This is an email I wrote to the Road Runners' Club of America about an
article in their quarterly magazine for members of local running clubs
in the U.S. The article may possibly be viewed here:
http://issuu.com/rrcaexecdir/docs/cr-spring-lores?mode=window&pageNumber=2
but you may have to specify page 12. Or it may not work at all.
HARRY WYETH
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: "Bring Back the Mile" article
Date: Sat, 26 May 2012 00:57:40 -0700
From: Harry Wyeth <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
The Road Runners' Club of America would do well to forcefully reject the
proposition advanced in Duncan Larkin's article "Bring Back the Mile,
America's Distance". Although interesting, his suggestion is totally
wrong and misguided.
Mr. Larkin is trapped in the past. Our country is the only country
worth mentioning that clings to the outmoded "English" measurement
system. No one else in the entire world gives much of a hoot about the
mile, much less knows what one is. International track, the Olympics,
American college track, and almost all U.S. high school track has moved
on to the international 1500 meter (or 1600 m) standard. Why would one
want to introduce an unusual "mile" distance into a high school meet
with otherwise all-metric distances? Why would the author want to have
high schools in California reject the standard 1600 m distance, when all
colleges in the state use the 1500? And where will the money come from
to convert existing 400 m tracks back into 440 yards?
Please, let's not move backward, but become standardized with the rest
of the world. The mile is, thankfully, dead, at least in track events.
Let's keep it buried.
HARRY WYETH
