Clinger, who was in junior high at the time, attended that event and determined that he wanted to run a four-minute mile someday. The school even had a T-shirt printed: “Run, Miles.” Miles’ time was 4:04.53.

In 2012, Miles Batty, who had just set the collegiate indoor record of 3:54.54 in Seattle, attempted to repeat Padilla’s mark on BYU’s track. No one has done it since then, although there have been at least a couple of attempts. With fellow Olympian Henry Marsh rabbiting the first 1,000 meters, Padilla clocked 3:57.23. That year, Doug Padilla, a two-time Olympian at 5,000 meters who had graduated from BYU in 1981, took the suggestion of a newspaper columnist and arranged to have a special mile run during a BYU track meet with the specific intent to become the first to break four minutes on Utah soil. Still, despite all those accomplished runners, no one had run a sub-four mile on a Utah track until 1983. BYU’s Conner Mantz is one of the best distance runners in the world.The list does not even include Olympians Jason Pyrah and Henry Marsh, who managed the feat only after leaving BYU. The mile is still contested in indoor collegiate meets.īons, who ran a 3:55.45 mile in Seattle in January, and Clinger are the eighth and ninth BYU athletes to run sub-four miles, and most of them have occurred indoors.

Also, the mile is no longer contested in collegiate outdoor competitions it was replaced by the 1,500 decades ago when the sport went metric (it’s about 109 meters short of a mile).

For one thing, Utah’s elevation - 4,597 feet in Provo - means thinner air, which means less oxygen for runners.įor qualifying times, the NCAA deducts four to five seconds for times at altitude - that’s how debilitating altitude can be on runners who are already deprived of oxygen during their efforts. There are several reasons that Utah has seen only one sub-four mile despite being home to BYU, which has actually produced more standout runners than quarterbacks over the years.

The Crawling Wood by Casey Lucas