The 4 Minute Mile

(Author Unknown)

Recollect the four minute mile. People had been trying to achieve it since the days of ancient Greeks. In fact, folk lore has it that the Greeks had lions chase the runners thinking that that would make them run faster. They also tried drinking tiger’s milk. Nothing they tried worked. So they decided it was impossible for a person to run a mile in four minutes. For over a thousand years every one believed it. Our bone structure is all wrong, wind resistance is too great. We have inadequate lung power. There were abundant reasons.

Then one man proved that the doctors, the trainers and the thousands of athletes were all wrong. In 1954, when Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile myth, it was a miracle. The year after seven other runners broke the four minute mile. The year after three hundred runners broke the four minute mile. After a few years the record was ninety percent. Now it is every runner’s record.

What happened? There were no great breakthroughs in physical training. No one discovered how to control wind resistance. Human bone structure, lung power and physiology didn’t improve suddenly.

But the human attitude did that.

Let go of the minor to have more energy to focus on the major.