4-minute mile barrier question

This is undoubtedly something someone pulled out of his ass and it stuck.

This is at least one place that is propagating it.

http://www.bspage.com/1article/peo13.html

That page has some other interesting facts:

Belief (pronounced: bee-leef ' )

I sent them an email urging them to revise that website. Just one more example of why you should not believe everything you read on the internet. It is sad that such shoddy research goes into creating so many websites.

I EMAILED THEM AND SAID THERE INFO WAS INCORRECT. THIS IS THEOR REPLY. I GUESS I NEED TO SEND THEM SOME INFO NOW...

"Thank you for taking the time to contact me. Can you give me some official reference for your information. I was around at the time and watched newsreel of Bannister break the four-minute barrier. I'm sure I remember more than six athletes running a four-minute mile in the

following three years. It seemed like every week someone else had done it, although I cannot prove 300+.

I'd be happy to revise my website, if you can give me something to refer to.

Thanks

Frederick

This BS is even in the book Running Within in the introduction on page xiii.

"Once Bannister transcended that "limit," more than 45 athletes mimicked his performance over the next year and a half. We find it hard to believe that all of those runners magically became so fast within that short time frame. A more likely explanation is that once the mental limit was lifted, the runners could see it as possible. The illusion of the impossibility of running under 4 minutes was shattered..."

I suppose what really bothers us runners about this myth is that it turns distance running into an example of psychology. Its not psychology that allows us to achieve. Its the work. A 4 minute mile takes a damned lot of work (and very intelligent training and talent), and when people say that the barrier was all psychological, its a slap in the face to runners who train very hard.

I'm surprised a book written by two elite athletes could have propagate the myth. It is perfect sport psychologist babble i guess.

connected wrote:

the CEO of my company made the same 4 minute mile claim in a speech to my branch a few years ago. i called him out on it and he was not amused. he was even more pissed when i produced evidence that nowhere near 300 people had broken 4 minutes within the first two years....he said that wasn't the point...what mattered is the idea of once a barrier is broken, many can do it.

that stat must appear in some "Being a CEO for Dummies" book. what a load of shit.

Now I'm calling you out. You and your story are full of shit. I don't doubt that your CEO may have told this fabricated story, but the fact that you allegedly "called him out" on it is laughable. My guess is you sat there day-dreaming about calling him out while others looked at you as the "hero" of the moment, but in actuality, you probably just sat there in complete silence.

there you go. now you can feel good about yourself.

Good.

Now you can go to work tomorrow and make up some lame story to tell your co-workers about how some guy on an Internet running board pissed you off, so you tracked down his IP address, went to his house, and bit the ever-living shit out of him.

Admit that you made the whole thing up and you will redeem yourself.

MarathonMind wrote:

WHAT AN UNIFORMED ASS THIS GUY WAS!

It took 2 full years to even get to 6!

6 May 54 Roger Bannister UK 3:59.4 m

21 Jun 54 John Landy Aus 3:57.9 m

=========

28 May 55 László Tábori Hun 3:59.0 m

28 May 55 Chris Chataway UK 3:59.8 m

28 May 55 Brian Hewson UK 3:59.8 m

=========

5 May 56 Jim Bailey Aus 3:58.6 m

Others in 1956 sorry no times but from the narrative in R.L.Quercetani's book Athletics

Rozsavolgyi-Hun

Delany-Ire-(think its3;59 flat

Nielson-Den (3 59.10

You would think a list would be easy to find but none that my limited skills can find (T&FN has all the 'merkinslisted)

wineturtle wrote:

MarathonMind wrote:

WHAT AN UNIFORMED ASS THIS GUY WAS!

It took 2 full years to even get to 6!

6 May 54 Roger Bannister UK 3:59.4 m

21 Jun 54 John Landy Aus 3:57.9 m

=========

28 May 55 László Tábori Hun 3:59.0 m

28 May 55 Chris Chataway UK 3:59.8 m

28 May 55 Brian Hewson UK 3:59.8 m

=========

5 May 56 Jim Bailey Aus 3:58.6 m

Others in 1956 sorry no times but from the narrative in R.L.Quercetani's book Athletics

Rozsavolgyi-Hun

Delany-Ire-(think its3;59 flat

Nielson-Den (3 59.1)

You would think a list would be easy to find but none that my limited skills can find (T&FN has all the 'merkinslisted)

Where the hell did this stat come from?? My high school cross-country coach gave this to us too. We all believed it back then haha.

wineturtle wrote:

MarathonMind wrote:

WHAT AN UNIFORMED ASS THIS GUY WAS!

It took 2 full years to even get to 6!

6 May 54 Roger Bannister UK 3:59.4 m

21 Jun 54 John Landy Aus 3:57.9 m

=========

28 May 55 László Tábori Hun 3:59.0 m

28 May 55 Chris Chataway UK 3:59.8 m

28 May 55 Brian Hewson UK 3:59.8 m

=========

5 May 56 Jim Bailey Aus 3:58.6 m

Others in 1956 sorry no times but from the narrative in R.L.Quercetani's book Athletics

Rozsavolgyi-Hun

Delany-Ire-(think its3;59 flat

Nielson-Den (3 59.10

You would think a list would be easy to find but none that my limited skills can find (T&FN has all the 'merkinslisted)

Here's a list that was kept up until '02 by when about 950 had done it.

Did anyone notice that that site propagating the false statistic is "www.bspage.com"? The irony is so delicious...

I got the exact same response.

will you guys just relax. Yes the guys made a mistake but there is no reason to go crazy about it. You can either try to correct him or just say screw it since he is using an example and the actual numbers don't matter it is the message he is trying to show. Either way there was a huge mental block taken down when bannister broke through. We shouldn't be so anal about these things, there is a reason that this guy is the CEO and while we are here memorizing mindless facts about running he is probably reviewing earning reports, etc, so like I said before....relax....being anal will cut your life short

yeah, the guy had the stats wrong, but what he said had a POINT about mental barriers.

THe same thing was true about bench pressing.

I think in Arnold's time, no one could get to the magical number of 500, and now i think its well over 600 lbs.

we could argue forever about mental barriers but i think the long time before 4:00 was broken had far more to do with WWII and the postwar than with any mental barriers. athletics were on the backburner for many, many years. food rationing, lack of facilities, not to mention the casualties, all played a big role.

I agree that there probably wasn't a mental barrier for many people, but it sure seems like there was one for Landy. Landy ran several near sub-4:00s in the months before Bannister's run, without ever making it under 4:00. Then, only a month and a half after Bannister broke the barrier, Landy ran 3:57.9.

hey, if he had PACe setters like Bannister and raced against better competition, then he might've done it.