Runner hopes to break record mile time

This is about as close as it comes to track and field utopia.

The Lobos’ Hermes, Lee Emanuel, and the Albuquerque Convention Center are a blissful — and blistering — match made in heaven.

They’ll see each other five times this spring, the first coming on Saturday, during the UNM track and field team’s Cherry and Silver Invitational.

Emanuel, who ran a mind-boggling, sub-four-minute mile at Notre Dame (3:57.91) and concluded the 2009 season by winning the national championship in the indoor mile run with a time of 4:00.65, said he wants to improve on those times this year, however inconceivable that seems.

Emanuel, who will attempt to beat the current record set in 1974 by North Carolina’s Tony Waldrop (3:55), said he’ll have his best chance to do that at the Convention Center.

“It is a fast track,” Emanuel said. “We worked out on it on Tuesday. It’s soft, it gives you a nice bounce back. The banks are nice, not too high. I enjoyed racing on it. Hopefully I should run pretty fast this weekend.”

But improving on a sub-four-minute mile?

“Obviously, I want to equal what I did last year,” he said. “If I come in second at nationals, I won’t be too pleased. I’m definitely hoping to get faster. Last year, I ran 3:57, which was good at the time, but I feel that I’m in better shape now, and I’m a better runner. I’d like to think that in my first race I’ll go out and hopefully run it a little bit quicker.”

How much more rapidly can he whiz across the track?

“I’d love to run something around 3:54, 3:55,” he said. “The collegiate record’s 3:55, so if I could run around 3:54 that’d be quite an achievement. Well, we’ll see. I don’t think I’m too far away. I’m pretty confident at the minute. My 1500-meter time equates to about 3:54 in the mile. I may be able to get that fast.”
Emanuel’s coach, Joe Franklin, doesn’t have as lofty expectations, mainly because Franklin can’t possibly put as much pressure on Emanuel as Emanuel imposes on himself.

“My goals and his goals are probably a little bit different,” Franklin said. “My goals are to make sure that he’s fit enough to when he gets on the starting line he has a chance to win every race — at least be in the position to win a race. Time to me is irrelevant whether you run 3:52 or 3:59. If you can be a multi-time NCAA champion, that’d be a great feather in his cap for an already outstanding career.”
And Emanuel has added incentive to quicken his already palpitating pace. After all, he is the defending NCAA champion.

“I’m sure there is a target on my back,” Emanuel said. “If you have success, that’s going to come with it.”