Finished reading The Perfect Mile on the weekend; a great book that chronicles the attempt by three men in the 1950s to become the first to run the mile in less than four minutes.
From Publishers Weekly: The three rivals span the globe: England’s Roger Bannister, who combines the rigors of athletic training with the “grueling life of a medical student”; Australia’s John Landy, “driven by a demand to push himself to the limit”; and Wes Santee from the U.S., a brilliant strategic runner who became the “victim” of the “hypocrisy and unchecked power” of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).
Although Bannister broke the record before Landy, Landy soon broke Bannister’s record, and the climax of the book is a long and superb account of the race between the two men at the Empire Games in Vancouver on August 7, 1954. Here’s footage of the “Mile of the Century” I found earlier today on YouTube:
I’ve got a couple of other books lined up now The Perfect Mile is over: C.C. Pyle’s Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America and My Life on the Run: The Wit, Wisdom, and Insights of a Road Racing Icon.
Lady Bulldog was kind enough to stop at the library on the way home from work this evening to pick up the Bart Yasso book, so it makes sense to start reading this one tonight. I’m sure the Amazing Foot Race can wait another week or two….
CC Pyle’s amazing foot race is a great book; my sister in law gave me a copy of it for christmas a year or two back.