Congratulations, Dr. Bannister

Tomorrow evening, that's Thursday, October 6th, ESPN2 will be pemiering their new movie Four Minutes, which chronicles Roger Bannister's efforts to break the four-minute mile. A mystique has grown up about the four-minute mile that has transcended time. Virtually all track races today are measured in meters and the "metric mile" is the 1500 meters race, but because of the mystique and the fact that most people don't know the comparison (a mile is actually 1609 meters) and there's a beauty to the "roundness" of the four-minute mile, the mile is still competed regularly.

Four laps of the track, each in 60 seconds or less, and you have a four minute mile. It's simple, the math is simple, it's an easy race to understand. Even though the current mile record stands at a bit over 3:43 (set by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999), the four-minute mile is still the gold standard of miling. It's estimated that only about 1000 people have achieved this feat since Bannister first did it 51 years ago. I've had the pleasure of having seen several four-minute miles and quite a few near misses. Most of those I've seen were at the Millrose Games, the legendary indoor track meet, held the first Friday in February at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

A top miler can often run a four-minute mile at will today if conditions are good. Most others need both good conditions AND good competition to make one happen. I have it on reliable sources that the movie is quite historically accurate and enjoyable. The movie runs at 7:00 PM and again at 9:00 PM Eastern on ESPN2. For those of you planning to run a marathon this weekend (Chicago and Steamtown come to mind), what better way to get yourself into the mood?