The best four minutes of running history

On May 6, 1954, Dr. Roger Gilbert Bannister ran a mile (1.609 kilometres) in 3:59.4 (3 minutes, 59 seconds, and 4 tenths of a second) to become the first person in the world to run a mile under four minutes. With this astounding run, Roger Bannister became an instant legend in the history of running. This moment is described as one of the best sporting moments in the history of mankind, and is often compared to breakthrough moments like the moon landing by Neil Armstrong and Edmund Hillary’s climb of Mt. Everest.

Since the mid-1800s, the running community (especially the mile runners) had been fascinated by the goal of running a mile under 4 minutes. It was considered to be a barrier beyond the capabilities of the human body. Thousands of runners tried to breach this over several decades but were not successful. This was until one medical student from England did the unthinkable in a small county event, which was witnessed by just a few lucky hundred spectators.

Roger Bannister was a fabulous runner but still an outlier in the world of running and was least expected to breach this barrier. But this determined medical student had been preparing for this impossible record and training hard with his fellow athletes and coach. He did all his training while continuing his college medical studies! Furthermore, he refused to accept the conventional training regimen of his time and worked on his own training plan; for this reason, he was considered to be a ‘lone wolf’ in the world of running.

Ironically, the best four minutes of the running history happened with little fan fare and almost did not happen. The race transpired on the athletic field in Iffley Road, Oxford. The day had been extremely windy and it had been raining on and off. The race track was a basic cinder track which had gotten damp. There were just a few hundred spectators, mostly students, who had come to wintness ‘just another open mile race’.

Roger Bannister with his personal best time of 4:03 had been working tirelessly with the single minded objective of breaching the 4-minute barrier. He was aided by two fellow runners – Chris Graffer and Chris Chataway, along with their coach, Frank Stampfl. Looking at the conditions on the race day, Bannister did not want to run but Graffer wanted them to go for it while Chataway was uncertain. Ultimately, the group decided to go for the record but did not announce it. The plan was to have Graffer pace the first two laps, followed by Chataway in the third lap, and Bannister to push in the final lap. What happened thereafter are the best four minutes of the running history!

Let us relive these best four minutes of the running history in this awesome video with audio voice over of the Bannister himself.

Statistically speaking, Bannister broke the then-world record of 4:01 by just 2 seconds, but within those two seconds, he breached an impossible barrier. In the current times, this is equivalent to the 2-hour barrier in a full marathon. While Eliud Kipchoge broke this in an unofficial event, humanity still awaits the official breaking of this barrier. Hopefully, there is a runner just like Roger Bannister somewhere out in the world who will very soon stun the world.

Bannister regarded the 4-minute barrier as more of a psychological barrier than physical; and rightfully so. Just 46 days after Bannister’s record, John Landy also broke this barrier. And thereafter, they both broke the barrier again at the Empire Games in Vancouver, in a race dubbed as the Miracle Mile, while competing with each other. Bannister won this race, which was dominated by Landy all the way until the third lap. As things stand today, the world record for a mile is an astounding 3:43.13, set by the running legend Hicham El Guerrouj in Rome in 1999. Needless to say, a few thousand runners have broken the 4-minute barrier as of today.

It’s almost as if Roger Bannister’s run in 1954 made the world believe that this barrier can be broken by a human. And this is all that was needed to see the floodgates open!

---

If you liked reading this peice, may I request you to share this within your network and help other runners become aware of this incredible piece of the running history. Also, having more readers would motivate and inspire a hobby writer like me to write more. Thank you!