The Perfect Mile

The Perfect Mile
Neal Bascomb

This edition does not include illustrations.The inspirational story of three international runners attempting to achieve what no one had managed – to break the four-minute mile barrier. It was the ultimate test of endurance, and the human drama that unfolded is told here for the first time.In sport, running the four-minute mile was the elusive Holy Grail, considered by most to be beyond the limits of human endeavour.Then in late 1952, shortly after the Helsinki Olympics, three men set out to challenge the record books: Roger Bannister, the Oxford medical student, the great British hero who epitomised the ideal of the amateur athlete; John Landy, the tireless Australian, the romantic who trained night and day in search of perfection; and the American Wes Santee, son of a Kansas ranch hand, a natural runner and the quickest of the three ('I was just born to run fast').Three men, each of contrasting character, competing thousands of miles apart, but all with the same valedictory goal. The Perfect Mile is the stirring account of their quest for sporting martyrdom, charting their journey through triumph and failure, culminating in the moment when Bannister broke the record in a monumental run at the Iffley Road cinder track in Oxford in May 1954. It was a feat that became one of the most celebrated in the history of British sport.Far from bringing an end to the rivalry, this watershed moment turned out to be merely the prelude to a final climactic battle three months later – the ultimate head-to-head between Bannister and Landy in what was dubbed ‘the mile of the century’ at the Vancouver Empire Games.Bascomb provides a fascinating account of what happened and an invaluable insight into the motivations and characters of three amazing achievers.

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_bf7f4ec2-5a5f-5534-a70c-f0e589e31116)

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First published in Great Britain in 2004.

This edition first published by HarperCollinsPublishers in 2005

Copyright © Neal Bascomb 2004

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Neal Bascomb asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780007173723

Ebook Edition © MAY 2017 ISBN: 9780007382989

Version: 2017-05-11

DEDICATION (#ulink_dc6d6bc8-2395-5d04-adb8-a7b1e81e1f6d)

To Diane

AUTHOR’S NOTE (#ulink_e1da14e1-fe79-50e5-8e52-4c0870a3d54a)

When an author sets out to investigate a legend, and there are few stories as legendary in sport as the pursuit of the four-minute mile, it is initially difficult to see the heroes around whom events unfolded as true flesh-and-blood individuals. Myth tends to wrap its arms around fact, and memory finds a comfortable groove and stays the course. What makes these individuals so interesting – their doubts, vulnerabilities, and failures – is often airbrushed out, and their victories characterised as faits accomplis. But true heroes are never as unalloyed as they first appear (thank goodness). We should admire them all the more for this fact.

Getting past the panegyrics that populate this history has been the real pleasure behind my research. No doubt there have been some very fine articles written about this story, but only by interviewing the principals – Roger Bannister, John Landy, and Wes Santee – and their close friends at the time does one do justice to the depth of this story. Their generosity in this regard has been without measure. These interviews, coupled with contemporaneous newspaper and magazine articles as well as memoir accounts by several individuals involved in the events, serve as the basis of The Perfect Mile. With this material, the story almost wrote itself.

I have included collective references for those interested in knowing the sources behind particular conversations and scenes. No dialogue in this book was manufactured; it is either a direct quote from a secondary resource or from an interview. That said, half a century has passed since this story occurred. On some occasions, dialogue is represented as the best recollection of what was in all probability said. Furthermore, memory has its faults, and in those situations where interview subjects contradicted one another I almost always went with what the principal recollected. In those instances when contemporaneous sources (mainly newspaper articles) did not correspond with memory, I primarily went with the former, particularly when there were several sources indicating the same facts. Having inhabited this world for the past eighteen months, aswim in paper and interview tapes, I feel I have been a fairly accurate judge of the events as they happened. I hope that I have served the history of these heroes well.

CONTENTS

Cover (#u07f6861e-bb91-5576-81a5-3bf2f0030ca0)

Title Page (#u0381d3b4-2786-5c8a-b88f-28325bea5527)

Copyright (#ulink_5f9055c3-4e4a-54e3-b5cc-061ce512d212)

Dedication (#ulink_9ff080da-0f89-57c5-af81-f3b779a499f5)

Author’s Note (#ulink_a51a20ac-4617-597c-b723-4d0afbb136b3)

Prologue (#ulink_09806cfb-2d3f-51ad-abb5-619807002ef6)

PART I (#ulink_b29d09f4-12c7-52d6-a5a3-3e5e4bc6a1da)

A Reason to Run (#ulink_b29d09f4-12c7-52d6-a5a3-3e5e4bc6a1da)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_dfd39348-c130-5778-a80d-68be6f816957)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_e00248d1-d801-550f-90a7-b1132b7bb4eb)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_9607c189-a9bb-5e17-8c0c-a754b7f43e83)

Chapter 4 (#ulink_d1d0f072-b19a-5fb8-8f27-1fa6aa9bc029)

Chapter 5 (#ulink_7f335eaa-1dd0-5acc-8aa1-dc1c9e4a5b5d)

PART II (#litres_trial_promo)

The Barrier (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

PART III (#litres_trial_promo)