by Larry EderThis piece originally appeared on AthleteBiz.com. Kyle Merber explains the Long Island Mile on September 9!
Kyle Merber, Adrian Martinez Classic, photo by Kevin Morris.
AthleteBiz (AB): Let’s start with basics: When is the event, how can people sign up to participate, and will be it live streamed?
Kyle Merber (KM): The Hoka One One Long Island Mile is being held on Wednesday, September 9th at St Anthony’s High School in Huntington, NY. There will be all-comers races are going to begin around 7pm and lead up to the elite men and women, which will begin at 8:30pm. It’s only $20 to come race, and participants can sign up on LongIslandMile.com–that comes with a race day T-Shirt and covers the $5 entry fee. And those fans who don’t live locally, but still want to watch will be able to watch the races live for free thanks to our partnership with RunnerSpace.com.
AB: You’ve assembled stellar elite field. Tell us about the top women and men that will be racing.
KM: The field is incredible, and we are extremely excited about the talent coming into town for the event. There hasn’t been a sub-4 minute mile on Long Island in 17 years [since the 1998 Goodwill Games] and we keep telling people that everyone in this field has run AT LEAST 3:56 [or the 1500 equivalent]. And the women’s field has multiple sub-4:30 milers, which will surely give some of the high school boys watching a scare. I know there is a lot of local excitement about the homecoming of Kerri Gallagher [who grew up in Queens] after her unbelievable breakout season that saw her competing at the World Championships.
AB: Share your broader goals for the event and what sparked the idea for you.
KM: The idea really stemmed from wanting to give back to the local running community that gave me so much. We have an unbelievable network of runners here, and you’ll see it with how competitive the high school teams are, or how packed out the weekend road races have come to be. My co-meet director is Brendan Barrett of Sayville Running Company. Together, we just want to help inspire the next generation of young athletes on Long Island. Something as simple as standing on the track during a sub-4 minute mile, an autograph, or a conversation could change the course of someone’s career. We are hoping to do that.
AB: Tell us about the role that Hoka One One has played in making this possible.
KM: We needed Hoka on board if this event was going to happen.
For the complete story from Athlete Biz: https://www.athletebiz.us/blog/qa-hoka-one-one-long-island-mile-kyle-merber/
