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| On the list: Steve Prefontaine (No idea on the other two) File photo, Associated Press |
Did you have any idea that there were so many people just in the USA that had run a sub 4-minute mile? 373?!? Three-hundred Seventy-Three? I had no idea. I would have said over 50, but probably under 100, which is WAY off! I guess had I thought about it critically, which I am not prone to doing, I would have concluded that the number would be substantially higher. I might have reached that conclusion by basing it off the fact that the first sub 4-minute US mile was ran in the 1950s (1957[the first ever sub 4-minute mile on the world stage was in 1954 by Roger Bannister]), and competing times tend to adjust toward the best competition.
Why is that? It's interesting to think about. Is it based on the technical side of sports, where competitors adopt the technique or strategy of the pole-setter? Or is it something more psychosomatic where competitors see the best breaking perceived barriers and now understand that what was previously impossible is a product of the past? I'd say there is a good argument for that. For instance, up to 1957 we have it on relatively good authority that no American had ever ran a sub 4-minute mile, and if they had it was undocumented, thus worthless (says the librarian-track-coach that makes his living on strengths and weaknesses of documentation). After Mr. Bowden broke the four minute mark, it seems that people shed their misperceptions, as within ten years of the feat 19 other US athletes had also crested 4-minutes. Weird huh, in the all the years that people had been trying to pass that mark, no one had done it. (Another weird thing: Don Bowden has no entry on Wikipedia)
Let's pull this in relative to something that affects us as a track team at Castle View, or at least the state of Colorado. It seems like there are a good number of coaches around the state that dislike the rankings system (for those unfamiliar, times/distances/heights are recorded throughout the season, aggregated into a database, cleaned, sorted, and ranked--at the end of the season the top 18 athletes/relay teams make the state championships in their respective events). I, for one, love it! I don't have a wealth of experience in other systems, so there might be others out there I'd like more, but I like this one. You might ask "Why?", or if you have made it this far I hope you are asking that. Well, it is because every year, in almost every event the times/heights/distances seem to get better. I need to go through all the data to confirm this, but it seems like most that are in the know agree. I love that athletes go home (or they even do it at school) and check where they are in the rankings and see what they have to do to make the top 18. It makes it personal, real, and nail-bitingly competitive.
In years past we have used Varvee to manage our ratings system. This year the state decided to go a different route, and will have our rankings hosted by Maxpreps. Colorado is the first state to use Maxpreps, so we are an experiment in a way, but I know a lot of people are excited to see what Maxpreps has to offer. We will be tracking our team through here: http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/castle-view-sabercats-(castle-rock,co)/home.htm
Interesting bits:
- 7 more people were just added this last weekend in various meets throughout the country
- Not quite sub 4-minute, but CV's own, Chris Ganem ran a 4:09 mile at the Husky Classic
- Another athlete, not of CV fame, but also at the Husky Classic, Alex Balsiger ran a 4:05 mile at the Husky Classic. (I'd like to say he's a former athlete mine, but he is definitely Coach Sep's athlete) You know it's good when you're down to the wire with Oregon. Atta boy, Bals! Watch more videos on Flotrack
NACK
