Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway) has crushed, by 4.51 seconds, the 2 mile world record best that was held since 1997 by Daniel Komen.
First mile 3:59x, second mile 3:54x (haven’t found the exact splits yet).
World records are only set in metric distances. With the exception of the mile for historical reasons, non-metric distances are only eligible for world best status.
Race report/video
Post race interview.
7:54.102 mile? Pfff, I can run that fast.
Oh wait. Damn, that’s insane.
Well the whole “two miles” part seems overrated. If you run a mile in under 4 minutes, of course the obvious thing to do is to run another mile in under 4 minutes to show that it wasn’t a fluke.
When Komen ran his record, he split 3:59.0/3:59.4. Ingebrigtsen dropping 6 seconds off his second mile is the insane part.
I’m not proud of this, but he got each mile done in less time than it took me to read the OP 
(I used to run kind of a lot. This is blazing fast!)
This seems a bit stingy, but I suppose they have to specify a set of distances, otherwise people would be trying claiming world records for any and all fractional distances.
Before they made the change, there was a specific list of standard imperial distances.
There were also (specific) non-standard distances, both metric and imperial, that were eligible for world best status.
You could never run a weird distance (say 375 yards) and claim a world record.
There’s also forms and procedures to verify a world record.
I’m having flashbacks to my brutal high school coach. “You dropped 6 seconds off your second mile? That means you didn’t go out fast enough. Next race drop the time off both. And go run another mile now to make sure you understand.”
So it looked like pretty normal race conditions, it wasn’t as though he had a row of guys artificially organized in front of him. Two pacers over the first mile, but it looked like he really wasn’t following the last pacer all that close to get any drafting benefit, and of course the second mile he was out on his own.
The “wavelight” pacing is very cool. Seems totally legit as a purely psychological factor.
That’s too broad (and a bit asshole-y) an assessment. If you went through at a pace that would tie your PR and you dropped 5 sec., it’s unlikely you could have dropped more than maybe another second unless there was a long stretch since you ran that PR.
I would think the wavelight would eliminate the need for pacers if he’s not going to get a draft off of them.
Absolutely. He was full of “useful” advice like this. If you don’t puke at least a few times at practice during the season, you aren’t working hard enough. Puke after your 800 race and you’re still signed up for the 400? All the better, you got it out of your system and are lighter. Get on the start line and quit complaining. Any race you can walk away from means you probably could have given a little more at the end.
It’s a big part of the reason I essentially quit running for 10 years after high school.
You shouldn’t be puking in practice, that’s way too hard to be recovered for you next practice. Puking/dry heaves, on the other hand, are a result of all-out effort. However, I would never demand that of my runners but I do expect them to make their best effort. Really, once you’re no longer competing for a team, there’s never a reason to race that hard unless you want to.
I’m having flashbacks to my youth when I was on our track team, when middle distance competition was fierce in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Filbert Bayi, Alberto Juantorena, and Eamonn Coghlan seemed to set out exchange or compete for middle distance records. It was an exciting time.
How many opportunities are there to set a world best time at 2 miles? I wouldn’t think that event is held very often, or that many runners train for that particular distance.
I couldn’t find how many times it’s run. I expect it’s run by request if an athlete wants a try at the record.
The 3000 is only a half lap shorter with the 1500/3000 double being common with mid-distance runners. Also, 5k/10k runners will move down as a speed test.
This guy would probably beat me on my bicycle, especially if it was a curved track, but probably on a 2 mile straightaway. He would certainly get way out in front at the beginning, so could I ride my bike at more that 15 mph for 2 miles? I’ll have to give that a try sometime.
Easy on a proper road bike, a decent workout on a mountain bike, flat out on a cruising-around-town clunker.
I have a good road bike. I’ll have to find someplace to try it out. Two mile flats are hard to find around here.
Don’t worry about it. Cycling and running are too different to make a meaningful comparison.
A better comparison is to find a track you can use and see how long you can maintain the pace(if you’re in shape, don’t try it if you haven’t been working out for awhile).