COVID-19 inspires unusual running feats

The pandemic may have temporarily shut down racing in most parts of the world, but if anything, it has challenged runners to post more fun and creative running accomplishments. For example, the 4:37 mile run by North Carolina University track coach Dylan Sorensen while dribbling a basketball – a world record by 15 seconds, and on his 30th birthday (May 15), no less.

But the record only stood for two months before 16-year-old Tennessee Tremain of Guelph, Ont. took it down, running 4:33.9. The 2019 ofsaa champion over 3,000m, a serious basketball player before making running his main sport, says he practised for several weeks before attempting the record, inspired by Sorensen’s accomplishment. “When I realized my [outdoor track] season wasn’t going to happen, I decided that it was an interesting goal that I could go for,” says Tremain.

Or consider the Slow Mile Challenge, in which runners had to post their slowestpossible mile, but without stopping or walking (they had to maintain a cadence of at least 150 steps per minute to be considered running), courtesy of Citius Mag’s David Melly. This gave rise to some very funny – and long – videos. Melly, who has a PB of 4:08, kicked things off with a 19:18 mile, but was put to shame by U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials second-place finisher Molly Seidel (who boasts a PB of 4:46), posting a time almost twice as slow. See all results at #SlowMileChallenge.

And the ever-popular Beer Mile World Classic, held virtually between June 21 and 27, saw the American and women’s world records broken. The men’s and women’s U.S. teams were declared the victors, and 2019 bmwc champion Allison Grace Morgan of Bend, Ore. set a new women’s world record in 6:16.5. Chris Robertson broke his own American record i n 4:38.7. Phil ParrotMigas and Katie Robertson were the top Canadians, with times of 5:09 and 7:04 (a PB). None of the participants got close to Canadian Corey Bellemore’s world record of 4:33.6. (Bellemore was injured and did not participate.)— CR