Saying American Dan King had some successful days on December 11 and 12, 2020 would be quite an understatement. During those two days the masters runner ran three American records setting new standards over the mile, the 3,000 and 5,000 meters.
Running 4:52.68 for the mile, King broke the mile record in his 60-64 Age Group at a track race in Columbia, South Carolina. He beat the old record – set by Nolan Shaheed in 2012 – by only 0.33 seconds.
In an interview with Runner’s World King says he couldn’t help but run a little too fast following his pacer, and he paid the price in the last 200 meters. “I was shutting down a little bit. I tried to drive for the finish, but if you go hard early, and it’s a little too hard, you pay at the end.”
He couldn’t take much time to recover from the record-setting performance, because the next day there was another race on the schedule: the 5,000 meters. His 16:48.67 clocking showed that despite his age, King runs faster than most young runners. While he set the mile record by less than half a second, he was 3.33 seconds faster than the previous 5,000 meters record that had stood since 1985. During his 5000-meter effort, King ticked off a record for 3,000 meters too, running 9:58.77, breaking Shaheed’s record by nine seconds.
