Connor Burns joins the sub-4 HS club with a 3:58, and Gary Martin bettered his PR by a little bit by leading a pro race from 1k to 1400m
Congrats to the both of them for being the first HSers to break 4 in the same race, and for becoming the first trio (along with Colin Sahlman) to be the first to have 3 HSers under 4 in the same year!
So hyped to see so many young runners taking the sport seriously and doing all of the little things to be the best athletes they can :)
Connor Burns joins the sub-4 HS club with a 3:58, and Gary Martin bettered his PR by a little bit by leading a pro race from 1k to 1400m
Congrats to the both of them for being the first HSers to break 4 in the same race, and for becoming the first trio (along with Colin Sahlman) to be the first to have 3 HSers under 4 in the same year!
So hyped to see so many young runners taking the sport seriously and doing all of the little things to be the best athletes they can :)
Let's go Burnsey! I could feel it in my bones the whole day today, I knew he was gonna pull out something huge. The juniors this year are insane. There are going to be so many sub 4's every year from now on, the class of 22 is the start of a new era in HS running, aided by the spread of training info via the internet, and Nike's new spikes. Today just makes me wish even more that Leo didn't get sick. He could be in the mid 3:50s by now.
Connor Burns joins the sub-4 HS club with a 3:58, and Gary Martin bettered his PR by a little bit by leading a pro race from 1k to 1400m
Congrats to the both of them for being the first HSers to break 4 in the same race, and for becoming the first trio (along with Colin Sahlman) to be the first to have 3 HSers under 4 in the same year!
So hyped to see so many young runners taking the sport seriously and doing all of the little things to be the best athletes they can :)
Let's go Burnsey! I could feel it in my bones the whole day today, I knew he was gonna pull out something huge. The juniors this year are insane. There are going to be so many sub 4's every year from now on, the class of 22 is the start of a new era in HS running, aided by the spread of training info via the internet, and Nike's new spikes. Today just makes me wish even more that Leo didn't get sick. He could be in the mid 3:50s by now.
Seriously, I didn't know he was a junior until the interview afterwards! It's gonna be awesome watching him, Leo, and Rocky Hansen battle it out next year. Hell, I'm excited to see what the rest of the season has in store. Martin is going to nationals this year and has shown he can pull a field to sub-4, so we may not even be done with sub-4s for this year yet.
On the coffeclub pod today, the guys brought up something I hadn't really thought of before: The shoes came out at the same time that the world standards got way better. Maybe a bigger reason people are running faster times is to hit the faster standards. I'm sure shoes have a part to play, but when everyone around you is trying to run faster, that's gonna motivate you to run faster too. I think that would explain why the top guys in the world aren't much faster (if at all) than top guys 20 years ago, but there's way more depth in terms of people running fast times.
It could also explain why NP, and now a bunch of other kids in the country, are running so fast. Getting kids to shoot for 4:00 instead of 4:10 or 4:20 is way easier when they see the people they're racing running that fast. Connor Burns was right behind Martin at NBNI, and I'm sure seeing him go 3:57 gave him the confidence he could break 4 too.
We have been talking about Leo, Lex and Aaron all year.
Then comes Burns…
He was not at Eastbay. He was not at Running Lane…
He did not run indoor…
His only real race of the year was Arcadia. He did ok, but nothing that would foreshadow today’s performance.
Imagine you are Sahlman or Martin. You've seen huge contracts have been awarded to Hunter and Kessler, and the thought has crossed your mind, dreaming 'what if'. And then, BAM, a JUNIOR crashes the party and you wake up from the dream!
Burns at state ran 8:48 3200m and in a tactical 1600m 4:06 closing 1:58. Burns also had multiple indoor miles under 4:10, including a 4:02. Anyone in the state of Missouri could have seen this coming. Impressive performance for sure but anyone who has watched him run in the past knew he was destined to run this well.
As far as I am aware he is normal age for a hs junior