The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes. One Goal. And Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes. One Goal. And Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb

Wes Santee, John Landy and Roger Bannister were all trying to be the first to run a sub-four-minute mile. As I only recognized one of the names, I had a strong idea how it would turn out. However, the story is still dramatic. Each of the runners had challenges. It is clear that a bit of good (or bad) fortune is involved in setting athletic records. It is interesting to see parallels with the modern mess of the NCAA as well as the attempts to complete the first female sub-four mile.

Of the three, Wes Santee had the worst luck. He was constantly stymied by the US athletics association. At one time, the prevented him from running the mile because he already qualified in another event. Later, they banned him because he received too much money in expenses. (The organization had authorized those expenses and made a financial killing on the events, but Santee wasn't able to see any of it.) After college, he was full time in the military and competed in running events there, but never got to run an official sub 4 mile.

John Landy was from Australia and had little support from his national sports federation. He also competed in one race against Bannister with an injured foot. He was the second person to break four minutes and held the mile record for three years.

Bannister was the first to officially break the record. He held onto the ideal of amerture individual competitor, only reluctantly getting outside coaching. He was also studying and later working as a doctor. The running was a sideline. He had pacers help out and came close to running a sub-four mile numerous times before he finally broke the barrier at Oxford. The weather was horrible that day and he thought about trying again another time. However, it cleared up close to race time and he was able to do it.

The audiobook has a small afterward where the author discusses his experiences meeting the runners and the very different personalities.