You may find you like the track: I did. Could never stand the long boring runs.
What I'd do is 200m repeats. Do 200m at close to full out, and then coast the rest of the lap back to the start. Repeat without stopping. When you can do 30 seconds for the 200 and then 60 second cruise for the rest of the lap, guess what? You're on your 6min mile pace you are aiming for. Of course you're not going to run the race in bursts like that, but if you can do 6 laps of those repeats, then you can easily do your 1.5 miles in 9min.