Josh Kerr Rips Through 4,000 Meters at Mile World Record Pace With Three Weeks Left

Josh Kerr is not hiding what he is chasing. Three weeks out from a planned assault on the mile world record in London, the Scottish 1500m runner posted video of a Friday track session designed to sit right on top of world record pace, and by his own account he came away feeling like the record is within reach.

The workout was four sets of 200m, 600m, and 200m, all at mile world record pace or faster. Kerr laid out the targets before he ran a step. The opening 200s were meant to come in around 27 seconds. The 600s were supposed to start near 1:23 and drop from there. The closing 200 of each set was supposed to be under 27 and, ideally, get down to 25.

Rest was tight for the volume. Ninety seconds between the first 200 and the 600. Sixty seconds between the 600 and the closing 200. About four and a half minutes between full sets.

“Today’s Friday track session is going to be four sets of 200, 600, 200, all at mile world record pace or faster,” Kerr said in a pre-session breakdown. “We’ll take the rest at 90 seconds between 200 and the 600. 60 seconds between the 600 and the 200. And then we’ll take about 4 and 1/2 minutes between sets.”

By the finish, Kerr had banked 4,000 meters of running at or under world record mile pace. He said his 600s started in the “higher 124s” and worked down to 1:20 by the end of the session. He also referenced a benchmark from earlier in his career, noting that a similar 600 split was what carried him to a 3:22 track performance in the past.

“Another great session in the bag,” Kerr said afterward. “Starting at kind of that higher 124s and working down to 120. That’s all I could really ask for. Feel great in the spikes. To be honest, it was better than expected. It wasn’t quite as hard as I thought it would be.”

The number that matters here is context. The current outdoor mile world record is 3:43.13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj in Rome in 1999, a mark that has stood for more than a quarter of a century and outlasted every serious challenge since. To break it, a runner has to average roughly 55.8 seconds per quarter mile for four straight laps. Kerr’s Friday splits, stacked with short recovery, sit inside that math.

Kerr, 28, has been building toward this attempt in public. He is the 2023 world 1500m champion, an Olympic bronze medalist from Tokyo, and a silver medalist behind Cole Hocker in the 1500m at the Paris Games. His personal best in the mile stands at 3:45.34 from the 2024 Bowerman Mile in Eugene, which put him third on the all-time world list behind El Guerrouj and Noah Ngeny.

He framed the point of sessions like this plainly. They are not just about fitness. They are about teaching the body what world record pace feels like so it does not register as a shock on race day.

“Hitting a lot of these sessions at mile world record pace is just starting to get the body to understand what it’s capable of and what we’re going to be attempting to do in London,” Kerr said.

He also made clear he sees the arc of the block, not just the workout. “We’re definitely a step closer and three weeks to go, this is a huge spot to be in.”

For readers tracking the attempt, the takeaways are simple. Kerr is executing world record splits in training, with recovery, and he is reporting that it feels manageable. Whether that translates on race day in London is a separate question, and one Kerr will answer on the clock. For now, the workout is on the board, and the world record holder from 1999 is still in his sights.