The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb

 

The Perfect Mile

During the 1950s many people thought running a mile in under 4 minutes was impossible. In 1954 Roger Bannister broke the barrier, surprising everyone. The Perfect Mile goes in depth into how Roger Bannister ended up breaking the four minute mile. The book starts back before the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, going in depth about the life of three runners who would later try to break the four minute barrier; Roger Bannister, Wes Santee, and John Landy. Bascomb does a good job of comparing the runners’ lives before they started trying to break the barrier. Roger Bannister grew up in Britain in a working class family and showed running talent at a young age. Wes Santee, like Bannister, showed running talent at a young age. Santee grew up in rural Kansas and won many mile races at local track meets, despite his strict father not approving of his running. Unlike the other two runners, John Landy did soccer growing up in Melbourne Australia, only doing track until later in college. 

One of the most interesting things I found about this book was how Bascomb explained each runner’s training schedule. It was quite interesting to see what a top track runner’s workout was like compared to modern day ones. In the 1950s there were many misconceptions about running and training so many athletes and coaches came up with their philosophies of how to train. All three of the athletes had different training techniques. Bannister ran for much shorter amounts of time due to his time constraints as a medical student which only allowed him a sliver of time during lunch. Santee on the other hand was on the Kansas University track team which allowed him plenty of time to get his training in. Santee’s was the most comparable to modern day training schedules. Landy had the most intense practices. After meeting the famous Emil Zátopek in the 1952 Helsinki games, Landy decided to train just as hard as Zátopek. Like Bannister, Landy had time constraints because of college. Landy ran late at night and did a workout five days a week and a longer endurance run two days a week. Landy would run extremely hard every day no matter how sore his legs were. After a while, this started to pay off and he ran a 4:02 mile. Along with having different schedules the runners have much different racing strategies. Landy had a bold and more risky strategy of leading the race at a fast pace. Bannister was known for his kick in the last lap that would usually put him in first place. 

Bascomb slowly builds up to how Bannister finally breaks the four minute barrier. The race to break the barrier was quite competitive as all three runners were trying to break it. Each runner had their reasons to beat it. Bannister wanted to prove to the world that amateur athletics were still a feasible option for top runners. At the time many runners were starting to become professional which meant their job was running, Bannister wanted to prove that one did not have to do this to become a top runner. Additionally, Britain was known for its athletics but after an unfortunate loss in the 1952 Helsinki games, the country desperately wanted to prove they were still good at athletics. Santee was mostly doing it just to prove the barrier could be broken and be the first person to do it. Landy on the other hand also wanted to do it for his country to prove Australia was good at athletics as they had gone unnoticed for many years. I found this intriguing to see how each runner had their motives to try to break the barrier.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone reading this blog as it was not only an interesting story but it was completely true so I found I learned a lot about the sport. Bascomb does a good job of keeping the information interesting while tying it into the story. He does a good job of analyzing the effect of Bannister breaking the four minute barrier which proved the thought to be impossible to be possible. 

-Ross