Four-Minute Mile

by Roger Bannister

Overview

The fantastic memoir by Roger Bannister, the middle-distance runner who achieved the epic quest to break the four-minute mile!

All sports have pivotal moments, single events that change perceptions forever after. For the sport of running such a moment passed on a blustery May afternoon in 1954, when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. This is the story of that fantastic run. Today, more than sixty years later, lovers of sport - runners and non-runners alike - will be moved by this impassioned story of one of sport's true heroes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493038756
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/01/2018
Edition description:	Anniversary Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sir Roger Bannister was a medical student at Oxford when he made his famous run. He retired from competition after graduation and went on to pursue a distinguished career as a neurologist. He was knighted in 1975, and passed away in 2018.

Read an Excerpt

From the author’s introduction
 
It is strange that the intrinsically simple and unimportant act of placing one foot after another for 1,760 yards, as fast as possible, should become such an important sporting achievement. I think the appeal lies in its simplicity—it needs no money, no equipment, no particular physique, no knowledge, no education—and in a world of increasingly complex technology, it stands out as a naive statement about the nature of man. A man can, with his own two feet, overcome severe difficulties to reach a pinnacle upon which he can declare, “No one has done this before.”

Table of Contents

Introduction the the 1994 edition. Introduction to the 1981 edition (1.) Introduction (2.) European Games (3.) Early Days (4.) Oxford-Initiation (5.) Oxford-Graduation (6.) Olympic Games (7.) First Tour in America (8.) Hesitation and Transition (9.) Training and Touring (10.) Benjamin Franklin Mile First British Title (11.) Preparation for Olympic Games (12.) Olympic Games (13.) So Near and Yet - (14.) Four-Minute Mile (15.) Empire Games (16.) Conclusion - The Evolution of the Mile Record

Editorial Reviews

"Bannister writes in much the same fashion as he runs-with rippling smoothness, eye-catching grace, and spectacular effectiveness." —The New York Times

From the Publisher