The CITIUS MAG Podcast | A Running + Track and Field Show

My guest for today’s episode is Josh Kerr – mile world record holder. On July 18th at the London Diamond League, in front of 60,000 people, Josh ran 3:42.66 to break Hicham El Guerrouj’s record that had stood for 27 years, which was the longest-standing mile world record in the history of the event, and one that many believed might never fall. He did it by calling his shot four months in advance, locking himself into a specific date and venue before he had even finished rehabbing the calf he tore at the World Championships in Tokyo last September.

Josh is already one of the most decorated middle-distance runners of his generation — world champion, two-time Olympic medalist, two-time world indoor champion at 3000 meters. But the world record puts him in a different category entirely. He is now the seventh Brit to hold the mile world record, and the first since Steve Cram in 1985, joining a line that runs through Roger Bannister, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, and Steve Cram. The race commentator on the world feed, Tim Hutchings, called it the ballsiest world record in the history of middle-distance racing. It was hard to disagree.

This conversation was recorded two days after the race, with Kyle Merber joining as co-host. We get into the full arc of Project 222. We go deep on the spike Brooks built specifically for his foot strike and what it actually contributed to the margin. Josh walks us through the whiteboard session in Albuquerque where they debated every split for an hour, the 1200m time trial two weeks out that converted the last remaining skeptics, the mental performance framework that kept him in flow state when 60,000 people were watching, and what was happening internally when he cracked that smile before the gun and went completely deaf with 150 meters to go.

We also get into what Tokyo taught him, the cage door philosophy Danny Mackey lives by, and who the performance was really for…which is not the answer you might expect.

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CORE: The CORE 2 Thermal Sensor takes the guessing out of heat training. It reads your core body temperature in real time - no thermometer, nothing invasive, and you can actually see what's happening inside your body while you train. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take 10% off the CORE 2 with code CITIUS10 at checkout when you visit corebodytemp.com.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

VELOUS: VELOUS makes recovery footwear designed to help runners bounce back faster between sessions. Their sandals feature Tri-Motion™ Technology: a technical three-density foam system and contoured footbed engineered to cushion impact, support your arches, and help your toes stretch and relax on every step. Run. Recover. Repeat. with VELOUS! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get 20% off your VELOUS order with code CITIUSMAG20 at checkout including FREE Shipping!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber drop the full preview of the 2026 USATF Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Icahn Stadium in New York City, held Thursday through Sunday.

CITIUS MAG will have daily end-of-day recap podcasts, a daily newsletter, and interviews on YouTube throughout the weekend.

Watch on USATF.tv, Peacock, and NBC (Saturday and Sunday TV windows). Free tickets are available courtesy of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 500-ticket giveaway for Thursday and Friday. If you live within a couple hours of Icahn Stadium, no excuses.

Some of the events discussed in this episode:

– Women’s 10K (Thursday): Thin field after Karissa Schweizer scratched. Top eight from last year’s USAs are not competing. Kyle’s read: the scratch actually makes for a better race — more wide open.

– Men’s 10K (Thursday): 13 men entered. Grant Fisher versus Woody Kincaid as the headline matchup — Grant riding the momentum of his first Diamond League victory and doubling in the 5K.

– Women’s 100m (Friday): No MJW vs. Sha’Carri head-to-head.

– Men’s 100m (Friday): Noah Lyles vs. Kenny Bednarek. Noah has been everywhere at Fanatics Fest and FIFA World Cup events so the question is how much that toll has taken. Kenny knows this is a great opportunity to get one up on him.

– Women’s 3000m steeplechase (Saturday): One of the deepest American steeple fields of the season — seven athletes entered at 9:20 or faster. The fastest American time of the year comes out of this race.

– Men’s 3000m steeplechase (Saturday): Matt Wilkinson at 8:09 is the ninth-fastest man in the world and a clear favorite — remarkable given he was on crutches after last year’s USAs and came back with a straight-up PR.

– Men’s 1500m (Saturday): Top five from last year not competing so the race opens up.

– Women’s 1500m (Saturday): The rest of the field will be watching Nikki rather than racing their own race, so it’s becoming a Faith Kipyegon dynamic where others defer rather than attack.

– Women’s 800m (Sunday): Roisin Willis is the top seed and story of the year in the women’s 800 — US indoor record holder, strong outdoor season, coming off a brilliant performance in Stockholm. Addy Wiley has a Diamond League victory.

– Men’s 800m (Sunday): Brandon Miller scratched after London. Cooper Lukhenhaus vs. Donavan Brazier as the top billing — two of three members of last year’s World Championship team.

– Women’s 5K (Sunday): Parker Valby vs. Shelby Houlihan. These two have never raced. Parker has run 14:39 this season (going by herself, no one could hang). Shelby was fourth at Worlds, has been running 800s, 1500s, 2 miles, 10Ks — she’s fit and she’s an 8:15 person with the ultimate kick.

– Men’s 5K (Sunday): Grant Fisher the heavy favorite.

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SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

BANDIT: For 2026, Bandit is providing support for any Unsponsored athletes competing at the USATF Outdoor Championships. Every contract includes a release clause so an athlete can sign with a bigger brand the moment an offer lands. 11 Unsponsored alumni have already gone on to deals with some of the largest footwear brands in the world. Competing at USATF Outdoors? Interested? Contact: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠timrossi@banditrunning.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

CORE: The CORE 2 Thermal Sensor takes the guessing out of heat training. It reads your core body temperature in real time - no thermometer, nothing invasive, and you can actually see what's happening inside your body while you train. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take 10% off the CORE 2 with code CITIUS10 at checkout when you visit corebodytemp.com.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

VELOUS: VELOUS makes recovery footwear designed to help runners bounce back faster between sessions. Their sandals feature Tri-Motion™ Technology: a technical three-density foam system and contoured footbed engineered to cushion impact, support your arches, and help your toes stretch and relax on every step. Run. Recover. Repeat. with VELOUS! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get 20% off your VELOUS order with code CITIUSMAG20 at checkout including FREE Shipping!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Chris Chavez and Preet Majithia reconvene to debrief the rest of the London Diamond League. Chris and Kyle Merber’s emergency pod captured the immediate reaction; this episode is the follow-up, covering everything that got overshadowed by the world record.

We discuss:

– Preet in the building: Eight flights of stairs between the mixed zone and the seating area to watch Josh Kerr’s world record run.

– Post-race mixed zone: Josh got emotional exactly once — when Hannah England asked him about the mental toll of the entire process. His first beer since his December wedding was that Saturday night. For a Scotsman, six months without a beer is its own kind of suffering.

– Was the world record overshadowed by the World Cup? The day before the World Cup final, England played France in a 6-4 third-place match the same evening. The next morning, BBC Sport’s homepage had zero stories about Josh Kerr.

– Does this get Josh knighted? Chris’s very American question.

– Does the mile world record mean as much globally as the 1500? Preet raises the question: the mile matters enormously in the US and UK, but does it land elsewhere?

– Sawe vs. Kerr: which was bigger?

– Women’s 800m — Keely wins in 1:56.21: The pacemaker went through 400 in 56.8, suggesting they were targeting sub-1:55 but backed off — if she’d gone through in 55 flat as planned, it might have been a 1:55 race. Preet’s context: this was Keely’s 50th sub-2:00 performance and her nineteenth sub-1:57.

– Would you rather have Josh’s career or Keely’s right now?

The rest of London — the performances that got overshadowed:

– Brandon Miller, 1:42.19 in the men’s 800m: Nearly a full second PB, fifth all-time for Americans. Timed his kick off the final bend perfectly.

– Julien Alfred, 21.66 in the women’s 200: Third win in nine days.

– Karsten Warholm, 46.61 in the 400 hurdles: World lead, first hurdles race win of the season, meeting record.

– Ja’Kobe Tharp, 12.89 in the 110m hurdles: Fifth time under 13 seconds this season — the first athlete in history to go sub-13 in five consecutive 110m hurdles races.

– Kayinsola Ajayi, 9.84 in the men’s 100m: Beats world champion Oblique Seville for the second time this season — turns and looks at him as they cross the line.

– Rai Benjamin, 44.05 PB in the men’s 400m: Beats Matthew Hudson-Smith (44.18). First Diamond League 400m win.

– Marileidy Paulino, 48.97 in the women’s 400m: Fourth sub-49 this season.

– Jess Hull wins the women’s 3000m, 8:24.69: Fierce surge with 200 to go

– Looking ahead: Josh Kerr to appear on the CITIUS MAG podcast Wednesday. Full US Championships preview episode dropping with Chris and Kyle later this week. Daily shows from USAs throughout the weekend. Subscribe on your platform of choice.

____________

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

BANDIT: For 2026, Bandit is providing support for any Unsponsored athletes competing at the USATF Outdoor Championships. Every contract includes a release clause so an athlete can sign with a bigger brand the moment an offer lands. 11 Unsponsored alumni have already gone on to deals with some of the largest footwear brands in the world. Competing at USATF Outdoors? Interested? Contact: ⁠⁠⁠⁠timrossi@banditrunning.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

CORE: The CORE 2 Thermal Sensor takes the guessing out of heat training. It reads your core body temperature in real time - no thermometer, nothing invasive, and you can actually see what's happening inside your body while you train. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take 10% off the CORE 2 with code CITIUS10 at checkout when you visit corebodytemp.com.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

VELOUS: VELOUS makes recovery footwear designed to help runners bounce back faster between sessions. Their sandals feature Tri-Motion™ Technology: a technical three-density foam system and contoured footbed engineered to cushion impact, support your arches, and help your toes stretch and relax on every step. Run. Recover. Repeat. with VELOUS! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get 20% off your VELOUS order with code CITIUSMAG20 at checkout including FREE Shipping!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber jump on the mics immediately following the London Diamond League as Josh Kerr ran 3:42.66 at the Novuna London Athletics Meet on Saturday, becoming the first person in history to break 3:43 in the mile and surpassing Hicham El Guerrouj’s 3:43.13 set in Rome in 1999. The 2023 world 1500m champion delivered on every promise of Project 222 in front of 60,000 people at London Stadium.

How it went down:

Pacer Brannon Kidder hit 400m in 54.75 on world record tempo, led through 800m in 1:50.63, then stepped aside with Žan Rudolf at Kerr’s instruction. Kerr hit 1200m in 2:46.39 and reached 1500m in 3:27.62 — faster than his own British record for the distance — before closing to the line alone. Yared Nuguse tracked him through the middle stages but couldn’t match the closing pace, finishing second in 3:45.69. Jake Heyward was third in a PB of 3:46.73 and Robert Farken fourth in a German record of 3:46.82.

The splits:

- 400m: 54.75

- 800m: 1:50.63

- 1200m: 2:46.39

- 1500m: 3:27.62

- Mile: 3:42.66 WR

A special sponsored bonus episode for you diving into a topic that’s become one of the biggest trends in endurance sports over the last few years: heat training. Olympian and CORE-supported athlete Clayton Young joins to share what it is, why it works, and how to do it safely at every level.

Discussed in this episode:

– Why heat training has gone mainstream in running: Running follows cycling, and the data has finally caught up to what some athletes like Clayton were already doing as far back as 2019.

– Heat training isn’t just for hot races: The cardiovascular adaptations — increased plasma, blood volume, red blood cell production, VO2 max, recovery — translate to cool races just as effectively.

– Clayton’s heat training origin story: NCAA 10K in Austin, 2019 — hot, humid, and Clayton was the only guy in the field who didn’t grab a water cup at a single aid station. He’d been implementing sauna sessions based on his own reading of the literature.

– The near-blackout story: Ten days before that same national championship, Clayton pushed too far in the sauna, blacked out twice in the hallway and it only got scarier from there.

– The Core body temperature sensor: Provides real-time zone tracking (Zone 1-2 = safe, Zone 3 = target for heat adaptation, above Zone 3 = stop). Takes the guesswork out of a discipline that was previously measured with nothing more than a watch and willpower.

– Heat adaptation score: Ranges from 0-100%. You gain benefits quickly and lose them slower than you think. Even one to two sessions per week during peak training blocks can maintain most of the adaptation.

– How Clayton structures heat training into his week: Key workouts are done as cool as possible — that’s the time to get fit, not to heat adapt, per USOC researcher Randy Wilbur’s framework.

– For everyday runners: Start with 15 minutes every other day and build from there just like mileage. Adjust your paces for heat and humidity the same way you would for altitude.

– Safety guidelines

– Special offer: If you’re interested in trying the CORE 2 Body Temperature Sensor yourself, CITIUS MAG podcast listeners can get 10% off with the code CITIUS10 at corebodytemp.com.