Putting it in 100m times is great perspective. This is essentially a healthy amateur athlete running at nearly full tilt for 4 minutes straight.

from https://www.letsrun.com/news/2026/07/chasing-342-inside-josh...

  In terms of actual personal bests, Kerr’s fastest mile is the 3:45.34 he ran to win at Prefontaine in 2024. But his 1500 personal best of 3:27.79, which he ran in the Olympic final two months later, is the superior performance.

His PR for 1500m is 3:27.79 and he ran 3:27.7 for 1500m today and then ran another 109+ metres.

There were two men running in front of him for a while (and both just stopped eventually and just dropped off) - was it to "pull" him in their slipstream?

fyi that video is region locked to the US only https://polsy.org.uk/stuff/ytrestrict.cgi?agreed=on&ytid=htt...

Other source: https://www.reddit.com/r/trackandfield/comments/1uzxv0m/josh...

He also came close to the world record at 1500 m which is at 3:26:00, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1500_metres

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The shoes definitely help, but there are all sorts of other innovations that get far less press.

More is known about optimal fuelling, hydration and sleep. Improve those and you improve your daily training. Better quality training compounds and allows you to reach closer to your talent ceiling.

Kerr also had a system set up so his bedroom had less oxygen than the rest of his house (to mimic sleeping at altitude).

He had two pacers breaking the air for the first 1,000m (although he had to do it himself the rest of the way, which was bloody impressive). Meant he could relax mentally for the first 2.5 laps and didn't have to focus on pace. I think El Guerrouj set the previous WR in a race without pacers.

They also had pacing lights on the track which helps the pacers run at an even pace.

And there are all sorts of innovations like taking sodium bicarbonate to reduce muscle acidity, nitrates to dilate the veins and increase blood flow to muscles and high doses of caffeine to reduce the rate of perceived exertion.

As someone else mentioned, track surfaces are generally a little bouncier now than they used to be.

  Dr Kyle works out the precise dietary requirements to support my training while my performance chef Jameel Austin does the shopping and makes the meals to ensure I implement that. Everything I put into my body is cooked by Jameel. He also works in a restaurant as a pastry chef – that’s not a food on my menu – but he comes to our house every Monday and Thursday to prepare the meals.

  We also do an eight-day coffee fast before races. A coffee about three hours before the race should then have more impact. Regular blood-work informs whether any supplements are recommended by Dr Kyle. Supplements that I might have at different times of the year include vitamin D, omega-3 or beta-alanine.

  Like most runners now in almost every distance and endurance sport, I will also take sodium bicarbonate before a race, but I never bother in training. Sodium bicarbonate is essentially baking soda and has long been known to buffer hydrogen ions and thus delay muscle fatigue. Its usage, however, has increased over recent years after it was produced in a gel that helps to bypass the gut and thus reduce the risk of gastro issues.

>Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed

Surely raw human potential cannot have progressed very much at all in the (at most) two generations represented by the 27 years the record stood.

Granted, the population is significantly higher, so it is more statistically likely that we've produced a genuinely faster human than existed 27 years ago.

I think it's fairly well accepted that most of the records being broken now are down to tech, nutrition, and aids. Springier shoes, mechanical pacers, better 'fuels', deeper understanding of exercise periodization, etc.

Give the old record runner all of the same boosts, the same training, I can't imagine he'd be noticeably slower, perhaps within hundreths, but I'd bet within a tenth or two.

The mention of pacemakers made me wonder if you could have some light marker on the track to show the ideal pace you should be keeping as well.

If you can find the human equivalent of the rabbit for greyhounds then maybe even more could be achieved.

  [Josh Kerr's coach, Danny] Mackey was set to have a meeting with representatives from Wavelight on Tuesday to discuss the pace. He said they have yet to lock in specific splits, but Kerr told LetsRun.com in April that “an even split or a slightly negative split, I think, is the way to do it.”

  3:43.13 mile pace is 55.45 per 400, which would mean 1:50.90 at 800 if they were to go for even splits.

  Mackey says he hopes the pace is pretty even and “hopefully he’s got something left in the end.”

If it's just the singlet and the shoes you would expect lots of other runners to get close too. It's surprising that the previous record stood for 27 years if the equipment has been progressing since then.

I'm sure the track surface and shoes are important, but if "singlet" means the clothing he is wearing? It's really hard to believe that makes a material difference.

The mile record has dropped due to equipment (tracks and shoes) and pacing innovation since the very first. And I repeat this all the time but nobody listens: modern shoes are fast because of the special foam and light weight, the carbon plates have very little to do with it, experiments have cut those plates in half and running economy remains unchanged. they likely provide important structural support for the thick foam, and carbon makes sense to use for that for weight reasons, on a budget plastic is fine.

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The pacers have to obey the same rules as every other runner. They start at the starting line, they can't run inside the lines, etc.

One of the reasons that Eliud Kipchoge's "Breaking 2" marathon wasn't a legal world record was that teams of pacers would rotate in, take a break, then rotate in again. This way he could have pacers with him almost the entire way. But in a real world record attempt, the winner is always running by themselves in the last part of the race because all of the pacers have been left behind or dropped out -- by definition of a world record, they can't keep up to the end.

No, there is no official record with and without pacers. And arguably, that's why the Olympics is a bit rarer for middle- and long-distance world records (because you aren't allowed official pacers). You could probably track it down though.

I don't know, but define a pacer ?! Someone with better ability to pace than yourself? Someone of lesser endurance willing to run a half race at a pace they can't sustain, but you can? What's the difference between having a pacer and another world class competitor trying to beat you that brings out your best ?

What about slip streaming? Should we regard records differently where the winner stayed with the pack until a final sprint as opposed to front running the whole race?

Pace runners aka rabbits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacemaker_(running)

East African dominance over track events has largely ended. The 1500m world record is held by a West African, while the mile and 3000m world records are now held by white Europeans. The 5000m at the recent World Championships had no East African medalists, and the 10000m had just one. Same goes for the most recent Olympic 5000m.

Compare this with the Olympic and World Championship podiums for the 2000s and 2010s; I don't believe a non-East-African-born athlete won a single 5000/10000m medal for 20 years straight.

No. The 1500m (which is run frequently) and mile world records were held by the same person prior to this, and while the Mile record was considered slightly "worse", maybe one or two people since it was set(Bernard Lagat, Asbel Kiprop) could have beaten it if they focused more on running it, but not really a guarantee.

Jakob Ingebretsen was the other who likely could have beaten it, but he's also been hit by a fair number of Achilles issues, including undergoing surgery this past year.

Kerr's performance was very impressive, and, as he continually reiterates, the team he assembled is what led to it aside from his potential and dedication. He set a PR of 2.68 seconds (two years ago) and before that his closest time was 6.61 seconds away. Granted the mile isn't run frequently, but his 1500m times last year weren't very indicative of hitting the WR either - but also goes to show middle distance and up is often run to win as opposed to set your fastest time similar to shorter distances.

I'm sure the record standing so long is partially down to the fact the mile isn't run at major championships, although the middle distances like 800m and 1500m are more of an open field and not dominated by East Africans like longer distances such as 5k and 10k (Josh Kerr is already an Olympic silver medallist, finishing behind a white American and ahead of an Ethiopian-American).

Because most humans don't really try, not limited to east africans.