The Perfect Mile
Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It
Ratings3
Average rating4
15
Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It
Ratings3
Average rating4
There was a time when running the mile in four minutes was believed to be beyond the limits of human foot speed, and in all of sport it was the elusive holy grail. But in 1952, three world-class runners set out individually to break this barrier. Rodger Bannister was a young English medical student who epitomized the ideal of the amateur, finding time to run only between his hospital rounds. John Landy was the privileged son of a genteel Australian family, who trained relentlessly in an almost spiritual attempt to shape his body to this singular task. Then there was Wes Santee, the swaggering American, a Kansas farm boy who believed he was just plain better than everybody else. Spanning three continents and defying all odds, their collective quest captivated the world and stole headlines from the Korean War, the atomic arms race, and such legendary figures as Edmund Hillary, Willie Mays, and Native Dancer. In the tradition of Seabiscuit and Chariots of Fire, Neal Bascomb delivers a breathtaking story of unlikely heroes and leaves us with a lasting portrait of the twilight years of the golden age of sport. - Back cover.
Reviews with the most likes.
A great book about human determination. Nicely written. Really enjoyed it.
When I say I'm a couch potato, I mean it in the sense that you might describe someone as a “confirmed bachelor”: Is, was and always will be, by willful unceasing choice. So I can see you looking askance at my picking up a book about the men who were vying to run the first sub-4-minute mile. To which I say, I also read a book about a bunch of nerds running a student newspaper, and oh wait where was I going with this?
Anyway, Neal Bascomb writes one hell of a thriller. All around the same time, three very different men from three continents independently decided they wanted to be the first to break what was thought by some to be an unimpeachable barrier of human achievement: Running one mile in under four minutes.
Bascomb does an excellent job of pacing the story perfectly, though he was greatly helped by actual historical events unfolding in a pretty perfect ready-for-Hollywood fashion. There's the hardscrabble American running out of poverty to the University of Kansas, or two British Empireans (a budding English doctor and an aspiring Australian scientist) ran - before the professionalization of track and field - like no person ever had.
It's engaging throughout, and my only quibble is one you frequently find in historical books: Make sure you skip the pictures until you reach the end of the book, or the captions will spoil the story. That aside, picking up this book will get you as dialed in as the runners: It never really drags, and it'll keep you going until you finally reach the end.
