September 22, 2008 - Most professional track & field athletes have been racing meet after meet since May, beginning in their home countries, shifting to Europe for the Grand Prix circuit and then to Beijing for the Olympics. Once the Olympics are over, many of them go back to Europe for a couple more Grand Prix meets to take advantage of some more prize money-winning opportunities and then FINALLY they can go home and take a load off.
Except for the milers, that is. The milers are tempted to hold on just a couple more weeks for the 5th Avenue Mile in New York City. The 5th Avenue Mile is a miler’s dream: run down the streets of New York, from 80th Street to 60th Street. The course is mostly downhill and doesn’t make any turns. What does that mean? You get to run FAST.
And run fast they did. Olympians Lisa Dobriskey of Great Britain and Shannon Rowbury of the USA battled all the way to the end, with Dobriskey (one spot out of a medal in Beijing) edging Rowbury by 6 tenths of a second, 4:18.6 to 4:19.2. No those are not typos. They ran that fast. The times were the 2nd- and 3rd- fastest times ever on the course, only behind Patti Sue Plumer’s 1990 course record of 4:16.6.
Watch the race:
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