Today’s guest is Dan King. On August 29^th, at the South Carolina Track Fest, Dan broke the 60-64 age group world record for the mile by running 4:49.03. This bettered previous world record of 4:51.85, set by Tony McManus of New Zealand in 2012. He also broke Nolan Shaheed’s American record of 4:53.01, also from 2012. The story behind his record setting performance is a cool one. Dan has been a competitive runner since he was in high school, but has been plagued by injuries throughout much of his running career. He had some excellent results as a masters runner, particularly in cross country, but was rarely able to stay healthy for long enough to reach his true potential. I titled this episode the “Accidental Miler” because Dan always thought of himself as a longer distance runner and only ended up focusing on the mile this year due to all the changes that took place when Covid hit. We spoke about how he finally managed to get healthy, the huge changes he made at age 50 that helped his running and the circumstances and training that led to his breakthrough this year. It’s really great to see someone who has faced so much adversity in his running continue to preserve and achieve great results in his 60s. The fact that he did this during the pandemic when so many runners were forced to put everything on hold makes it even cooler. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Show Notes:

Runner’s World article about Dan’s mile WR: https://tinyurl.com/yy9qlxrs

A couple of the books mentioned: Younger Next Year: https://tinyurl.com/y4nfhkje; The China Study: https://tinyurl.com/y36bral2

Local newspaper article after Dan’s stellar run in the Brooklyn Mile: https://www.dailycamera.com/2020/06/28/michael-sandrock-kings-king-of-the-master-mile/

Article about Dan’s diet: https://www.plantbasedcooking.com/dan-king-plant-based-champion-runner/

Info on Mark Scrutton, Dan’s college teammate: https://cubuffs.com/news/2015/5/11/210081105.aspx

You can catch the latest episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts ,TuneIn and Spotify.