Three runners of the Thousand Mile Club broke Ronnie Goodman’s all-time record in the San Quentin 4th annual Three Mile Race.
Seventeen people took part in the event, which was held in San Quentin Prison on Feb. 23.
Eddie Herena ran his last mile in 5:53 and finished in a fast 17:36, taking 44 seconds off the existing record.
“It was like a big burden lifted of my mind,” said Herena. “I tried to stay relaxed and trust the work that I put in. I was shooting for the record and my expectation was to get under 18 minutes.”
Herena said that he did intense interval training three days a week to prepare for this event.
Miguel Quezada, who had gone out at a relative conservative pace of 6:05 for mile one, and 12:11 for his first two miles, finished with a strong 5:41 final mile and took over Gutierrez to finish in second place in a fine 17:52.
Angel Gutierrez hung on to run a strong 17:57 and all three runners, Herena, Quezada and Gutierrez easily broke the existing three-mile record.
The pace was fast from the start as Herena and Gutierrez were determined to push the pace and break the Ronnie Goodman’s existing San Quentin three-mile record of 18:20.
The first quarter of a mile was ran in a sizzling 74 seconds and the runners went through the first half of a mile in 2:39. They then settled into a steady six minutes per mile pace and came through the first mile in 5:39.
They continued to run together through two miles as they ran their second mile in 6:04 and came through two miles in 11:43. That’s when the big three took off to record-setting finishes.