50 Years Ago, Pre's 2-Mile Record (8:41.5)

[Conor Dary]

https://www.dyestat.com/gprofile.php...news_id=572532

[G.Ahearn]

So, if he ran 2 miles plus 16 feet, what was his time at the 2 mile mark??

[huntinwr]

So, if he ran 2 miles plus 16 feet, what was his time at the 2 mile mark??

Let's see...a little over 5 yards, let's give him 0.6, so 8:40.9, equal to Virgin! LOL

[Cannon]

Where did the 16 feet come from?

[aaronk]

Best thing about that record was his splits---4:25 & 4:16!!
With a 57 last 440!!

[Atticus]

Where did the 16 feet come from?

from original article:

Several weeks after the race, officials from track's governing body came to Corvallis to verify the record, survey the track and make sure Prefontaine had run the full distance.
He hadn't.
Instead, the track measured two feet too long. Pre had run two miles, 16 feet.

[gh]

I've never heard that story and I have some doubts about it, just because I can't see the National HS Federation being in the business of sending out ratification crews.

[Conor Dary]

It might be believable if it was a contemporary article...and not 25 years later...

[El Toro]

I've never heard that story and I have some doubts about it, just because I can't see the National HS Federation being in the business of sending out ratification crews.

The very detailed description gives it a certain "truthiness" and I can believe that somebody distrusted the actual distance given comparabale performances.

According to the Corvallis Gazette-Times, the fastest previous two-mile at OSU's cinder track at Bell Field, near the high school track, was 8:56.1 by Chuck Schulz (Sellman Charles Schulz) of USC (best 4:11.8/8:53.8/13:53.6, 66-68). The OSU record was 8:46.1 by Dale Story, apparently once an NCAA cross country champion in bare feet in the snow!

If something like Prefontaine's time relative to those standards happened today, there would be doubt for sure.

It seems that Corvallis HS had a rubber asphalt track from at least 1968 becase Prefontaine ran his previous state 2 mile record in that year.

You'd hope that accuracy of layout for a synthetic track would be better than a HS grass/clay/cinders track that could "evolve" over the years but maybe somebody from the state school sports association did run a surveyor's wheel around to satisfy themselves that it wasn't a garbage time?

Maybe just ask Doug Binder directly where he sourced that story?