I've only raced the mile once, but my warmup was about 15 minutes of easy jogging with 4-5 accelerations to almost all-out sprint just before having to line up.

Approach: A bat out of hell is too slow. Compared to 5K pace, you should by flying, just one notch back from "there is a rabid pit bull 10 yards behind me."  Hold that for 1200 meters, and then kick it up even more when you think you can't go any faster to bring it home. 

I ran three 1 mile races this year and ideally, my warmup consists of 1.5 to 2 miles of easy running, 3 to 5 minutes at 10k pace, followed by 1 to 4 strides.  The entire warmup usually covers 2.5 to 3 miles depending on how much time I have.

As for the race, my best advice is to run as hard as you can for as long as you can.  It sounds amazingly simple because well, it is.  Resist the urge to let your pace fall drastically, and fight to hang in there.

Do not even bother looking at your watch for pace feedback, it will screw you up.  Just hit it at the start, run dat ass off, then stop it when you cross the finish.

 Thanks LRB, aka the Justin Verlander of RA.

Not that the dude who got bombed against San Fran in last years world series.

I'm racing a 1 mile race tonight (Sat night, NZ time). It's a running club race so the field will be small and there may or may not be much competition. I'm not anywhere near the same league as you guys, but will give it my best. The weather is terrible - squally showers and a gusty windy. Half the race we will have wind at our backs, then it's a head wind home.

 

Yikes. I just did my first half two weeks so I haven't been doing much speedwork at all, let alone the right kind of speedwork. Last year I won the women's mile race, but I think there will be some faster ladies there tonight, unless the weather deters some (here's hoping!).

Kiwi - please post your experience with your mile race.  Thanks!

I think it is a good idea if you have the time to practice running at mile pace. If you have time, try doing quarters at mile pace with 200m active rest in between repeats. The mile is very tricky too fast and you burn out before the first half mile, and too slow you have too much left in the tank. That is why I disagree with the bat out of hell approach. If you don't have time to practice figure out where you want to be at each quarter and run that time. Just so you know I started running track races before longer distances that is why my my approach is different from the others.

One thing I do agree with is to run a good mile a good warm up is critical. The importance of the warm up is inversely proportional to the distance of the race. The shorter the race the more important it is to warm up. I would do 15-20 minutes of easy running, dynamic stretching, and then strides. I would warm up right up until the race.

I'm racing a 1 mile race tonight (Sat night, NZ time). It's a running club race so the field will be small and there may or may not be much competition. I'm not anywhere near the same league as you guys, but will give it my best. The weather is terrible - squally showers and a gusty windy. Half the race we will have wind at our backs, then it's a head wind home.

 

Yikes. I just did my first half two weeks so I haven't been doing much speedwork at all, let alone the right kind of speedwork. Last year I won the women's mile race, but I think there will be some faster ladies there tonight, unless the weather deters some (here's hoping!).

I ran a 200 and mile in a club race a few days after my last half. 2 easy runs on a treadmill went well so I thought how bad could it be? My first few steps of the 200 were very painful, and the mile was slow. Next time I will make sure that it is at least a week after any half.

I'm rooting for that to happen real soon vs. Boston.

I would not bet against you, they looked invincible against the Rays.