Did you know?
- A mile is only 5,280 feet
- Or, four laps around the track at your school
- Roger Bannister was the first person to ever run the mile under 4:00 minutes?
- His time was 3:59.4 on May 6th, 1954
- The world record is currently held by Hicham El Guerrouj, who set a time of 3 minutes 43.13 seconds in Rome in 1999.
- Most sports scholars at that time believed that no one would ever break that barrier and thought it to be an unimaginable feat
- Doctors at that time thought the human body could hold up under the pressure of running that fast.
- Shortly after Bannister’s race, one of his running competitors John Landy from Austrailia also broke the 4 minute mile. The barrier was broken because one guy did it, then others knew they could do it if they trained and worked hard enough. It was a mental barrier more than a physical one.
- Did you know that young men and women in college compete at the Mile Distance indoors? To qualify college men have to run a Sub-4 Minute Mile!
- Did you know that Jim Ryun ran under 4 minutes and held the high school record for over 35 years until Alan Webb ran faster as senior with a time of 3:53.43 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon in June 2001?
- Did you know that running and walking can make you live a longer, healthier life and help the nation’s economy by reducing our health care costs?
Thanks, Renee. And you’re absolutely right. It does feel good to hit a goal. I only set a colupe for this year. I think I’ll try to set a few more for next year: better mix of races, distances, actually doing some cross training, etc.