Hoka One (Heck of a) One Mile

By Jarrett Felix

It’s a well-known fact at this point that I’m a running nerd. So naturally, when I heard that Kyle Merber and the lesser-known Brendan Barrett were holding a race on Long Island, a short drive from my new residence in New York, I was already scheduling the trip months in advance. Before last night, I had only seen one sub 4 mile in person during my entire watching running career (earlier this year at the Armory when Pablo Solares did it). Now I have seen a grand total of eight.

The appeal of these types of races is the proximity the fans have to the athletes. And the event certainly fulfilled that potential. On the drive in, I shouted at a car full of people (that didn’t really care) that Kerri Gallagher was warming up on the road alongside us. As I waited for my girlfriend to park, essentially the entire men’s mile field emerged from inside St. Anthony’s school and started their warm up just a few feet away from where I stood paralyzed on the phone.

A few community races were finishing up on the track as we arrived. I got a noisemaker at the front door from a Hoka employee with an accent I couldn’t recognize. After a brief attempt to watch from the stands, we trekked around the outer lanes of the track to the 200m mark, our best hope at a good view of the race as the home stretch was rapidly filling.

A few top runners did stride right by us, including Jack Bolas like six different times. He has the same spikes as my friend Josh, a fact I never would have learned watching a live stream or sitting in the stands. When Kyle Merber first entered the track, he got a flurry of well-deserved cheers as the local hero. When Peter Callahan entered the track, I was the only one that cheered. I felt pretty proud because 1) he heard me and 2) he looked at me and I got the chance to give the bewildered Princeton grad a thumbs up.

First, the women raced with Rachel Schneider toeing the field through quickly and leaving a gap to the pack. She dropped out right in front of us at 1k and we were amazed by un-tired she was, easily speaking to us about her surprise the pack didn’t go with her. The race developed into a three woman pack headed into the final bend with World Championship qualifier Kerri Gallagher continuing her impressive year at the front. Heather Kampf looked poised to challenge heading into the home stretch, but Gallagher answered her move. Meanwhile, just behind, Brooks’ Amanda Eccleston was sitting in third, looking poised to strike. From the other side of the track, I was pointing and shouting Brooks girls got this with 100m-75m to go. But it wasn’t easy. Gallagher fought the whole way, answering the surges, before Eccleston finally burst away over the final 30 or so to take the victory by a nose in 4:29.99.

After watching the run, we placed bets on how fast the men’s race would be. I put the over under at 3:58.00 and we got two overs and one exactly 3:58 bet in our first three guesses. It was a fairly humid day even though the weather was cool by 9 o’clock for race time. The build up to the race had billed it as not only an attempt for the first sub 4 mile on the island in 17 years, but also a go at the Long Island record of 3:53.39 by former world record holder Noureddine Morceli in 1998. Although some of the guys in the field had PRs in this range (including Merber) I thought that kind of time seemed far-fetched. I was honestly just hoping the race wouldn’t dawdle enough that sub 4 was lost.

They announced Merber last to a blaze of cheers and an amped crowd cheated closer and closer to the track. I couldn’t help but notice I was standing in almost the exact same spot I had been when he ran his famous 3:35 at Swarthmore. When the gun sounded, Declan Murray, the rabbit, took to the front and Kyle strung up right behind him. It was a brilliant move from the meet director. Despite the fact that Merber is a great kicker, a strong tactical runner and many of his best performers have come from running mid pack, he took up a position at the front to send a message to the field that he wanted this race to be fast. Even if it meant he was leaving the door open for him to be a sacrificial lamb to another runner’s glory.

The announcer said 57.2 at 400m, but from we were standing I have no way to confirm or deny this (and of course there is a huge difference between 400 and 409), but regardless it was clearly quick. The group continued to press with Merber, Heath and Torrence (plus the rabbit Murray) breaking away from a pack of other sub four minute men. Things didn’t slow down much at 800m (the announcer said something about 1:53, but again I have no idea what the split was) and when Murray dropped out at the 1k mark, he was dead tired. Naturally, we told him good job (he did fantastic) and he said something along the lines of “they’re going so freakin fast”. To be fair it was hard to hear him over the noise and his breathing (plus he might have an accent, he’s Irish right? I really wanted him to have the accent).

We turned our attention back to the race as Heath was now in command, ready to collect the $400 bonus for being in the lead at 1309m. Merber was falling off a bit after taking on the quick pace early on. By the back stretch it became a two man race between Heath and David Torrence. Heath, who helped make a variety of races exciting in his career, including the 3:32 by Jager this year, pushed hard but Torrence didn’t budge. Finally, on the last straightaway, Torrence powered through to the finish, lost among a sea of cheering fans. We waited eagerly from our position to hear the official time, 3:53.9, and cheered with excitement before accepting the invitation to traverse onto the (Emily) infeld.

The atmosphere was electric with a sea of fans crowded around the timing board, counting the sub 4s. When Merber took the mic to make a post-race speech, that crowded quickly shifted from timing board to Merber who just seemed lost in a sea of adoring fans for the remainder of the night. Duncan Phillips and Ford Palmer walked by, completely unswarmed, and one turned to the other and said, “That’s the Merber line?”

“Yep, Merber line.”

I didn’t have much of an interest in fighting among the crowd to get a Merber autograph or picture (I commute every day into New York City, that’s enough crowds for one day). Besides my dream in these situations is to meet the guy (or girl), shake his hand and listen to him talk about running. I drifted past the crowd for Soratos and his Sonic socks, over to near Garrett Heath and Riley Masters. Masters had apparently given away his race spikes to a couple fans. Meanwhile, Heath was talking to some autograph seekers, uncorking some great quotes.

Somebody must have mentioned to him about how fast and strong he looked during the race. He told them, and I’m paraphrasing here, “That felt hard from the first steps.” Something that my girlfriend literally had just said to me after a race, but seemed like something a guy who just ran 3:54 shouldn’t be saying. It was a reminder that these guys are runners just like everybody else and probably do and say a lot of the same things your old college teammates would do. Later, a fan told Heath he wants to run the 5k like him, to which Heath, taking a bit of a sigh, said, “Well I’d like to run the 15, but they just keep pushing me up.” I was loving it.

Eventually, I moved on from awkwardly standing near Garrett Heath and noticed Stanford grad Mike Atchoo, standing in normal people clothes. It was a perfect disguise as he had managed to avoid all autograph and picture seekers. If he had ran the race, even if people had no idea who he was, he wouldn’t have been so lucky. I introduced myself, told him I was a fan, and briefly talked to him about his move to the east coast (joining NJ/NY) and the puns surrounding his last name. It’s embarrassing how nervous I was during the conversation.

Leaving the meet, we accidentally ruined Nike Oregon Project runner Treniere Moser’s chances of escaping the meet by asking for a picture. She was promptly swarmed by more fans. Our bad Treniere.

Overall, it was an amazing experience. It’s not very often you get to see some of the best athletes in the country, even the world, in what is practically your own backyard. And it was unreal how patient, generous and friendly all of these guys were. I mean, if it were me, eventually I would want to just get a cool down out of the way and stretch. Or at least have a few minutes to lay on the ground, feeling like utter garbage and trying not to vom. Seriously, after a hard race like all these guys just ran, I wouldn’t be in any sort of shape to sign somebody’s forehead (it happened).

It was a night of willing sacrifice, starting with Merber’s pseudo-pacing duties in the mile and ending with the athletes standing around signing autographs and taking pictures. But what makes the sacrifices even more incredible is the fact that, from what I could tell, the athletes didn’t feel like they were making any sacrifices at all.

So thanks to Kyle and Brendan and all the runners involved. I’ll see you guys next year.


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