50th Anniversary of the One Mile Record at Drake Relays

50th Anniversary of the One Mile Record at Drake Relays

Featuring Shelby Houlihan, Karissa Schweizer & Francie Larrieu-Smith

2025 Spring Racing/Training Program, May 20, 2025, week 10, day 3, Tenth Week of the season, easy Wednesday!

This was a fascinating interview. Francie Larrieu-Smith is a legend. Her mile record was set at Drake fifty years ago. In one week, Shelby Houlihan and Karissa Schweizer ran twice in Des Moines, Iowa. The USATF Road Mile and the Drake Relays Mile gave fans two amazing opportunities to see an elite road mile and track mile.

Drake Relays does an excellent Zoom series.

Shelby Houlihan, USA, edges Jessica Hull, AUS in 3000 meters, March 22, 2025, Nanjing, photo by Dan Vernonn for World Athletics

As a media member, I was fortunate enough to ask Shelby Houlihan, Karissa Schweizer, and Francie Larrieu-Smith several questions. Shelby just returned from a ban and took silver in the World Indoor 3,000 meters, after winning at the US Champs at 1500m and 3,000m. Karissa Schweizer’s last race was the Fifth Avenue Mile in September 2024. The miles in Des Moines are Karissa Schweizer’s first races in 2025.

Karissa Schweizer takes NB Fifth Ave Mile, photo by NYRR

Speaking with Francie Larrieu-Smith, whose brother, Ron Larrieu, was an Olympian over 10,000 meters. Francie Larrieu-Smith raced from the 880 yards to the marathon, making Olympic teams at 1,500 meters, 10,000 meters and the Marathon. Francie told us that her favorite racing distance was the 800 meters.

Francie Larrieu, Cindergals, photo by Wolf Reinhardt

We look forward to seeing Karissa Schweizer and Shelby Houlihan racing on Saturday at the Drake Relays!

Enjoy the interview!

Find all of our Socialing The Distance interview series here: https://bit.ly/34czL0e

Find all of our Athletics Chat episodes here: https://bit.ly/2GkVoDD

Find all of our Conversations with Larry here: https://bit.ly/30io2vY

#SocialingTheDistance #RunBlogRun #theshoeaddicts

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Special thanks to Mike Deering for editing and production of our podcasts.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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