SerpApi.Org
When a professional runner looks back on the pinnacle of their career, they might think of the time they qualified for the world championships, or signed their first pro contract, or broke a collegiate record.
Brannon Kidder has accomplished all of those. But his new career highlight is a race he didn’t even finish.
Kidder, 32, helped make history last weekend, pacing his Brooks Beasts teammate Josh Kerr to a successful world record attempt in the mile. Kerr broke Hicham El Guerrouj’s 27-year-old mark in the event, running 3:42.66 at the London Diamond League to shave nearly half a second off the Moroccan’s 3:43.13 from 1999.
And while Kidder wasn’t the one crossing the finish line, he was instrumental in Kerr’s achievement. Kidder guided Kerr and Žan Rudolf, another pacer, through the first two laps of the race with impressive evenness, coming through 400 meters in 54.8 seconds and 800 meters in 1:50.70 (a 400-meter split of 55.90). Kidder stepped aside and let Rudolf take over for the next 200 meters, then it was up to Kerr for the final lap-and-a-half.
Mission accomplished.
“In terms of the coolest moments of my career, it’s got to be number one,” Kidder told Runner’s World on Wednesday. “Just to be there and be part of it, even to just be in the stadium that day was an experience, let alone to have a hand in it. [It’s] got to be the coolest moment of my career.”
How to Pace a World Record
Pacing a world record isn’t as simple as constantly checking your watch, then getting out of the way. There’s nuance to it. It’s like walking on a tightrope, Kidder says.
If the pacer goes out too fast, the rest of the field could blow up later in the race. If the pacer is too slow, the world record time slips away. The numbers can be overwhelming, but that’s where Kidder steps in.
“The goal of the pacer in general is to set the tone for the race and reduce the cognitive load for Josh,” Kidder said. “There’s so much to think about, and there’s so many splits you have to execute for it to go right. So my goal was to do the thinking for him in the first half of the race.”
Kerr told Kidder before the race that above all, he wanted the tempo to be smooth. For the first lap, he preferred Kidder to be a touch slow rather than too fast. It was Kidder’s job to get out ahead of the field but not make any abrupt surges. He had help from Rudolf and the Wavelight pacing lights on the inside of Lane 1, and he took a few peeks at the video board to see where Kerr was positioned.
As Kidder came through 800 meters in the prescribed 1:50 split, he felt tired but not spent. Kidder estimates he could have kept running for another half lap, but he probably would have had to start kicking. A good pacer, though, steps off before his legs start to burn. It’s all about being smooth.
“[Kidder] was a rock for me mentally, right by my side every step of the way and had more confidence in me than I did sometimes,” Kerr said to The Athletic.
Six Months in the Making
In December, Kerr approached Kidder about rabbiting the record attempt. Kidder immediately jumped at the opportunity. He had never paced a high-profile meet like a Diamond League, but he and Kerr frequently train together, so they’d get plenty of practice.
The distance was right up Kidder’s alley, too. He semi-jokingly describes himself as a 1,000-meter specialist—a distance that is infrequently contested at professional track meets but is the sweet spot between Kidder’s main events, the 800 meters and 1500 meters. (In college, Kidder broke the collegiate record in the 1,000 meters at Penn State.)
It was a daunting task, but Kidder knew his training partner was capable of breaking El Guerrouj’s record. Two weeks before the attempt, Kidder paced Kerr for a 1200-meter time trial that Kerr blew out of the water.
“Holy s***, dude. You got it,” Kidder said to Kerr after the workout.
The time trial gave Kidder a lot of confidence. Not only in himself to hit the splits, but in Kerr to get the job done. Still, in a game of seconds, there was a lot of pressure on Kidder, which he tried his best to compartmentalize in the moment.
“I think I was nervous in hindsight,” he admitted.
Kidder and Rudolf did their jobs perfectly, though, and Kerr became the first human to run a 3:42 mile.
Upon finishing, Kerr was swarmed by media and strutted around the track at London Stadium, celebrating with fans, family, and his Brooks Beasts coaches. Kidder had a chance to fully debrief about 90 minutes later when the two jogged around for a 1.5-mile cooldown, reflecting on everything that went right—and everything that could have gone wrong but didn’t.
The weather cooperated. Neither one of them got sick during travel. The crowd was deafening. It was a dream day.
“This is the product of one of the most talented guys in the world being the most hardworking and not leaving anything up to chance,” Kidder said. “He kept talking about creating the condition that success was inevitable, and I think that was, to me, the most impressive part of all of this.”
