I saw some pretty fast members of the track team here doing “mile” repeats on the track last week. They were running four laps per interval. Now I know I’m being a stickler, but four laps of a 400m track is NOT a mile. 1609.344 meters is a mile. At 4 minute per mile pace, those 9.344 meters are worth 1.4 seconds, which is clearly not insignificant.
So in big track meets, is the race 1600m long, or one mile long?
-C
It all depends where they put the start and finish lines, doesn’t it?
Think about the 1500 meters race for a minute.
Yes, but nobody calls the 1500m “a mile”.
-C
My cousin runs HS track and she races the 1600, the 3200, and hurdles. So I think 1600m.
At every mile race I ever raced there was a curved white line 9 meters back from the normal start/finish line on the track. I’m sure these folks know they are not really doing a mile, but don’t care in training.
Chad
D. All of the above.
Inthe US, HS races the 1600m, but it’s synonymous with the mile. College generally races the 1500 and calls it that. Big carnivals (like millrose) can have mile races (like wanamaker). But in everyday language, I called myself a quarter miler, though I ran the 400m. In training, mile repeats are 1600m, no goofy backing up 9 meters. There;'s usually a waterfall on the track for when the actual “mile” is raced, but that’s hardly ever. Usually it’s 1500 or 1600.
What he said.
The key criteria is the distance. The number of laps is secondary. Better example maybe, indoor tracks: 11 laps to a mile on occasion (yeuckk). 
Every race I did in HS was 1,600 meters. Never was it called a mile.
Every race I did in HS was 1,600 meters. Never was it called a mile.
Were you referred to as a miler or a 1600 meter runner?
I know this is being terribly nit-picky, but in my mind 1600 meters shouldn’t be called a mile. It makes sense to me that most HS meets run 1600m, but at big “miles”, such as Wannamaker (mentioned above) and the Pre Classic, they actually run 1609 meters.
-C
“Were you referred to as a miler or a 1600 meter runner?”
In conversation we’d call it the mile (it rolls off the tongue easier), but the event was always a 1,600 m.
And yes, you’re being terribly nit-picky. Who cares? I’m sure if there’s a world record on the line they’ll make sure it’s the proper distance.
And yes, you’re being terribly nit-picky. Who cares? I’m sure if there’s a world record on the line they’ll make sure it’s the proper distance.
Yeah, I know I know. I’m just a numbers guy, and these things make me wonder.
-C
In high school, we ran the 440, 880 and the mile. Back in my day we were all on yards.
The metric system is the tool of the devil. My car gets fourty rods to the hogs head and that’s the way I likes it!
milers on my college team was guys who’s main event was the mile/1600/1500 whichever was being run at the meet that day. (almost always the mile/1600 indoors, but 1500 outdoors). a runner referring to his mile PR will be talking about the actual mile, or a converted 1500 time if he thinks hes talking to a layman who won’t understand.
I think we’re definitely being overly nit-picky. and you can argue all you want about conversions (1600 to mile based on average pase, 1500 to mile usually a factor of around 1.08, but dependent on finishing time), but in my eyes none of this is nearly as bad as runners listing their 100/200/400/800 PRs from times they ran in relays.
-Dave
What everyone else said is correct, yet I’ll add in college, the 1500 is usually run in outdoor track and the 1600 or mile ( it is done usually 50/50) is usually run indoors and will be advertised as which ever the race distence is. Also in HS I ran the 1500 or 3000, but most states do 1600/3200.
NCAA events sometimes have “true” miles.
Other than those events, it’s 1500 or 1600m - not a mile, but close.
nobody calls the 1500m “a mile”.
Swimmers do. But then, apparently we can’t even agree on what a lap is.
Every university meet I ran in the US (indoors), the mile was a mile, not a 1600m. In fact I didn’t know a mile was 1609m until my first collegiate meet in the US where they had us the 9m behind the finish line to start.
I also know the distance from the most important event in track and field, the Beer Mile.
Just maybe, it’s time for you good folks to take your blinkers off and see that there is life outside the US!! In that big, wide world, we can tell the difference between a mile and a kilometre. When we do 1km repeats, we run 1km. When we run 1 mile repeats we run a little bit further than 1600m.
Wow!