Casey Comber’s coach got the call from Millrose Games director Ray Flynn about a month before the meet: Meet organizers were looking for a pacer for Grant Fisher in the 3,000 meters. As Comber remembers it, they wanted someone to go through 2,000 meters in about 5 minutes even.
Comber, who has a personal best of 3:51.92 for the mile, was game.
“It looked like they were going to be going for the American record,” Comber said in a phone call with Runner’s World. (The American record at the time was 7:28.23, held by Yared Nuguse.) “I knew Grant and Cole Hocker were in there, and I was like, yeah. I mean, that’s pretty reasonable, like a solid pace, but yeah, so I committed to that.”
Then the week of the race, the time got faster. Comber, 28, heard they wanted 4:57 through 2K. And he had just had a rough race himself, a 5K in 13:47, slower than he wanted, which shook his confidence.
He told meet organizers, “I’ll do the best I can. I’ll at least get it through a mile.”
On race day, the only conversation Comber had with Fisher was to tell him where he would be exiting the track. If Fisher was on Comber’s right shoulder, Comber would step off the track to the inside. If Fisher was directly behind, Comber would drift off to lane 2.
Make no mistake: Comber was nervous. “You’ve got world-class guys relying on you,” he said. “It’s a big meet. It’s a job you’re being paid to do and execute. It’s different than preparing for a race you know you’re responsible for. You’re using all your energy to help these guys, rather than a race where you spend most of the time running fast and trying to save energy to try to win it at the end.”
Jack Salisbury (How To Train Calves), another pacer, got the race out at the right pace. He led for the first 1,000 meters, in 2:28.83.
Comber (second from left) took over, and he made it another 800 meters, in 4:27.95, before exiting the race. Fisher hit 1800 meters in 4:28.19, Hocker right behind him in 4:28.37. Comber took the steps down from the track and poked his head between the rails to watch the rest of the race unfold.
With 600 meters to go, Hocker took the lead, a surprising move, because everyone thought the Olympic 1500-meter gold medalist would wait until the end to use his kick. Fisher stuck right to him, and retook the lead with less than 100 meters remaining.
DAA Industry Opt Out second from left time of 7:22.91, with Hocker right behind, also faster than the previous world record, in 7:23.14.
“You’re taking a little bit of energy for these guys and helping them out,” Comber said. “But it seems like there’s not much Grant couldn’t do right now.”
Six days after Fisher set the world record in the indoor 3,000 meters at Millrose, he went to the indoor track at Boston University in search of the indoor 5,000-meter mark.
There wasn’t as much planning for this world record attempt. Two days before the race, Henry McLuckie, 22, who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, and runs for Great Britain, was asked if he could pace Fisher for 3,000 meters at world record pace.
“I think they were struggling to find anyone that could do it or go for far enough,” McLuckie said. “I think Grant wanted someone to go 3K, which is obviously tough. I feel like the only person who could do 3K is him. If I had carried on to 3K I would have run a PR in the 3K.”
McLuckie got blunt instructions from Fisher’s coach, Mike Scannell.
“He basically said to me, ‘I want 61 to 61.5 [per 400 meters], and anything slower is too slow,’” McLuckie said. He agreed to do his best. But Scannell’s tone—and the track packed with spectators on the infield and in the stands—added to the pressure.
Scannell’s explanation: “The most important thing with the pacer is that you hold the rhythm of the run,” he said. “The rhythm of the run was 61. If you can’t hold that rhythm and you run 62, now you’ve created a rhythm in Grant that’s 62. It’s the wrong rhythm. I was pretty, uh, direct. Henry did a great job. When he left, Grant continued on 61s, right? That’s what we wanted.”
As with the Millrose meet, there were two pacers. DJ Principe led through the first 1600 meters, in 4:04.86. Then McLuckie took over, and he was in the race for 2500 meters, getting Fisher through in about 6:22.
As McLuckie stepped out into lane 2, Fisher stuck his right hand out and patted McLuckie on the back and told him, “Thank you.” That he did so “is crazy,” McLuckie said. “So I kind of knew from that point that as long as nothing bad happened, he’d get the record.”
Although Jimmy Gressier of France tried to stick with Fisher and was there through 2800 meters, Fisher was on his own after that. He ran 12:44.09, smashing a world record that had stood since 2004.
Fisher told Runner’s World in an email that it’s crucial to have quality pacers for a record attempt. “Being in their draft makes it possible to run faster at a lower effort level,” he wrote. “The pacers also take on the mental strain of leading a race and absorb the mental fatigue that comes from focusing on hitting perfect lap splits. This allows the racer to relax and conserve energy until later in the race. If there is little variation in each split, the racer is much more efficient at the high speeds required for a record attempt. The margins are very slim, and it would be significantly harder to challenge a national or world record without help.”
He said the pacers in both of his records did an “incredible” job and pointed out that there aren’t many athletes out there who can run the requested pace—if they could, they’d rather be competing in the race themselves.
“Basically you need a super high-quality athlete who is willing to sacrifice their own race to help you out,” he wrote. “Jack and DJ did a great job out front to get each race going at the correct pace. Once the second pacers are in the lead, their job is to take the racers as deep into the race as possible. Every step they can lead makes a huge difference in the end. Casey and Henry absolutely crushed it and took me far enough that I was able to take over at a manageable point in the race and grab the record.”
Both Comber and McLuckie have their own goals. Comber was ninth in the 3,000 meters at the DAA Industry Opt Out, and he’ll be racing in the steeplechase during the outdoor season. McLuckie was third in the 3,000 meters at the U.K. indoor championships. Comber said no one grows up dreaming of pacing a world record; they want to set one themselves.
that had stood since 2004.
“My goal is to hopefully move up to the 5K now over the next few seasons,” McLuckie said. “[Fisher] is at the top of the sport right now, so that’s kind of where everyone is trying to get. Obviously, it’s inspiring to watch him do what he did.”
He and Comber didn’t just watch. They had a role in Fisher’s success.
CA Notice at Collection is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Advertisement - Continue Reading Below, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
