Is Josh Kerr Running’s Greatest Storyteller?

Editor’s note: We’re delighted to have Raziq Rauf, author of the Running Sucks Substack and the book This Is Running, share his thoughts on Josh Kerr’s Project 222 mile record attempt ahead of the London Diamond League Mile. 


 Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record in the mile distance (3:43.13) has stood for over 27 years, since Wednesday 7 July 1999. This weekend, Josh Kerr is planning to beat it. He’s been telling us for months.

It’s been a brazenly transparent campaign by the Scot as he and his sponsor, Brooks, has labeled the challenge “Project 222” after their target of 222 seconds (3:42). Similar to Breaking2 and Breaking4 with Eliud Kipchoge and Faith Kipyegon respectively, it simplifies and gamifies the intensely difficult challenge of running faster than anyone has done before in a way to make a spectacle out of it.

Unlike Breaking2 or Breaking4, Kerr is aiming to break the record in open competition, in the London Diamond League Mile. He’ll be racing against a deep field that includes Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler. His Brooks Beasts teammate Brannon Kidder and Slovenian Žan Rudolf are the designated pacers. 

What’s interesting is the way Kerr and Brooks have managed to frame their narrative around the Diamond League meet. There is no doubt that Josh Kerr is a world class athlete, but he’s also a marvelous storyteller, and he wants everyone to know the story of his love: middle-distance running.

This chapter was announced in March, when Kerr said clearly how much he believes the sport “needs moments” and how being open about his goals can help middle-distance running’s popularity.

We saw it in 2024 during the protracted public battle with Jakob Ingebrigtsen that culminated in the 1500m at the 2026 Olympics in Paris. After a decade of competing against one another at track meets around the world, the pair had graduated to trading places as the two fastest in the distance. While Kerr went into the race as the reigning World Champion, Ingebrigtsen was defending his gold medal from Tokyo 2020.

Even more than the clear quality of these two ultra-competitive powerhouses, there was more than just a little spice between the two personalities. Neither was a blushing wallflower and they loved to rub up against one another. While the Norwegian always had a sharp but withering barb for Kerr, we knew there was always a reply to come.

The war of words included accusations, claims, veiled insults, but always more bluster than threat. Despite the tetchy bravado, there was always a sense of begrudging respect between the No.1 and No.2 of the discipline. Kerr vs Ingebrigtsen had become one of sport’s great rivalries and it had captured everyone’s attention. It was even more riveting than that of Sebastian Coe, Steve Cram and Steve Ovett back in the 1980s.

It’s all Marketing 101, of course. Both Kerr and Ingebrigtsen understood that their public feuds were good for the sport and defining a clear enemy gives the audience an emotional hook. By creating differentiation in the products (in this case Kerr and Ingebrigtsen) track fans had to choose a side. If there ever was a casual 1500m fan, the intense human competition transformed any passivity into loyalty. They were making fans.

With Jakob Ingebrigtsen injured on and off since 2024, however, Josh Kerr has needed a new angle for marketing his record attempt. Instead of finding a new adversary, however, he’s chosen to go it alone.

Another perfect piece of marketing is putting forward a human truth, and the desire to break the longest-standing record in world athletics – with the plan laid out for all and sundry to follow along with – is no doubt a compelling one.

Beyond the record, Josh Kerr has taken on a fight against himself, and that’s something that every runner can relate to. His current record in the mile is 3:45.34 but his goal this weekend is an ambitious 3:42, meaning he must chop 3.34 seconds off his personal best mile time. I personally think that anything 3:42.99 or faster should qualify as achieving the 222, but I’m not involved in the challenge beyond being a bystander.

Speaking of which, I had the pleasure of watching Josh Kerr racing the 800m twice in Los Angeles in preparation for Project 222. Brandon Miller won both races, but Kerr logged an 800m personal best of 1:44.60 at the LA Track Fest in May before logging a slightly less encouraging 1:45.46 at the Los Angeles Grand Prix in June.

The great thing about this whole story is how Josh is telling his own story. He’s got a newspaper column in The Telegraph and he’s releasing video documentation via his own YouTube channel, gaining tens of thousands of views for each clip. This is the notable part because usually it’s the brand sponsoring the athlete that tries to own the storytelling, but Brooks started releasing their own content much later in the process.

Brooks are more central to the question of where those 3.34 seconds are going to come from. When Josh Kerr stands in front of a British crowd on Saturday, hiding behind those famous Oakley lenses, he’ll be confident in the ground-breaking technology that’s been created for him.

There are Hyperion 222 spikes that boast a carbon plate and rocker, and a speed suit that’s said to be more breathable and aerodynamic than anything that’s come before. But could bicarb be the real difference? The supplement is highly effective at delaying muscle fatigue in middle-distance races, and Kerr and his team have been experimenting with various concoctions. The thinking is that they have found the one that works for him, and they’re confident that they will help find those crucial seconds.

A huge part of why following along with these stories is so fun is not knowing how they end. I remember crowding around a wall-mounted television in an east London pub with dozens of others as the gun went off in the 1500m final in 2024. Neither Kerr nor Ingebrigtsen won that Olympic final.

Will Yared Nuguse step up on Saturday in the same way that Cole Hocker did in Paris? Nuguse finished just one millisecond behind Josh Kerr on that night, after all.

Let’s see what Kerr and the final furlong of Project 222 have in store for us.