Masters milers battle in Fountain of Youth tomorrow: can Shaheed crack 4:40?

Age-group records may tumble tomorrow at the Fountain of Youth Mile at the Canby high school track in Oregon. And how I wish I was going to be on that track!

Maestro jazz trumpeter Nolan Shaheed is the one I'm going to be watching. Flying in from concerts in DC, he could push back the men's 55-59 world record (4:40.4, set by Australia's Jack Ryan in 1977). However, Kenyan superstar Henry Rono -- who has declared his intention of breaking that record -- is not going to challenge him. Henry will be running, but is nursing an injured hamstring and quad sustained running the 5,000m track race at the end of the Hillsdale College "Gina" Relays meet in Hillsdale, Michigan, a couple of weeks back. The meet ran late and the 5k kicked off at 1.15 on a cold morning. Henry covered the first 1600m in 5:44 and finished in 18:55.

It will be great to see what Shaheed can do in Oregon, as he's the target for my own (currently slightly derailed) miling aspirations. I tried to get Kyle in this invitational meet, as he is really going well, but organizer Dave Clingan has a limited number of spaces and has understandably gone for proven names and big names. Ironically, I bet even I would beat Rono over a mile right now. Deep breath. Let it go. Make it next year.

* Read the full "Fountain" preview here.