Y ask: On March 3, 1938, Glenn Cunningham of Kansas ran a mile indoors at Dartmouth. His time of 4:04.4 would have lowered the day’s outdoor world record by two seconds. The 4:04 was an indoor best, of course. But not one for the record books. It came on a dreaded “oversized track” – illegal for U.S. record purposes.
Last weekend, Tony Young of Washington state ran a mile indoors in Seattle. His time of 4:08.6 crushed the previous American masters indoor record by more than two seconds. His performance will be consigned to the asterisk trash heap as well. It was on an oversized track – 307 meters to the lap. Separate lists for oversized-track marks have been maintained for decades. But maybe it’s time to chuck this statistical inequity. Just for yucks, I perused the “oversized” mile marks listed in Ed Gordon’s annual TAFWA All-Time World Indoor List booklet (blue pages for men, pink for women.) In the 2003 edition, the five fastest mile performers on an oversized track are Sydney Maree (3:53.79), Steve Scott (3:54.20), Don Paige (3:54.22), Ray Flynn (3:54.77) and John Walker (3:55.3). But check out their best miles indoors on standard (200m or less) tracks: Maree 3:52.40, Scott 3:51.8, Paige 3:58.3, Flynn 3:51.20 and Walker 3:52.8. Notice anything? Yeah, me too. Except for Paige, these studs ran faster on standard tracks with tight turns, usually banked. The average improvement going from oversized to standard size of the four cited: 2.5 seconds. OK, I’ll grant that this is a bogus comparison. Not enough data points. It also doesn’t take into account the more competitive fields these guys faced on the shorter tracks. But hey – maybe in the case of the mile, those banked whipsaw turns are an unfair advantage. Not so much for 600 racers, but likely for milers and longer. But who cares what stat freaks think? Ask any masters miler who’s the best ever indoors, and the honest answer is Tony Young. In fact, I asked the guy who lost the record. Twenty years ago yesterday, masters miler Bill Stewart entered an open race indoors at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and took third behind Earl Jones. Bill clocked 4:11 – now the listed American masters record. I e-mailed Bill a couple days after Young’s race, and he replied immediately: “I had not heard. If you are in contact with Tony, send my congratulations. I am happy someone finally ran faster. Re the track size -- it should not matter, but it probably will attract some attention and create some discussion. I think the IAAF does not reccognize times run on oversized tracks. But hey -- 4:08 is 4:08!!” Stewart noted that he thought he would run a faster mile outdoors at age 40, but “I got caught up running on the roads. Set American records at 15K and 25K but managed to run 3:52 -53 several times for the 1500.” His sub-4:10 mile never came. These marks aren’t chopped liver. More like rare caviar. Stewart continued: “Right now (at age 50), if I could run 5 minutes for the mile I would be pretty happy. Staying fit is easier than staying fast.” And what say the new (non)record claimant? Young wrote me: “Yes, it is a bummer about the track dimensions. But whatever the rules are, then so be it. The UW track felt amazingly quick as I was doing some strides. Or maybe it was because it was the first time I have worn spikes for a while?” He thinks he’ll go faster outdoors, of course – shooting for a sub-4:05 (as he told me in my masterstrack.com interview). He says he plans to run an 800/1000 on February 1 (again on the illegal UW track) and probably a 3000-meter tune-up on Feb. 15 for a masters 3000 exhibition at the USATF indoor open nationals in Boston. “(Then) maybe another mile if there is one -- if not, then come late April somewhere (outdoor on an oversized, downhill track!),” he writes from Redmond, Washington. History has a way of playing tricks on athletes’ plans, though. It would be beyond sad if Tony were unable to lower his outdoor masters best of 4:09.61 from last June. It would be sadder still if record-keeping authorities continued to ignore true bests. On March 12, 1938, Cunnigham set a "legal" world indoor mile record of 4:07.4 (lowering his previous world record by a second). But nobody would touch the "illegal" record of 4:04 for another 16 years. (And it was another Kansan, Wes Santee, who ducked under 4:04 indoors, going 4:03.8.) How many years will it be before an American masters runner beats 4:08.6 on a "legal" track? Ken Stone http://www.masterstrack.com (A link-annotated version of this note is on my blog at: http://www.masterstrack.com/blog/ )
