The Dream Mile

On 6 May 1954, Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3:59:4, achieving the ‘physiologically unachievable’. 

‘They’ forgot to tell him that it could not be done.

Young Roger became the first person in the world to break through the elusive four-minute barrier, also known as the Dream Mile.

  

But wait, there’s more…

John Kundy did it again, a mere 46 days later. The Dream Mile had never been done, yet the next thing we know, it has been cracked twice in less than two months.  And what’s more, by the end of 1957, sixteen runners had  smashed the four-minute mile barrier.

So what happened? 

We know that the aerobic capacity of human beings didn’t suddenly expand in 1954.  What did happen, was that the belief that it was not possible to run that fast, evaporated.  And as soon as people saw it was possible, they believed it could be done.  And then they did it.

At the end of 1954, Bannister retired from running to pursue his medical studies full-time and later became a consultant neurologist.

He continued to run to keep fit until he broke his ankle in a car accident in 1975, the same year that he was knighted.

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The stadium announcer for that race, 54 years ago today, was Norris McWhirter, who went on to publish and edit the Guinness Book of Records. McWhirter teased the crowd by drawing out the announcement of the time Bannister ran as long as possible:

“Ladies and gentlemen, here is the result of event 9, the one-mile: 1st, No. 41, R.G. Bannister, Amateur Athletic Association and formerly of Exeter and Merton Colleges, Oxford, with a time which is a new meeting and track record, and which – subject to ratification – will be a new English Native, British National, All-Comers, European, British Empire, and World Record. The time was 3…”

The roar of the crowd drowned out the rest of the announcement.

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• The current fastest mile record is held by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj, who ran a time of 3 minutes 43.13 seconds in Rome on 7 July 1999.
• The first South African athlete to run a Dream Mile was the Stellenbosch student De Villiers Lamprecht, who broke the four-minute barrier on 13 November 1964. That run also gave Lamprecht the honour of being the first athlete in the world to run the Dream Mile barefoot.
• No woman has yet run a four-minute mile, although it is thought to be physically possible. The current women’s record holder is retired Russian Svetlana Masterkova, with a time of 4 minutes 12.56 seconds, set on 14 August 1996.
• South African Johan Fourie ran the sub four-minute mile at will – more than 50 times. He is still the SA record holder in the 1 mile (3:50:82, set in 1987), the 2 000 m (4:56:41, in 1985) and the 3 000 m (7:44.0, 1985)
• On 10 March this year, 23-year old Peter van der Westhuizen, currently studying at Nebraska University, recorded the fastest indoor mile by a South African, clocking his first sub-four minute mile. (3:59:05).
• Sidney Maree was the first South African schoolboy who ran the Dream Mile of 3:57:9 in 1976 (Full, interesting but looong story here)

Despite metrication, the Dream lives on.  Currently, the mile is the only non-metric distance recognised by the IAAF for record purposes.

And just so you okes don’t get any idea that I’m an athlete of note, I would like to place it on record that my best time for one mile is about nine and a quarter minutes.  Give or take a minute.

Sources:  Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia; Sports Illustrated, iol, wikipedia, and other bits and pieces from the interweb.