The Magic of the Mile

The Magic of the Mile

And so to Wimbledon Park on a night when the rivers of rain finally gave way to clear skies and a fantastic night of mile racing. Huge thanks must go to Don Anderson and his Premier Timing team, who battled the raging elements to set up two separate photofinish stations in order to give every runner both a mile and 1500m time.

Race organiser Ben Noad had put his contacts book and powers of persuasion to good use in order to assemble a stunning line up for the final men's race of the night, sponsored by kit makers SOAR, which was billed as a challenge to go under four minutes.

To witness one sub-4 result would have been enough of a buzz – but in the end we were treated to four, thanks to the fast pace set by eventual winner, 24 year old Australian international Matthew Ramsden (right), who having just missed out on selection for the 1500m in Tokyo, was still in the UK following his appearance at the British Athletics Muller Grand Prix in Gateshead. There he clocked 3:37.98 to finish fifth in the 1500m, won by eventual Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who, incidentally, became the youngest man to break the four-minute mile at just 16.

The final mile race (of eleven) at Wimbledon Park featured not only Ramsden, but several Irish internationals, including second placed U23, Darragh McElhinney from Co. Cork, who clocked 3:58.20, and had run a 1500m PB a few days earlier at the BMC Grand Prix in Loughborough, in a race which also included HW's Charlie Eastaugh. Fellow Irishman, U23 Brian Fay, finished in fourth in 3:58.91. Between them in third place, GB international Jack Rowe of Aldershot, Farnham and District, finished in 3:58.76. All but Ramsden ran PBs, including Charlie – up against McElhinney once more – who clocked 4:06.55.

The fastest woman of the night was another Irish athlete, Roisin Flanagan, who clocked 4:32.77 – just outside the SOAR women's challenge time of 4:30 – in an earlier race.


Below, the skies cleared for all but the unlucky runners in Race 5, who were caught in a sudden deluge; and by the final race conditions were friendly enough for HW's Charlie Eastaugh, along with all bar the winner, Matthew Ramsden, to run a PB. Thanks to Mark Hookway (as always!) for the photographs.

Watching and waiting to present the prizes to the fastest man and woman was our Chairman, Dave Clarke, who has lent his name to the Club's mile event since it was first staged as an U20 race at the Young Athletes Meeting in 2012, the unforgettable year of the London Olympics. 'It was brilliant to watch just under 200 athletes strive to run mile pbs, to applaud a new stadium record, and see four athletes ducking under four minutes!', he says.

Even though the days when tracks and distances were measured in yards is long gone, the mile is still considered such a special event that it is the only non-metric distance recognised by the IAAF in terms of records.

There is still a glamour about a mile event, thanks to the romance of the quest to break the 4-minute barrier, finally achieved by Roger Bannister in 1954.

'No matter what level one competes at, athletics is about challenging oneself – how fast can I run, how far can I jump or how far can I throw?' says Dave. 'On the track there have always been two supreme goals: running the 100m in under 10.0 seconds or running the mile in under four minutes. For many decades people believed these were unattainable but slowly, surely, athletes got closer and closer to achieving the impossible until eventually the impossible was achieved and heroes were born.

‘For distance runners, running four laps of the track in under four minutes was just such a challenge – until Roger Bannister showed it could be done. Since that day in 1954, many British athletes have followed in his footsteps but to go under 4 minutes still lays down the same kind of challenge as Mount Everest does to a climber. It takes years of dedication and hard work, plus the help of many fellow athletes and a good coach. It is still seen as the mark of a good middle distance runner, and 'there is a satisfying symmetry about running four laps of the track (at least of the old 440 yard track) within four minutes'.

Dave set his own best time of 3:56.9 for the mile at Crystal Palace in 1982. So what does he remember of that race? 'Everything!' he says. 'Personally it was very satisfying, because I was not a miler, I was a cross country runner who tried to get stronger over the winter season and faster in summer. It was a cycle. My belief was always that the faster I could be over the mile or the 1500m, the better I would be over longer distances.

‘On the night, with 200m to go, I found myself surrounded by all the distance runners I aspired to be like, and we all looked at each other and thought we could get shifting and take on these milers! A lot of 5km and 10km runners went under or around 4 minutes that night. The race was won by Richie Harris of the USA, and I was second. I felt so strong and it was great fun!'

'To run a great mile you have to balance speed and endurance’, he says. ‘You can have all the speed in the world, but it’s no good if you can’t keep it going, on the other hand you can over-do the endurance side and become too heavy and slow. Individuals have different strengths: the classic contrast was Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett (both athletes held the mile record, swapping from Coe to Ovett and back to Coe in an amazing nine days in the summer of 1981). Coe naturally had the endurance. He won the English Schools 3000m at 16, so went looking for speed, while Ovett started out as a 400m runner (winning the English Schools title at that distance) and went looking for endurance. Somewhere in the middle you want the two things to meet.

'When I was a kid at school, I was one of those athletes who could keep going for a long time, but wasn’t expected to be good over the shorter distances, so there was always something wonderful about getting faster and faster on the track, and proving people wrong, honing that speed and then making it count at the end of a race!'

The Dave Clarke Mile Extravaganza, 28 July, Wimbledon Park Full results