet in Beijing. It is obviously a doped time. It’s also likely the top 22 performances (by 15 runners)on the IAAF’s all-time 1500m performance list are doped as well.

http://iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=O/age=N/season=0/sex=W/all=y/legal=A/disc=1500/detail.html

I believe the legitimate drug-free world record for the women’s 1500m probably belongs to Maryam Yusuf Jamal (BRN). She ran 3:56.18 in Rieti on 8/27/06.

Conversion wrote:

Whats Up wrote:A 4:01 female 1500m time is about equivalent to a 3:31 male 1500m – which is faster than Lagat’s 3:32.75 season best yesterday at Rieti. Lagat’s time is getting a lot of attention, but Rowbury’s very little.

1500:mile conversions... maybe. Female:male conversions, LOL

Yes, stats show that on average elite world class women run the 1500m almost exactly 30 seconds slower than the men.

10th Fastest 1500m time in world (men vs. women)

2007 3:32.13 4:02.80 30.67

2006 3:31.85 4:01.31 29.46

2005 3:31.95 4:01.14 29.19

2004 3:31.10 4:01.20 30.10

2003 3:31.61 4:01.69 30.08

5Yr Avg 3:31.73 4:01.63 29.90

20th Fastest 1500m time in world (men vs. women)

2007 3:34.09 4:05.10 31.01

2006 3:33.08 4:03.82 30.74

2005 3:33.72 4:03.73 30.01

2004 3:32.81 4:03.78 30.97

2003 3:34.07 4:02.74 28.67

5Yr Avg 3:33.55 4:03.83 30.28

30th Fastest 1500m time in world (men vs. women)

2007 3:35.03 4:05.69 30.66

2006 3:34.45 4:05.46 31.01

2005 3:34.80 4:06.24 31.44

2004 3:33.87 4:04.69 30.82

2003 3:35.24 4:04.77 29.53

5Yr Avg 3:34.68 4:05.37 30.69

I think Rowbury is kinda hot. Anyone else agree?

icy-hot wrote:

Why would their group with Cooke need to go to all the way to MEXICO for training?

park city is a lot colder than mexico. cook's group is comprised only of females, so there's a much greater danger of someone freezing her tits off.

Mexico good place to hide while they do their "stuff" & much harder to be found by wada.

anat0my wrote:

icy-hot wrote:

Why would their group with Cooke need to go to all the way to MEXICO for training?

park city is a lot colder than mexico. cook's group is comprised only of females, so there's a much greater danger of someone freezing her tits off.

It seems that in this day and age, if people on the boards aren't accusing you of using drugs, you're just not running fast enough. It's like, when people start suspecting, that's when you know you've made it to the big time.

Along those lines, I hope that you'll all be accusing me someday. That's when I'll know my training paid off.

How many allegations were there with Trevor Graham athletes before the first one tested positive? Maybe Cooks group has better masking agents. Everyone everywhere that is running fast is doing drugs except John Cook's group. So he has the only group of fast mid distance/distance runners in this country??? Stupid, absolutely stupid. Everyone else that has a quick huge improvement everyone on here screams drugs. Why does a board full of people convinced that everyone running fast is on drugs suddenly not scream about her?

The teste-epi ratio rule as been massaged, recalibrated kick about and talked to death. Not to defend MS but I believe her count would have been ~~LEGAL~~ under one incarnation of the ratio rule.

SFH had a lot of backroom rumors mentioning a little help from Dr. Feelgood.

Wysocki may be the rightful list leader FAIK

Why do they run the 1500?

I think you sort of proved my point man...

Nice way to buttress your argument. Note that the trend indicates that the men are deeper than the women (surprise), so that, at the top, the differential is closer to 29 seconds.