The Mature Runner
By David Summerfield
I just can’t not keep talking about those three Ingebrigtsen brothers. Looks like they haven’t stopped running yet. That TV series they were featured in several years ago (Team Ingebrigtsen?) well, here’s the next version. I didn’t realize that the past series was just documenting their preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. So, of course, they’re doing the same now for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Jakob (the youngest) set another world record since I last looked, the indoor 1500 meter, in 3:30:60. He still holds the WR for the 2km (4:43.13) and the outdoor 2 mile (7:54:10). And I found out there are 4 other siblings: Kristoffer, Martin, Ingrid, and William.
Here they are in Düsseldorf, Germany showing how to block the lanes! via worldathletics.org
In reading about these amazing Norwegians, I couldn’t help but smile about Jakob getting married recently to his longtime girlfriend, and to celebrate, he went for the WR Beer Mile record. I’d forgotten about the event. I highlighted it many years ago, and here it came back into the spotlight.
Beer mile regulations: at least one 12oz bottle of beer per lap, minimum of 5% ABV, and off you go. So, Jakob took off as part of his bachelor party. What amazed me was this story was written up by his “other” elder brother Kristoffer (how many are there??). Anyway, Jakob ran a 5:22, far off the official record of 4:28. And it was a party on the track. Other family members did the same beer run. Their choice of beer included Corona and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The WR holder (Canadian Corey Bellemore) gave away his secret – you’ve got to get rid of the burps in the 1st 100 meters of each lap after downing the beer, but not “deep” burps – those lead to puking. So, there’s a worthy challenge, oh BSWD’ers.
Start of a Beer mile runningmagazine.ca
To finish off this article of world records, the next article online showed how an AI robot also ran a WR. What? You’ve got to look it up to believe it. A Chinese start-up created a robot called H-1, who can “run” 3.3 meters/second. His (its) specks: height – 5’11”, weight – 104 pounds. So, it is a lightweight, but my height. My calculation is it can run a 440 yard track in 2 minutes (8:00 minute mile). If you watch the video of this guy/metal thing running, it does sorta give me this weird feeling. It can also dance, walk up and down stairs, and luckily for now – it really looks like a hightech robot – nothing close to being human….yet. With that – happy running, and just think you have a training partner just waiting to challenge you on the track 🙂
Just think, you might meet one of these Unitree robots as you walk down the street someday. therobotreporrt.com
