Conditions were far from ideal; it had been windy and raining. A considerable crosswind was blowing across the track as the mile race was set to begin. In a carefully planned race, Bannister was aided by Chris Brasher, a former Cambridge runner who acted as a pacemaker. For the first half-mile, Brasher led the field, with Bannister close behind, and then another runner took up the lead and reached the three-quarter-mile mark in 3 minutes 0. Thereafter, Bannister threw in all his reserves and broke the tape in 3 minutes Bannister went on to win British and Empire championships in the mile run, and the European title in the 1,meter event in At the end of the year, Bannister retired from athletic competition to pursue his medical career full time and in recounted his experiences in the book The Four Minute Mile.
He later earned a medical degree from Oxford and became a neurologist. In , he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
He died in March , at age His world record in the mile did not stand long, and the record continued to be lowered with increasingly controlled climatic and surface conditions, more accurate timing devices, and improvements in training and running techniques.
Because a mile is not a metric measurement, it is not a regular track event nor featured in the Olympics. It continues, however, to be run by many top runners as a glamour event. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
On the morning of 6 May , Sir Roger Bannister did the impossible. Indeed, Bannister had been told by physiologists that not only was running the four-minute mile impossible for an athlete to do, but attempting to do so was dangerous to one's health. The following months saw Bannister toying with the idea of giving up athletics, before he decided to set himself a new goal of becoming the First man to run a mile in under four minutes.
Inspired by his running hero Sydney Wooderson, who had made a remarkable comeback in by setting a new British record in the same event, Bannister set out to achieve the holy grail of athletics.
Alongside Bannister, the two other principal runners involved for the AAA were his friends Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, with the attempt carefully planned between the three.
Down to the last moment before the race, Bannister had misgivings about the weather, which had seen a strong wind gather at the track, but he was persuaded to go ahead with the attempt by his two pacemakers. It is a fantastic race! Devon, have you run it? I have run it, this past year. Sure more trail less towpath and not 8 miles of road at the end would be nice, but to have that big of a field, it is what it is.
Soft enough surface and you get to have your trail fun at the beginning. The AT section is not for the weak-hearted especially when weather is involved. Lots of rocks covered with wet late fall leaves! I think it maintains the best parts of the ultra feel that we all like but has a big race feel too. If you have any more questions or get in and want more specifics, just email me. But just for the record, within a year of his sub-four mile only Landy had joined him in breaking the four-minute barrier Landy shattered it, going Thirteen months after Bannister, an additional three runners broke four minutes in one race.
Then it was another year before anyone else did so. Dammit, then Tony Robbins has misled me! Much as I love the guy, he is prone to hyperbole. I actually tried to verify the number and found it surprisingly hard to get an answer.
You seem to know a lot of running history; where do find stats like that? Those who truly knew running thought it was possible.
I had always heard the story told similarly to the way you did, Matt. This led me to noodling around the Web in search of more comprehensive info. However, I did copy and paste the list up to into a Word file. Thanks, Pete. You are the source of a wealth of good information about running!
Were there technological improvements, or innovations in training? I can understand why the standards improve over longer time periods; this just seems like such a short time.
Consider this: The mile record in was around ; in , Nurmi ran Looked at in that context, breaking —first one man, then a parade of others—was just a step along the way in an inevitable march.
Have we finally closed in on the limits of human performance? Noakes attributes the accelerating gains in performance to the adoption of better training methods after Zatopek showed the way with interval training in the early s. How influential that last factor might have been is unknown, but of course there was no testing back then, amphetamines were definitely becoming more present in the culture and their possible benefits in athletics were known. As for Landy, despite that amazing It was at the Australian national championships.
Robbie Morgan-Morris went through the first lap in 59 seconds followed closely by myself, Alec Henderson, John Plummer and the favourite [Landy]. At the half-mile Robbie was still there and the time was I loped along behind him, anxious to finish at least among the first three runners and improve my best mile time.
Soon after the third lap I took the lead and then on a bend occurred an incident that stunned everybody. He evidently tried also to wedge his way through between me and the kerb, and in doing so accidentally clipped my heel. I lost balance and went sprawling on to the track while Alec staggered on to the verge of the arena, recovered and ran on. John had no other choice but to jump over me, his spikes lacerating my right arm as he did so.
I was in such a daze that I felt no pain. Within seconds the whole field was jumping over me or running wide.
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