Brooks Beasts vs The Clock: DMR World Record at Oregon Relays Cinematic Recap

By Lori Shontz, Read the full story here.

Watch full race at OregonRelays.com.

When it was all over, when he had recovered from running 1,600 meters alone in 3:52.64 in his season opener Friday night to help his Brooks Beast team set a world record in the distance medley relay, Henry Wynne found himself thankful for two things.

“I’m glad I didn’t see the lights,” he said, “and I’m glad I’m bad at track math.”

Wynne knew only that he had received the baton with a reasonable chance of anchoring the world record team, and he listened as his coaches called out splits, something he said he still can’t quite calculate on his own. He simply fed off the energy of the crowd, mostly high schoolers who had been competing all day, lining the outside lanes at Hayward Field, and he said he was running mostly on feel.

“It was pressure,” he said, “but such a fun atmosphere.”

Just about everyone else was focused on the pace lights, which were set to the world record. That included teammate Isaiah Harris, who had handed Wynne the baton after his 800-meter leg. “The lights crept up on him, and he crept back,” Harris said. “It looked like he was battling someone.”

And he won. The Brooks Beasts team – Brannon Kidder, Brandon Miller, Harris and Wynne -- finished in 9:14.58, taking nearly a second off the record set by a U.S. team at the 2015 World Relay championships, 9:15.50.

“Seeing Henry, that last 200, pulling away from the lights – it was so hype for me and the boys,” Miller said. “It was a dream come true.”

The previous world record unfolded quite differently, with Team USA and Team Kenya engaged in a thriller. Anchor leg Ben Blankenship, competing in his first major international competition, got the baton with a slight lead over Kenya and about 1.5 seconds behind world record pace. Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot took the lead 200 meters in, but Blankenship eventually regained the lead on the final turn, then hung on. The Americans – Kyle Merber, Brycen Spratling, Brandon Johnson and Blankenship, sliced .09 off the previous record.

The Beasts didn’t have the advantage of a tight competition. While there were two other teams on the track, basically each man had to run his leg alone.

“We were talking about that on our shakeout today,” Kidder said. “Nine times out of 10, you’re racing, and the time just goes. Today was almost the opposite, letting the time be the governing factor.”

Kidder knew from studying the splits of the previous record that the leadoff leg “had a little bit in the bank” compared to the other legs. “The 800 was 1:44, which is a big ask for April,” he said. “So I was trying to give them as much time in the bank as I could and to take the pressure off of Henry. If you give him the stick and he has to run 3:48, it’s going to be tough.” 

That said, everyone on the team wanted the challenge.

“I knew we had the talent to do it,” Harris said. “But obviously putting it together on the day is a hard thing to do. And this was our season opener, so no one was really sharp yet.”

“If you start off your season with a world record,” Miller said, “it isn’t the worst thing to do.”

Copyright RunnerSpace.com.