Do you recognize the name Roger Bannister? Roger is a famous track athlete. He was born March 23, 1929 in Harrow, England. His first love was science, specifically, medicine. More specifically, neurology. His family was poor and could not afford to send him to Oxford, so he earned his way to Oxford the best way he knew how. He earned a track scholarship. He started running for Oxford in 1946 and he probably had no idea that his love for running would change the landscape of the sport.

For many years before Roger ever enrolled at Oxford, runners around the world had been obsessed with breaking a barrier: they wanted to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. The 4:30 mile had been broken in 1861. It would take many more years to bring the record down below 4:10. In 1933 an Englishman named Sydney Wooderson ran the mile in just over 4:06. Sydney’s achievement served as a great inspiration to Roger. In 1944 a Swede named Arne Andersson brought the record down to 4:01.06 and a year later another Swede, Gunder Haegg, lowered the record to 4:01.03.

Gunder’s record would remain intact for another 9 years. Despite many runners doing everything they could to lower the record and complete the mile in under 4 minutes, it didn’t happen. It finally got to a point where the achievement was thought to be impossible. Cue Roger Bannister.

Roger was a very strong runner as evidenced by his Oxford track scholarship. He began to evaluate his running style and looking at it scientifically. He made a few modifications to his form, and it helped. He knew that he still needed to do more if he would achieve the impossible. He teamed up with two other Oxford runners, Chris Chataway, and Chris Brasher.

On May 6, 1954, the day arrived for them to run for the record. The gun sounded at 6pm local time and the men raced off the starting line. Chris Brasher took the early lead and was responsible for setting the pace. Roger was feeling good that day and felt like the pace was too slow. He urged Brasher to go faster, but Chris held his pace. At the quarter mile point the pace was 57.5 seconds. The half mile pace was 1:58. Read More...

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