Michael Coe finds a little breathing room at the end of his 3:49 mile on Sunday.
The Elite Men’s Division of this morning’s Platinum Performance State Street Mile looked to be a strong field on paper and it turned out as advertised.
Michael Coe broke the course record with a time of three minutes and 49 seconds, leading a group of six runners who broke the 4-minute mark. Second-place finisher Forest Braden posted the second-best time in the event’s 14-year history at 3:50.
The previous record, set by Mike Chavez in 2007, was 3:52.
“I heard the event record was 3:52 and I absolutely had it on my mind. I figured I could do it with my training lately and knew I was in that kind of shape,” Coe said.
Also achieving a four-minute mile were Aric Champagne, Juan Paredes, Tetlo Emmen and James Withers.
“It was fun. Santa Barbara, State Street. This was a good event,” Coe said. “They should definitely get more elite guys out here in the future and today was probably the most elite field they’ve had.”
The Lompoc native set the Cal Berkeley school record in the mile in 2009. He is traveling next weekend to Portland for the Portland Track Festival with the hope of qualifying in the 1500 meters for the USA Track & Field Championships later this month in Des Moines, Iowa.
Coe enjoyed the challenge on Sunday, especially from Braden. The 25-year-old lost the lead before regaining it at the 800-meter point.
“It helped to have Forest take the lead because I was kind of tucked behind him and didn’t expect that move from him but, you know, that’s racing so you have to counter it,” Coe explained.
Women’s Elite Division winner Katja Goldring, a UCLA track & field athlete, held off locals Bethany Nickless and Andrea McLarty. Goldring won her first State Street Mile in a time of 4:34.
“I thought they were gonna get me so I was running scared a bit at the end,” Goldring said. “I’m not very good at finishing so I thought if I want to win I better go a little earlier.”
Other races included the dog mile and family run.
The course, straight as an arrow, began at the intersection of State Street and Pedregosa and finished at De La Guerra. The mile distance is slightly downhill the whole way. With a foggy sky, Sunday morning temperatures were in the low 60s.
Steve Harding and his golden lab Bob won the dog mile in 4:26.
