When it comes to running, the status symbol of late can be completed in less time than it takes to warm up. “The mile is a distance short enough that you can put yourself on the edge from the start and push what your body can do,” says Ben Bruce, 31, an Adidas athlete who can cover that span in four minutes flat.
Single-mile road races are gaining momentum among time-crunched would-be athletes who want to see significant fitness returns without slogging through months of training: Recent research found that men who did sprint intervals burned fat 75 percent faster than their non-sprinting brethren. It’s no surprise that the number of mile races nationwide, like this month’s prestigious Fifth Avenue Mile—where Bruce set his personal best—has doubled in the past decade, according to the organization Running USA.