Next year will mark three decades since our day of farewell, and about the same time I last lazily strolled into College Hill Bookshop in Providence, around May 1994. It was an era of pure joy and the loss of guilelessness.
Being completely penniless and in debt, the prospect of buying anything seemed impossible, until my attention was caught by The Four-Minute Mile by Roger Bannister, the 40th-anniversary edition, displayed on the Newly Released section. The impulse to purchase this was too powerful to resist.
Equally known as Zatopek and Nurmi, the mere mention of the name Bannister for the first time felt as though it was already recorded in any runner’s psyche, without needing any validation.
“Ladies and gentlemen… the record time is three…” and with those words, Bannister’s heroic race against the clock had at last triumphed. His record of 3:59.4 was set at the track in Oxford’s Iffley Road, on the Thursday evening of May 6th, 1954.
Ranking high amongst the athletic obstacles, accomplishing a four-minute mile was one of the most significant physical and psychological barriers, finally conquered by a 25-year-old medical student from London. There were whispers suggesting he might end his life, which was not entirely unthinkable – Bannister’s brave quest for eternal fame was venturing deep into the unfamiliar. This was the enigmatic aura of the four-minute mile.
Fast-forward to 2004, and the thought of having Bannister sit across me on his ground-breaking four-lap run’s 50th anniversary was unimaginable. Chalk it up to a serendipitous turn of events, and recently, Bannister has been consuming my thoughts and readings again as we approach the 70th anniversary of his distinguished achievement come Monday.
In the many years meeting and interviewing many renowned athletes – our own Delaney, Coghlan, O’Sullivan, and Treacy, and internationally recognized Coe, Gebrselassie, Tergat, Bekele to name a few – Bannister’s presence was unique and unforgettable.
In the year 2004, inside a compact suite of notable Westbury Hotel in Dublin, an intimate gathering was set by the Irish Milers Club. Their special guest, an exemplification of gentlemanly grace and humility, was none other than the renowned athlete, Bannister, who was one of the most robust competitors to have ever graced a running track.
The congregation was meant to be a casual interaction, and reviewing it again now underscores his tremendous humility. Even at the age of 75, Bannister’s conversation bore little mention of his running prowess; his lean athletic frame, however, was impossible to overlook.
His vibrancy and engaging nature dominated the conversation, which extended for a good hour. There were, however, sporadic interjections from his wife, Moyra, who even sketched a depiction of me whilst they spoke.
Reflecting a journalistic curiosity, I drew him onto the subject of his historic run only for Bannister to humorously recollect about the preservation of the shoes and the vest, but the loss of the number. He remembered how someone handed him a jar full of cinders post the destruction of the old track.
In a candid revelation, he mentioned that his historic run was never a long-term aspiration; it was a mere prep for participation in the forthcoming Empire Games. Recalling his plans for retirement post the anticipated victory in 1500m at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, he expressed his disappointment at the unexpected loss, joking about his meticulous plan of shifting to medicine post victory. The defeat, however, was a close call, and he was placed fourth behind the winner, Josef Barthel from Luxembourg.
An unplanned semi-final round, introduced without prior intimation, jeopardised Bannister’s thorough pre-race preparations. Despite the setback, Bannister’s spirit remained unbroken, and he continued to embody sportsmanship, lauding Barthel’s victory in his biographical work, ‘The Four-Minute Mile’. His writings powerfully encapsulate the essence of true sportsmanship – the joy isn’t just in the triumph, but it is equally about the participation.
Following his fourth-place ranking at the Olympics, he set his sights on what seemed an impossible target. All the weeks and days leading to May 1954 were spent meticulously fine-tuning his interval training at London’s ageing Paddington Recreation Ground prior to undertaking the one hour train journey to Oxford. Funnily enough, he also disclosed how he took five days off just before the event, a concept rather alien today.
Surprisingly, he only competed in two other significant races during the 1954 season, according to current athletic norms, and then quit running. He bested John Landy in a captivating mile-long contest at the British Empire Games held in Vancouver, and later claimed victory in the European 1,500m event in Bern.
His 3:59.4 result also had considerable impact in other respects; a mere 46 days later, Landy surpassed Bannister’s world record by attaining 3:58.0, which was largely overlooked by the world and history. In 1955, three entities achieved under four minutes in a single race, and by June 1956, Ireland had its first sub-four-minute miler, Ronnie Delany, who clocked 3:59.0 in California, half a year before securing the Olympic 1,500m in Melbourne.
From Bannister’s era onwards, only 13 runners have managed to break the world mile record, with 18 occurrences amongst them. Hicham El Guerrouj’s standing record of 3:43.13 is set to reach a quarter of a century this summer. Several theories exist concerning its long standing nature. It’s also noteworthy that Ray Flynn’s Irish mile record of 3:49.77 attains 42 this summer.
Despite some beliefs that the four-minute mile has somewhat lost its charm, only 59 Irishmen have outdone it since Bannister’s era, with 15 of them taking place post-2021 (and four in the current year) tying in with the implementation of “super spikes”, the footwear equipped with a carbon plate and ultra-responsive padding.
In their unique ways, they all have a connection to Bannister who passed away in Oxford on March 3rd, 2018, just 20 days shy of his 89th birthday.
The unforgettable memory of my 2004 encounter with him is deeply etched in my mind. I did something that day I hadn’t done before and haven’t done since — I ended our interview by requesting an autograph. With my 40th edition of The Four-Minute Mile in hand, I dared to ask if he could perhaps sign it. His facial expression of utter joy and satisfaction remains vividly in my memory.
Yours sincerely, Roger Bannister