WE ARE ALL MILERS

And the Mile is for everyone.

Jun 20, 2025

On June 26th in Paris, France the one and only Faith Kipyegon is going to try and break 4 in the mile. Yes, you read that right. The women’s world record is 4:07.64. So, breaking four is going to take a whole bunch of barriers being broken. Kipyegon knows this. That world record is HER world record after all. Do I think she’s going to do it? No. I don’t. Do I think she could? Yes. And more importantly, I know that if Faith isn’t the first woman that breaks 4 for the mile then one of the women or girls that watch Faith try will be. And that’s exciting. And inspiring. And motivating. And hopefully it’s what gets more people around the world to take on the mile distance.

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I know that the marathon gets the spotlight. I know that the half-marathon gets the numbers. I know that the 10K gets the love. And I know that the 5K gets all the fun. But the mile is best. I’m biased. Doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Give it a try. Go to a track or just run around your neighborhood. You can run a mile at the park. You can run a mile around a parking lot! Just make sure it’s when there are no cars around. And one of the best parts about racing a mile is that once you finish you are automatically a sub-something miler!

Back in 2015/16 we had access to an indoor track in Portland for a few weeks before it was shipped off to it’s permanent home. So, what was my idea for how to use it? A Night of Miles obviously!

You run 11:32? That makes you a sub-12 miler. 6:12? Sub-7 miler! Were you a kid that grew up in New Jersey and trained for close to 15 years in the hopes of breaking 4 only to run 4:03? Well, you don’t get to call yourself a Sub-4 milers but you do get to call yourself a Sub-5 miler! Now, did you run 3:59.99? That .01 under 4 minutes is enough to call yourself Sub 4 miler forever!

Back when I was coaching high school and putting on events - with Coach Bennett the Greater aka tammie bennett - we used to host a series of Twilight Miles throughout the Summer. I’d rabbit every single heat. We’d have an untimed heat. Then a sub 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 and we even allowed for a Sub 4 heat if needed. We’d blast music and make sure everyone knew that if they were not warming up, racing or cooling down then they were expected to be cheering. It was a blast. We hosted Twilight Miles summer after summer in New Jersey.

The last year we hosted Twilight Miles in NJ before we moved to Oregon we finally got our SUB 4! The great Travis Mahoney is meters away from crossing the starting line under 4 minutes for the mile.

We even had a Beer Mile for some of the coaches and counselors aged 21 and older. If you’re not familiar with a Beer Mile it’s a simple premise. Start the stopwatch. Pound a beer. Run a 400m. Pound a beer. Run a 400m. Pound a beer. Run a 400m. Pound a beer. Run a 400m. Technically, that first 400m is 409 meters. Remember, one mile is 1609 meters. Anyway, a beer mile is really hard and really gross. But it pales in difficulty compared to the cruel and inhuman Chocolate Milk Mile. We hosted two of these fiascos at our sleep away cross country camps. Pour one out for Bennett Running Camp. The Chocolate Milk Mile… what can I say? I’ve never and I truly mean NEVER felt worse after a race than I did after a Chocolate Milk Mile. Premise is the same as a beer mile. But it’s big red plastic cups filled with whole milk chocolate milk. It was a horror show. It was also really fun. But mostly a horror show. I’d do it again.

Me. Hurting. Chocolate Milk Mile fully underway. My face is a pretty good representation of the spiritual crisis I’m going through after three big cups of chocolate milk and knowing I still have 800 meters and another cup to go.

And when I started working with Nike in 2014 we talked about how to best end our first season of NRC in NYC. Some wanted to have a big party at a bar. Some wanted to rent out a big restaurant. I said we should host a night of miles at Icahn Stadium. And we did. And it was epic. Brutally cold and badass. When I left NYC to move to Oregon my last night was… you guessed it… another night of miles at Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island in Manhattan. It was a hot and humid night. Basically the opposite of our first night of miles back in December. But it was just as badass. It was seriously one of the more special nights I’ve had coaching. The joy and love and passion and courage and vulnerability that makes sport so great was on full display mile heat after mile heat after mile heat.

This was my last night in NYC with NRC. I was flying out the next day for Oregon. We closed out my time with Nike NYC the only way that made sense to me - with the community trying their best over the course of a mile. Here is the last straightaway with the clock tick tocking away and the barrier this badass athlete was going for seeming to be maybe… too hard to smash. Well, she smashed it anyway. One of my favorite moments of coaching,

Last year I was looking over the entries for the girls mile at Nike Outdoor Nationals. That’s the HS track & field nationals championships that Nike hosts at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. I started counting how many of the girls had already broken 5 that were in the race. Then I started to count how many girls were above 5 but close… real close to breaking the barrier. I spoke with my boss at work and said that there may be more girls that break 5 at this one meet than there have ever been at one meet. Wouldn’t it be cool if we made some t’s and handed them out at the finish line and every girl that broke the sub 5 barrier got a shirt that said MILER on the front and SUB 5 on the back?

So we did. And bonus… Cole Hocker who was only a few weeks away from making the US Olympic team in the metric mile (1500m) and then going on to win the Olympic Games was sitting by the finish line. I told Cole that I was pretty sure the young milers would probably appreciate getting the t’s from him rather than me. So, would he mind standing and handing out shirts for 45 minutes? And that’s what he did.

Making sure the t’s looked right before I drove down to the University of Oregon for the Nike Outdoor Nationals last year.

The mile is for everyone. It’s for running specialty store owners from all over the world and it’s for supply chain management geeks and it’s for runnerds that work for Nike Running and it’s for new runners and lifelong runners and it’s for young runners and it’s for runners that have grown up. How do I know this? Because over the last year I’ve hosted Miles for so many different people. And every single person that covered the 1609 meters that makes up a mile walked away as a Sub-something miler. And they also walked away with a MILER t-shirt. I’m a sucker for t-shirts. It’s the one thing I ask that we have when I get asked to do these events. Well, t-shirts and music. My music. Sorry, not sorry. If I’m standing around cheering and coaching for a couple of hours it’s going to be my music we listen to. Don’t worry. I have fantastic taste.

So, here’s the challenge I’ve got for you. On Wednesday, June 24th there’s going to be a NEW GUIDED RUN in the Nike Running app. It’s called the MILE RACE. And that’s exactly what it is. Press start and the app will countdown 3-2-1 and the Mile Race begins. I’ll coach you. You race. Have fun. Give your best. Maybe even break a barrier. Same goals that Faith Kipyegon’s got. Same goals that kid from NJ had. You know the kid. He’s the one wearing the Sub 5 shirt. It may not be the Sub 4 t-shirt he wanted. But it’s still the shirt he’s most proud of.

Action shot of me racing a mile a few years ago on the Michael Johnson track on Nike’s campus here in Oregon. I did it alone with my wife and kids watching. This hurt. But it hurt so good. Once the post effort hangover dissipated I was able to admit that it was some serious fun.

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Thank you for reading all the way to here or thank you for at least scrolling all the way to here. Granted, if all you did is scroll to here then you missed out on me sharing some earned wisdom from chugging an excessive amount of chocolate milk while trying to race. So scroll back up and earn your way down here by reading your way down. Okay, you made it. Thank you for reading the newsletter. And thank you for subscribing and for sharing the newsletter and for tapping that ❤️ LIKE button and maybe, just maybe even leaving a comment. And thank you to all the paid subscribers for supporting this newsletter and making it possible for me to keep pumping them out. Thank you all so much.

Cheers,

Coach Bennett

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