I used watch quite a bit of Track & Field on tv. I remember that in some distance races, there would be a pre-determined “rabbit” who would maintain a fast early pace and then eventually drop out of the race. I think that he/she would be paid a certain amount for essentially forfeiting the race. Now I only watch the big races like the Olympics or World Championships and I don’t recall any rabbits. Has this practice stopped? I always felt that any time enhanced by a rabbit shouldn’t count towards a record. Is that why I don’t see them any more?
Are you thinking of pacemakers? A (fake) rabbit or hare is often used in dog races.
Yes, pacemakers. Although you just gave me a great idea!
Actually, the pacemakers are more frequently called rabbits.
And they’re still around, it’s just at the WC/Olympics, everyone has qualified to run so there’s no one there to hire.
There was a case some years ago, the rabbit in the NYC Marathon won. No one followed his pace so he decided to continue rather than dropping out at the planned point.
Personally, I wish they would do away with them. I don’t like that the racers aren’t willing to go man to man for the whole distance.
Too much “tactical” racing(otherwise known as jogging 
) with the race being a long warmup and seeing who has the best 600-800 meter speed.
At the US Champs a few years ago, the men’s 5,000 went through the 2 mile in 10:22. World record pace would have been about 8:06 at that point.
Rabbits (and this is a valid term for them - Dwight Stones uses the term a lot, IIRC) aren’t used in events like the Olympics or World Championships because (a) you have to qualify for the event, and (b) except for the marathon and the 10,000 meters, you have to run the race two or three times, so a rabbit isn’t going to get into the final, and they’re not really necessary in earlier races. Very rarely, if you get two or three runners from a country into an event final, the slowest one will act as a pacesetter for the other(s).
I don’t think rabbits are used except at meets where each event is run just once, and somebody is trying to set a world record, so they can run the first two or three laps behind somebody acting as a “windbreaker”. Nothing new about this; isn’t this how Roger Bannister ran the first sub-4-minute mile?
That’s one use though I’ve seen them frequently in just ordinary (non-championship) track meets.
Bannister’s pacers were two friends/training partners who agreed to set pace and break the wind until they couldn’t hold it anymore rather than a specified drop out point. Unlike modern rabbits, both of them finished the race though they paid for the early pace they set.
Modern use is the pacer is hired by the meet for the benefit of the field.
There are very few attempts to set world records these days as the pay is for winning/placing high unless there’s a specific bonus for a record.
I have heard this also. At least one of his team mates jogged around the first couple of laps so they would have the energy to pace him later on, he was ahead of them by at least one lap when they started running full out. The story goes that the British Amateur Racing poobahs told him not to submit the results for the record because it wasn’t sportsmanlike or something.
Both Chataway and Brasher started and finished the race in proper form.
Brasher did jog through an earlier attempt on June 27, 1953. That’s the one you’re remembering.
1994 Los Angeles Marathon. Oops.
I’m not quite getting the concept. Would it be akin to a spotter when weightlifting?
It’s a guy who sets a pace for another runner. The rabbit may not make it all the way through the race, he’s giving the faster guy someone to follow at a faster pace for part of the race. It’s difficult for runners to maintain a record pace without competition, a runner can easily tell how he’s doing against other runners, but he’ll slow down or burn himself out running too fast without other runners as a frame of reference.
As a track afficianado, I hate pacemakers. They are only used when certain runners in the race are trying to set a certain time - anything from a Regional qualifier to a World Record. I think it cheapens the accomplishment. If you can run the time, get out there and run it.
I’ve suggested to my local track club that they should use a motor scooter - easier to hit the exact pace required, more reliable, and can keep the required pace going for exactly the right time and distance.
There was a brief time (mid-late 1970s, I think) when somebody tried to make “professional track & field” a “thing”, and one of the gimmicks was, there would be lights placed around the track set to a particular pace.
When I saw your idea, I thought that “artificial” pacemaking was not allowed, but I can’t find it anywhere in the IAAF rules.
As for how popular the term “rabbit” is, here’s the story about one who retired last August.
Horse racing had its rabbits, too.
The most famous was probably the series of races between Dr. Fager and Damascus in the 60s. Dr. Fager was faster than just about any horse of his time, so when the two of them were running a race, Damascus’s trainer would start a second horse that also was a front runner. Dr. Fager would not let any horse get by him, so the “rabbit” would push the pace so that Dr. Fager tired and Damascus would win the race.
They met four times. Two times there was a rabbit and Damascus won. The other two times, without a rabbit, Dr. Fager won.
I had never heard the term “rabbit” used in track and field, but years ago, I often heard it used in horse racing.
Sometimes, in a big race, a trainer would enter BOTH a horse he thought had a strong chance of winning AND a “rabbit” who’d race to the front early and, possibly, tire out some of the oither contenders, allowing the trainer’s other horse to hold back and win late.