Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1999 mile world record—3:43.13—is one of the oldest still on the track and field books, and the oldest men’s record for a regularly contested distance on the track.

That time was the result of a perfect confluence of factors: An all-time great athlete operating at the height of his powers… near-perfect conditions and a raucous Rome Diamond League crowd… and the race being very much a race. Second-place finisher Noah Ngeny finished in 3:43.40, also under the previous world record.

While it’s likely been on dozens of world-class milers’ to-do lists since being established, nobody has come within half a second of El Guerrouj’s PB. (Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s 3:43.73 from Pre in 2023 has come the closest.) So when Josh Kerr announced over the weekend that his sole objective this outdoor season is running a mile in three minutes and forty-two seconds at the London Diamond League, it was hard to process it as anything other than audacious.

And that’s awesome.

Our sport is no stranger to one-off exhibition style “record” attempts that are not record eligible, technically speaking. Yes, a man has run a marathon in under two hours… but like… if you want to get pedantic…has he?

Kerr’s choice to limit himself to the technological and logistical constraints of existing World Athletics rules makes Project 222 in a lot of ways more interesting than the other promotional time trial events that we’ve all enjoyed since the supershoe arms races kicked into high gear. (That’s not to say there won’t be all sorts of bizarre speed-suit-y bells and whistles and potentially spikes so personalized that they look like the car Homer Simpson designed.)

Pushing the limits of human ability is cooler the fewer caveats there are—whatever the clock says Kerr runs, that’s what he runs, no need to extrapolate, justify, or hem and haw. He’s attempting something borderline impossible, controlling what he and his team are able to, and letting the chips fall how they may on race day.

By choosing to set his time trial at an established Diamond League meet, he’s also opening the door to his own downfall. Kerr has said that he welcomes all challengers at his attempt, and that he anticipates a crew of Nike-sponsored and American-based athletes may even try to beat him to the punch at the Prefontaine Classic two weeks before he takes his shot.

The chances of the record going down in any one race, no matter how perfectly set up it is, are slim. But those odds improve the more athletes you sprinkle into the mix who are willing to put themselves on the rail and stick with the pace. While we recognize that there are contractual obligations that shape athlete racing schedules, there’s no major reason Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse (and Jakob Ingebrigtsen if he miraculously rounds back into peak fighting shape by mid-summer) can’t give sub-3:43 a crack in both Eugene and London, leaning heavily into playing the heel in front of the Kerr-loving, largely UK-based crowd.

To even have a chance to spoil the party, one of these guys—or any number of the ascendant European or East African athletes who might already plan on being in the field—has to show up ready for battle. Because Kerr has made his focus and his race plan clear: “I’m just going to be peaking at that point in the season… as long as no one else can touch the pace lights or mess with the pacers, I’m good to go.”

Kerr has done everyone else in the world a favor by putting an enormous target on his own back three months in advance. If you think you’ve got even a fighting shot at giving Guerrouj’s record a scare, why would you not get your ass to London? Kerr will have a handful of dedicated pacers and Wavelights. You can race with an even bigger advantage: all of that, plus Kerr himself! Make Kerr the Noah Ngeny of his own world record attempt!

You will literally never have a setup more conducive to running that fast again at any point in your career—at least until the invention of an even more disgusting goo that makes bi-carb look like applesauce. The London Diamond League mile has the potential to be the very rare race that could be the fastest ever run, and also the most hotly contested.

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