2-10-89 . . . This evening I watched a two-hour indoor track meet on ESPN, the cable sports network. It was live from New Jersey. The most exciting race was the men’s 3000-meter run. Moroccan Said Aouita held off American Steve Scott to win it. Aouita, as I’ve said before in these pages, is the world’s greatest runner. I’m more impressed by him every time I see him run. On the last lap, for example, when Scott tried to pass, Aouita simply moved over half a lane to make Scott’s turn longer. That may have been the difference. In the women’s 1500-meter run, Romanian Paula Ivan narrowly missed the world record. I love track and field—probably because it’s so quantified.
Addendum: Here is the fastest mile ever run by a human being. The record, by Hicham El Guerrouj, is almost 10 years old.
