unironedman

‘Every day, Josh Kerr writes down the time. Three minutes 43.13 seconds. And every day he is working to render it redundant…

That day will come, he hopes, on July 18 at the London Diamond League meeting, when the 28-year-old intends to beat Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record for the mile.

Project 222 is what he and his team call it – 222 seconds being what he needs to target to usurp a mark that has stood for 27 years…’

And so begins the BBC article which you can find here. Eagle-eyed amongst you will of course spot that 222 seconds equates to 3.42, and so it’s all really a bit of handy hokum to hang your hat on. Alliterative nonsense aside, I suspect he will be doing well to get below 3.45, never mind 3.42. Josh Kerr is a phenomenal athlete, and he does not lack for confidence either. He seems to have got the better (for now) of his regular sparring partner, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, but in fairness to the Norwegian wunderkind, he has had recent operation on his Achilles and is busy rehabbing and getting back into racing (and no doubt plotting the downfall of Kerr at their next meeting).

The current world record holder for the mile is Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj set way back in 1999 in Rome. It will take some beating. Josh sits at number 6 on the all-time list, with 3.45.34. His nemesis, Ingebrigtsen, is at number 3, with 3.43.73, so no doubt this is yet another incentive for the Scot. Middle-distance legends Noureddine Morceli and Steve Cram are also in the top ten, but we should acknowledge that the mile has been superseded by the 1,500m as a recognised athletics meet distance (and interestingly enough, it was never an Olympic distance, even at the inaugural 1896 games). It goes some way towards explaining why the list is peppered with famous names stretching back to 1985.

But let us return to Josh Kerr, and his preparation for the big day. Because it turns out we have a LOT in common.

Josh Kerr: bespoke spikes designed to maximise his biomechanics.
unironedman: fancy new runners with carbon rods. CHECK!

Josh Kerr: a specially designed speed suit.
unironedman: my decent shorts from Decathlon, plus a tight-fitting top to reduce drag. CHECK!

Josh Kerr: having his physio move in to his Albuquerque home.
unironedman: buying a Swiss ball from Sports Direct. CHECK!

Josh Kerr: parents John and Jill flying out from Scotland to stay with him.
unironedman: (my Mum, who lives next door) “Were you out running again? In this heat? Don’t forget to cut the grass…” CHECK!

Josh Kerr: ice baths lasting the exact duration of the race.
unironedman: jumping into the lake during a run for a couple of minutes, if the weather allows it. CHECK!

Josh Kerr: an ‘altitude room’ being rigged up in his bedroom.
unironedman: will run up a hill sometimes, even if it’s not hill repeat day. CHECK!

And here’s the clincher for all you cynics out there who think I am stretching the point further than I did my poor hamstrings of late…

Josh Kerr: Mile Race, Diamond League Meeting, London, 18th July.
unironedman: 5k, Coral Leisure Centre, Arklow, 18th July.

CHECKMATE!

Of course, Josh’s prep is meticulous, and he doesn’t have 58-year old hamstrings twanging away like dueling banjos. Predictions? Oh, I dunno. I jinxed my whole adventure when I booked the race before I was halfway through the programme; nor did I put in the required physio work to coax the body out of its slow-running shell into the world of 4 minute kilometre pace. I’m not really one for predictions. But, seeing as you asked: I reckon neither of us will succeed.

Hicham El Guerrouj is the greatest middle-distance runner ever. He holds six of the ten fastest ever 1,500m times, and four of the ten mile times. His list of achievements is astonishing. And his mile time is quite a bit faster than Kerr’s. In Kerr’s favour, he has a lot of tech backing him up (see above), plus pacers, which should help. But there are over 2.2 seconds to be found somewhere. That’s a chunk of time at that pace. If my maths is correct (and I admit it may be flawed), then I estimate you could cover about 16 metres in those couple of seconds, going at world record pace. For context, top-level sprinters doing 100m cover that distance in about 1.6 seconds.

If you finished 16 metres behind someone, even in your local parkrun, you could not say you weren’t soundly beaten. So Josh has set himself up for a big fall here. But, as I say, he is nothing if not confident. Cocky, even. I wish him well. I grew up in a time when the giants of the world stage were all Brits: Ovett, Cram and Coe. Kerr is Scottish first, I suspect, but he obviously dons a Great Britain singlet when he competes. (Fun fact: he’s spent so much time Stateside, he now speaks with a strange Scots/American drawl).

And while I’m here, I must mention Irish legend Ciara Mageean. She sits at number seven on the women’s all-time mile record list with 4:14.58 (July 19, 2025, London). She also holds the parkrun women’s world record, set in Belfast three years ago. She was diagnosed with Stage Four Cancer in the last year, and the prognosis is gloomy. A glittering career cut so cruelly short is just a pox. Not just a phenomenal athlete, but a wonderful human being. It is the sort of context that makes one’s troubles seem rather trifling.

So, to conclude: following the hamstring tweak on the 16th of June, I took the week off. I was itching to get out again, but surprised myself by holding out ’til Tuesday, when I managed over 5k at a very modest pace. I followed up with a similar run the next evening, and something even shorter on Thursday. It’s been a hot week, as anyone in these Isles knows, unless you have been living under an incredibly large rock. So hydration is important, and I have been doing a little foam rolling. I have also bought a Swiss ball and plan to get back to a short programme targeting the legs, and in particular, the glutes, hips, groins, hamstrings and Achilles. I took Friday off, and managed a 10k in just over an hour on Saturday, and then on a hot and breezy Sunday morning, with heavy legs, I did 11k at a slightly faster pace. I even threw in a pacey few hundred metres towards the end to see how the hamstrings would respond. I can’t say they enjoyed it, but neither did they explode.

This (to return to the prediction I made up above) is why I don’t think I have any chance of getting near 20 minutes in my attempt. I not only lost a week in a fairly short programme, but I have lost the following week in terms of repeats. And I suspect any attempt to get near 4 minute/km pace next week would see another breakdown in the hamstrings. So, I think the attempt is holed below the waterline. I hope to at least toe the line (which is not the correct use of the phrase, but I suppose it fits) on the same day as Josh. But by then, he’ll know his fate.

Best of luck, Mr. Kerr, and godspeed.

But if you’re in the habit of saying prayers, send them to Ciara.

Some stuff below. The tweet is from a fun account called Ceefaux (@ceefaux) who do witty (mis)takes on TV listings. A certain knowledge of the original Ceefax would probably be handy, but not essential!