Shaheed vs. Rono in M55 mile record showdown?
Nolan Shaheed, the current M55 world record holder for the indoor (4:42.89) mile, has posted a fan note on the Henry Rono thread at letsrun.com. Nolan wrote on January 13: “I’ve been a great fan of yours ever since the 70s. You are my inspiration and I am glad to hear that you are endeavoring to set the record in the mile. As you know, it’s my endeavor too. It would be great for us to go for the record in the same race at the same meet at the same time. Maybe there is a race promoter out there who would be interested.” Henry replied 22 minutes later.
“I’m glad you come online to chat,” Henry posted. “Lets get on it next month on my birthday February 12, for a mile. By then I should have 165 lbs and should enough to roll around the track with you. Thanks again Nolan Shaheed I look forward to meet you.”
A later message urged Henry to consider entering one of the Hartshorne masters miles this Saturday at Ithaca, New York.
But yesterday, Henry replied: “I will wait for next time, I will pass this one. This week when weather cooparate with me,I will start speeding up my legs to gain competent for a mile race to meet good time; however,if it was a 5k road race could be fine. I need a 5k road for now.”
Still, wouldn’t it be cool to see Henry and Nolan go for it in the same race? The listed outdoor M55 world record for the mile is 4:40.4 by Australia’s Jack Ryan in December 1977 — one of the oldest masters records on the books. In 2000, Nolan set the M50 world outdoor record of 4:27.9.
Nolan lives in Pasadena, and Henry in New Mexico. Any chance of getting these guys to a meet between them?
4 Responses
The Drake Relays has a Masters Exhibition Mile on April 28th. Please send me Henry’s e-mail address so I can personally invite him.Nolan has run several times at Drake and the crowd there is Track savy and would go crazy for a race with these two legends in it.–
Henry can be reached at: ronorun_henry@msn.com
This address is publicly available on the letsrun.com message board.
Maybe in four years this will give Steve Scott something to shoot for.
There is some talk that Corning Inc. might sponsor Henry to come east for a three day weekend to do a workshop. If that came to fruition and it overlapped with our race, the Hartshorne Memorial masters Mile usually the third Saturday of January, maybe Henry and Nolan could compete in our 50’s elite race (now in its second year as a separate race).
Leave a Reply