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Home Track & Field

A Life Defined-The 60th Anniversary of the “Four Minute Mile”, by Peter Thompson, from British Milers Club magazine, May 2014

Larry Ederby Larry Eder
May 6, 2014
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The following article, by reknowned coach Peter J. L. Thompson, puts the sixtieth anniversary of the first sub four minute mile and Sir Roger Bannister, into a proper perspective. Read it, share it, then, go take a run. 

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BRITISH MILING HISTORY

HERE WE REFLECT BACK ON TWO EXTRAORDINARY SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS WHICH HAVE DEFINED OUR SPORT AND
INFLUENCED OUR CLUB. INTERNATIONALLY RESPECTED COACH
PETER THOMPSON ASSESSES THE MONUMENTAL
ACHIEVEMENTS OF SIR ROGER BANNISTER AND DIANE LEATHER.

A Life Defined – The 60th Anniversary of the ‘Four Minute Mile’

What defines truly exceptional achievement?
It has been said or written many times that more individuals have climbed Mount
Everest than have broken four minutes 
for the mile. That’s a fact, it’s a thing we can’t deny. More then 3,500 people
have successfully summited the 29,029
ft. Himalayan mountain peak, whereas
by October 2013, just 1,303 people had
broken four minutes for the mile.

There are seven billion people in the
world, more or less, and to be one of
either group, Everest conquerors or sub-4
minute milers, surely defines ‘exceptional
achievement’. The difference is that you
cannot buy a guide to take you sub-4. You
simply have to have a ‘genetic gift’ that is
then individually honed.

And, while we are on the subject of
numbers, there are probably considerably
more articles on Sir Roger Bannister and his
achievements than individuals who have
climbed Everest. Let us, then, represent
Roger Bannister’s life as a play in three
Acts with a Monologue interjected. And let
us, predominantly, have his words define
the script. Who could know the man better
during his life?



Act I – In which a boy discovers his love for
running and develops under the influence
of the spires of Oxford

The following is excerpted from ‘The Joy
of Running’, a June 20
th, 1955, Sports
Illustrated autobiographical article:

“I remember a moment when I stood
barefoot on firm dry sand by the sea…
I looked down at the regular ripples on
the sand, and could not absorb so much
beauty… In this supreme moment I leapt
in sheer joy. I was startled and frightened
by the tremendous excitement that so few
steps could create…

I was almost running now, and a fresh
rhythm entered my body. No longer
conscious of my movement, I discovered a
new unity with nature. I had found a new
source of power and beauty, a source I never
dreamt existed. From intense moments like
this, love of running can grow.

As a boy I had no clear understanding of
why I wanted to run. I just ran anywhere and
everywhere… I wonder how much part sheer
fright plays in running… I ran for it when 
I heard my first air-raid siren. I imagined
bombs and machine gun bullets raining on
me if I didn’t go my fastest. Was this a little
of the feeling I have now when I shoot into
the lead before the last bend and am afraid
of a challenge down the finishing straight?
To move into the lead means making an
attack requiring fierceness and confidence,
but fear must play some part in the last
stage, when no relaxation is possible and all
discretion is thrown to the winds…

… I went up to Oxford in the autumn of 1946 to study medicine. In Oxford, I
had been told, a man without a sport is
like a ship without a sail… Of all sports,
running seemed to be the only one for
which I had any aptitude… Since 1945
when I watched my first international
athletic meeting, I had a schoolboy dream
of becoming a runner. I had never watched
anything more than school sports until my
father took me to the White City (where
Roger was inspired by the sight of Sydney
Wooderson). Perhaps he wanted me to be a
runner. He himself had won his school mile
and promptly fainted afterward–as many
runners did in those days.”

Oxford proved to be the fertile soil that
Bannister’s love and talent for running
begged for, with his rapidly developing
speed in the mile and 1500m drawing
the attention of the media and athletics
authorities. But, he declined an invitation to
race in the 1948 Olympics.

By 1951, Bannister had captured the
British title in the mile and felt ready for
Olympic competition. He finished fourth in
the 1500m, breaking the existing Olympic
record, but attracted a typically negative
and judgemental response from the British
sports media.

Bannister’s own response to the media’s
reaction was to take on a new challenge, by
setting out to break the world mile record
and to take it under the four-minute barrier.
He was now studying full-time at St Mary’s
Hospital Medical School and could commit
to train a brief 45 minutes a day. He
determined to optimise this time to achieve
his goals.

Monologue – The assault on ‘Everest’
Roger Bannister was very aware that he
was not alone in his pursuit of the four
–
minute mile. Around the world, other
groups of athletes were preparing for their
races. So, Bannister planned an attempt 
in the A.A.A. vs. Oxford University match
on May 6
th, 1954. He was to be paced by
his training partners, Chris Brasher and
Christopher Chataway. On the day, a strong
wind threatened to ruin the attempt but it
abated somewhat in the late afternoon and
Bannister decided it was “now or never”.
The athletes assembled for the race.
The
following is the autobiographical account of
the end of the race, excerpted from the
First
Four Minutes
.

“Failure is as exciting to watch as
success, provided the effort is absolutely
genuine and complete. But the spectators
fail to understand – and how can they
know – the mental agony through which an
athlete must pass before he can give his
maximum effort. And how rarely, if he is
built as I am, he can give it. …

… My body had long since exhausted all its energy, but it went on running just
the same. The physical overdraft came only from greater will power. This was the
crucial moment when my legs were strong
enough to carry me over the last few yards
as they could never have done in previous
years. With five yards to go the tape seemed
almost to recede. Would I ever reach it?

Those last few seconds seemed never-
ending. The faint line of the finishing tape
stood ahead as a haven of peace after the struggle. The arms of the world were
waiting to receive me if only I reached the tape without slackening my speed. If I faltered, there would be no arms to
hold me and the world would be a cold,
forbidding place, because I had been so
close. I leapt at the tape like a man taking
his last spring to save himself from the
chasm that threatens to engulf him.

My effort was over and I collapsed almost
unconscious, with an arm on either side of
me. It was only then that real pain overtook
me. I felt like an exploded flashlight with
no will to live; I just went on existing in

the most passive physical state without
being quite unconscious. Blood surged
from my muscles and seemed to fell me.
It was as if all my limbs were caught in an ever-tightening vice. I knew that I had
done it before I even heard the time. I was
too close to have failed, unless my legs
had played strange tricks at the finish by
slowing me down and not telling my tiring
brain they had done so.”

The stopwatches held the answer.

The announcement came,
“Ladies and
gentlemen, here is the result of event
nine, the one mile: first, number forty 
one, R. G. Bannister, Amateur Athletic
Association and formerly of Exeter and
Merton Colleges, Oxford, with a time which
is a new meeting and track record, and
which – subject to ratification – will be a
new English Native, British National, All-
Comers, European, British Empire and
World Record. The time was three…”.

The roar of the crowd drowned out the
rest of the announcement. Bannister’s time
was 3 min 59.4 sec. The unbreakable
record had been broken. At age 25, Roger
Bannister had etched his name in history.
 


Act II – Running and competing, after
May 6
th 1954, in which a racing career
concludes
.

The ‘floodgates’ didn’t open for sub-4
minute miles, as predicted, after that day
at Iffley Road but within a month, the
Australian runner John Landy had broken
Roger Bannister’s record, running 3:57.9 in Turku, Finland. Global interest was
focused on the mile distance and this set
the scene for an epic meeting, ‘The Mile of
the Century’, to be conducted in July in the
1954 British Empire and Commonwealth
Games in Vancouver, Canada. The mile final
would be a showdown between the world’s
two fastest milers, Landy the front-runner
against Bannister the fast finisher and it was
as publicised and anticipated as Mo Farah’s 
2012 Olympic appearances. In execution it
did not disappoint.

Following Landy’s front-runnning, Roger
Bannister recalls his thinking with 200m
remaining,
“If Landy did not slacken soon I
would be finished.
As we entered the last
bend I tried to convince myself that he was
tiring. With each stride now I attempted to
husband a little strength for the moment 
at the end of the bend when I had decided
to pounce. I knew this would be the point
where Landy would least expect me, and if I
failed to overtake him the race would be his.

When the moment came my mind would
galvanise my body to the greatest effort it
had ever known. I knew I was tired. There
might be no response, but it was my only
chance.”

What happened next sealed the legendary
status of this race. By pure coincidence,
Bannister launched his attack right at the
exact moment that Landy looked back
inside and to his left. The Englishman
passed by unseen and gained the vital few
metres to go for victory.

The final result saw both runners go
under four minutes but Bannister came in
first at 3:58.8 to Landy’s 3:59.6. Laterthat year, Roger Bannister was awarded
the Silver Pears Trophy, bestowed annually
for the outstanding British achievement in
any field. He also secured the European 
title in the 1500 metres before retiring from
competition, aged 25.



Act III – In which our hero, now retired
from athletics’ competition, fulfills his
professional and personal goals, out of
sight of an adoring and respectful public.
On stage, the lights dim to almost darkness
but the action has continuity and is
purposeful for society.

It is perhaps fitting that the third Act
be the shortest of all, in script, despite
it covering the longest temporal period,
60 years. This brevity can be regarded as
the antithesis of what Sir Roger Bannister
perhaps would wish for his own story.

At the end of 1954, Bannister retired from athletics’ competition but not running,
to pursue his medical studies full-time,
becoming a consultant neurologist. He gained
closure on his racing career in the well 
expressed and, at times, lyrical prose of his
autobiography,
First Four Minutes, published
in 1955.
It has since been reprinted as,
Four
Minute
Mile and Frank Horwill would always
insist that this autobiography should be
required reading for all BMC boys and girls
and women and men.

After completing his medical studies, he
combined a career of clinical practice and
research as a neurologist. He continued to run for enjoyment and fitness until
1975, when he suffered a serious car
accident that, among other injuries, broke
his ankle. 1975 was also the year that he
gained recognition from the realm for his
combined achievements, being knighted.
He has maintained a life-long enthusiasm
for Athletics that is evidenced by his
appearance and interest in previous and
current events.

Recently, “The Bannister Effect’ has
gained increasing media coverage and is
used by many in motivational business, life
and sport settings. The argument goes that
we humans are subject to believing that all
sorts of things that are really only difficult
are actually impossible, until it is proven
otherwise. Bannister’s achievement of the
seemingly ‘impossible’ sub-4 minute mile
is the prime example that unless you can
believe that something is possible, it is likely
to remain improbable.

Our play concludes with the curtain
remaining raised, as the lights once again
brighten to reveal our hero, central stage.

Roger Bannister has refused steadfastly to
be defined or constrained by his ‘3 minutes,
59.4 seconds
of fame’. Instead the eminent
neurologist, Knight of this realm, author 
of a classic medical textbook and former
Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, has
insisted that his achievements on the Iffley
Road’ cinders on May 6
th, 1954 pale in his comparison to the other achievements
in his life. But, for the rest of the world, he exists primarily as a snapshot, an


image of supreme determination, relief and
achievement frozen forever in, and of, time.
Roger Bannister was the first to successfully
summit athletics’ ‘Everest’ and shall be
always remembered and revered for this
achievement.

Author

  • Larry Eder

    Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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Larry Eder

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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