Tony Young of Redmond, Washington, turned 41 in April but hasn’t shown signs of slowing after his record-setting M40 debut in 2002. Saturday at the Seattle International Track & Field Classic, Tony lowered his own USA masters outdoor mile record to 4:07.25, breaking the 4:09.61 he ran at the same meet a year earlier. Tony described the race in an e-mail note to me the day after Father’s Day (and later sent photo of finish sprint, taken by John Kaiser). Tony is in red.

Tony wrote:
It was nice to get under the American Record, but I was very optimistic about running a few ticks faster. The workouts for the past month show me that something around (David) Moorcroft’s 4:02.53 (outdoor world record) time is doable, with the right conditions. It was awesome — and a little nerve racking — having so many friends and family members there. Thanks to my wife’s (Heather) e-mail campaign!
I was hoping that the top guys running in the Canadian Series (Blincoe, Thie and Pyra) would run the Seattle race, and I would just run off of them and try to hang on the last 400-500 meters. The field still had Dirks and Sorrensen (sub-4 milers), so I was hoping to ride along with them to the end.
Paul Keves (CNW and 4:02 miler) did a great job of getting us around the 800 in 60 and 2:01 (for me). We lost the momentum from the 1,000 to the 1,200 split, though (33-34 OUCH), and I just took off trying to at least get it under 4:05, but for whatever reason could not muster anything under 60 on the last lap. Quite shocked to be leading at all over this group and to be honest, was waiting for them to blow me away at the end! The crowd loved the 5-guys-within-a-second-of-each-other finish!
I know that I can get quicker, I just have to select the right race. I know it is a sour subject to some, but I need to draft most of the way to get down there. I have a tendency of relaxing too much on my own and losing the fast rhythm.
The next race is at the Hayward Classic in Eugene. A 3000 — because I love the variety — and a World Record Attempt in the 4×1500 with some of my California buds (Magill and Roman).
I just ended my base/transition period at the end of May, so I should be getting faster — with more rest and sharper intervals — this month and next.
Meanwhile, Young’s coach, Tom Cotner, adds his own take on the race:
Young passed Nick McFalls of the Nike Farm Team about 30m after the start of lap 4 and pulled away to a 15m lead down the back stretch. He entered the home accutane online straight with a 10m lead and held off a late charge by Jim Sorensen, also running with the Farm Team, to win in 4:07.25. Sorensen finished in 4:07.27 to lead a pack of three runners, all of whom finished under 4:08. The pace was aggressively fast at the beginning as the leaders went through the 400 in 59, the half in 1:58, but the pace had slackened to 3:04 at 3/4s. Ahman Dirks of Nike Portland was third in 4:07.75, followed closely by Canadian steeplechaser, David Milne, in 4:07.80. McFalls finished seventh in 4:09.27.
The results:
Event 3 Men 1 Mile Run
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Name Year Team Finals Points
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1 Young, Tony Club Northwest 4:07.25
2 Sorensen, Jim Nike Farm Team 4:07.27
3 Dirks, Ahman Unattached 4:07.75
4 Milne, David Kajaks TC 4:07.80
5 Tessman, Brock Rocky Mountain A 4:08.19
6 Liebowitz, David Rocky Mountain A 4:08.85
7 McFalls, Nick US Air Force 4:09.27
8 Collin, John Unattached 4:09.47
9 Pimentel, Isidro Nike Farm Team 4:12.55
10 Castle, Nathanael Club Northwest 4:18.10
11 Peterson, Sean Unattached 4:23.03