Halfway through the race billed as an attempt to run the first sub-4-minute mile on Delaware soil, Sam Parsons figured he had some work ahead of him.
Parsons saw he was at 2 minutes, 2 seconds two laps through the Delaware Mile Challenge at Tatnall School in Greenville on Saturday night. The math was easy: The pace has to pick up.
“I definitely was a little worried when I saw the 800 split,” the 2012 Tatnall graduate said, “and I saw some of the Under Armour (team) guys had dropped off the pace.”
Parsons’ first two laps were 1:00.98 and 1:01.02. He pushed the third lap to 59.60 and burst to a 56.57 finishing lap to finish in 3:58.17.
The time knocked Delaware off the list of states (now reduced to six) that hadn’t seen a sub-4-minute mile.
Villanova product Casey Comber, who shared the lead with his Under Armour teammates most of the race, finished just behind Parsons and also broke the 4-minute mark at 3:58.44. Both he and Parsons had broken the mark previously.
The festive Delaware Mile Challenge featured a series of mile races with divisions for children to adults, with Tatnall using the occasion to highlight its newly renovated track facilities – and surprising longtime coach Pat Castagno by naming them in his honor.
The men’s and women’s elite races, with fields of accomplished runners eyeing $16,000 total prize money, was the focus of the night’s competition.
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After the crowd – several hundred strong – was invited on to the track to line the course to cheer on the runners up close, Molly Sughroue of Colorado Springs Track Club won the women’s top race in a time of 4:34.56.
Then Parsons finished the night with a new Delaware mark.
“Every single person tonight at the track just carried me through that whole race,” Parsons said. “There was no denying me of making history today, heart pulled me through the race.”
