The 51st anniversary of the first sub four minute mile performance is celebrated in many ways...at Nike, they did a wonderful thing, they got a few hundred people together, all ages and all shapes, to run a mile.

The mile is a near perfect event. Just about four laps on a 400 meter track, and the perfect combination of endurance and speed. One does not need to possess more than average speed to run a 400 meter in 60 seconds, ah, but to put four laps, not stopping in a row, in 60 seconds each--that is a conundrum.

As of this date, the four minute barrier has been broken by 1200 humans. When Sir Roger Bannister broke four minutes, on the Iffley Road Track at Oxford on May 5, 1954, there were about four runners in the world capable of breaking the four minute mile. John Landy in Australia, Wes Santee of the U.S, Roger Bannister of the UK and Sandor Iharos of Hungary. Landy trained on hilly trails, Santee on intervals, as did Bannsiter and Iharos. Who would get the sub four minute mile first? That was the question in the sporting world in 1954--oh, the agony of being the best in the world.

Brutus Hamilton, the great coach and track visionary from UC Berkeley, had written a list of human limits in 1939. In his list, which was reprinted in the Archie's Black Book, a book of track trivia published in 1958, men would not run faster than 10.2 for the 100 meters, 45.4 for 400 meters, and 4.02 for the mile. He did not believe that man could handle the rigors of a mile faster than 4.02--and don't even get coaches talking about women running. Percy Cerruty, the coach of Herb Elliot, said one time that women were not meant to run sub five minutes or to lift weights.

In the First Four Minutes, a tremendous book by Bannister, he speaks of his training the week before and the day of hiking he did to deflect the pressure. The day of the attempt was not perfect, a bit too windy, so windy in fact that Bannister considered not running that day. But he wanted to be first, he needed to be first, and he took the challenge, with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, and the rest is history.

Workouts for Bannister? A good week might hit 15 miles, with 12 times a 400 very fast on Tuesday, a half mile in 1.56 on Thursday, a fast five mile run, and perhaps a hard 3/4 of mile on another day. Bone churning intervals, building up to the race day. Interval focused, which praised the development of speed and endurance from repetitions of hard 400s, 200s, 300s.

(A bit of trivia, the next time that four minutes would be broken at the Iffley Road Track was by one Craig Masback, over 20 years later, who is now the CEO of USA Track & Field.)

Last year, the Nike mile event was an elite run, and a large crowd showed up to celebrate some fast miling. This year, there were races for ages 10-11, 12-14, a President's Race for 5 to 8 minute miles, an elite mile and mile relay.

The kids were fun to watch, as there was a nice turnout and the large crowd cheered each and every finisher. A young woman ran 5.26 in the 12-14 year-olds race and she showed the crowd what a good finish was all about--using her arms she powered under the predicted time by announcer John Capriotti.

The event was also a lot of fun, and designer and former 28.38 10k runner Todd Lewis showed why skinny distance runners should not get into speed suits. Lewis was joined by three other seriously deranged runners, including Tony Bignell and Josh Rowe.

Lewis ran the Presidents mile, which had four runners under 4.35 and the first woman at 4.59. Lewis ran a 4.51 in his speed suit. The great thing about the mile was that many of the participants had trained for it-- over the past three months, under the training suggestions of Josh Rowe and John Truax, runners like Brian O'Connor ran their first competitive miles. Up in the lead was a young runner, who introduced himself to me as Zack, who had a remarkable resemblance to Steve Prefontaine, in Oregon colors and all.

The elite mile had a nice field that ran 59, 2.01, 3.02 and had a winner in 4.00.06. The crowd loved it and roared as six runners went under 4.07. "It looks so easy," said one wag.

The final event was the mile relay and teams of all ages, shapes and sizes finished up the event. The speed suit clad team, anchored by Josh Rowe ran pretty well, as Rowe nursed his sore achilles to a strong second place.

The weather on the track at Nike HQ was much better than that day on Iffley Road Track, 51 years ago. The Nike track is a fast artificial surface with a wonderful grove of trees in the center...it is almost a surreal site, after the runners would dissappear, they would reappear two hundred meters later...a great place to have a distance carnival.

In Bannister's time, the running of a mile was a noble pursuit, and sports pages around the world were filled with his exploits. Bannister, like many of us, faced his demons, which were more toxic than the windy conditions to his chase for athletic immortality. Pictures of his run show Bannister totally exhausted, pushing the final steps, those final meters where your legs have become curiously heavy and your knees no longer lift as your brain has instructed them to do.

A miler overcomes those challenges and pushes on, fifty meters, forty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters, ahh the finish, lean hard, get that extra tenth of a second! There were alot of leans, lots of miles run and lots of smiles about a silly activity that requires one to run four laps on a track and see how fast they could go. Fifty-one years after the first sub four minute mile, this little celebration of the mile gave a silly activity nobility, just like the Three Musketeers ( Bannister, Brasher, Chataway) did on May 5, 1954.

(On a final note, best wishes to Maggie Mahler, who is leaving Nike HQ and moving back to the Heartland to deal with communications for Nike in the Windy City. She has dealt with running writers now for four years with professionalism and enthusiasm. She will be missed.)

Larry Eder
Group Publisher, Shooting Star Media, Inc.
www.shootingstarmediainc.com
President, Running Network, LLC
www.runningnetwork.com