At 2:13 PM Eastern time today, the amount of American men who have run under the 13:00 barrier in the 5K could increase by 50 percent.

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Bernard Lagat, Ryan Hill, Hassan Mead, Evan Jager, and Olympic 5K silver medalist Paul Chelimo will line up against the best non-Mo Farah 5K runners in the world on one of the fastest tracks in the planet in Letzigrund Stadium at the penultimate Diamond League meet in Zurich, Switzerland.

Only six American men have ever broken 13 minutes, and none did it between 1996 and 2009. Bernard Lagat has done it six times; Chris Solinsky, three; Bob Kennedy, two; and Dathan Ritzenhein, Matt Tegenkamp, and Galen Rupp have done it once each. None have run sub-13:00 since Lagat on June 9, 2013, and the only two Americans to surpass that mark it in one race were Lagat and Solinsky a week before that.

Chelimo, Lagat, and Mead ran 13:03, 13:06, and 13:09 in an Olympic final that went 64, 64, 63, 66, 64 from 2K to 4K. If they're still physically and mentally fresh, they could all break 13:00 in a race that doesn't sag in the middle.

Hill just ran a 7:30 3K on Saturday in Paris, and Jager hasn't raced since Rio. Jager and Mead are the eighth- and tenth-fastest American men ever in the 5K--both own 13:02 PBs--and Hill ran 13:05 in Brussels last year.

The masters world record in the 5K before Lagat turned 40 in December 2014 was 13:43; Lagat lowered that to 13:14 last year and 13:06 in the Olympic final. He could take it below 13:00 tomorrow.

When Dathan Ritzenhein ran 12:56 at this meet seven years ago, it broke a 13-year drought, and was a seminal, shocking moment for American distance running. Lagat, Solinsky, Tegenkamp, and Rupp all went sub-13:00 in the next three years. Every sub-13:00 American since Kennedy is either Kenyan-born, or trains with one of the major Nike groups in Oregon. Even if all five dip under the barrier tomorrow, that won't change.

It's unlikely that Lagat's 12:53.60 American record will go down--no one in the world has run that fast since 2013. But keep an eye on that time just in case. Canada could see a national record and historic mark, though, as Jager and Hill's training partner Mo Ahmed is in the race. His 13:01 from Prefontaine is the Canadian record, meaning that Ahmed would be the first Canadian man ever under 13 minutes.

The main thing that could stop the sub-13 chase is that Muktar Edris and Yomif Kejelcha will be more focused on getting the win, Diamond League title, and $40,000 prize rather than running fast. Olympic bronze medalist Hagos Gebrhiwet is in the field, but he's raced one less Diamond League meet than Edris and Kejelcha. In Diamond League scoring, he trails Edris by 15 points and Kejelcha by 7. With 20-12-8-6-4-2 scoring, he can only beat Edris if he wins and Edris finishes out of the top four.

The pacers are scheduled to tow the field through 3K in 7:54--that's 13:10 pace, which is plenty fast enough for a negative split for the last 2K. But someone will have to grind from the front at some point in the second half if they want fast times. The Americans are ready to run fast, but they might have to make it happen themselves.

​UPDATE: ​Mead's agent Stephen Haas tweeted that contrary to what is listed on the IAAF site, the rabbits will be coming through 3K in 7:45, which is 12:55 pace.

Revised pace for the men's 5k at the Zurich DL, 1k 233, 2k 509, 3k 745 #ZurichDL

— Stephen HAAS (@HAASruns) August 31, 2016

That makes a lot more sense.