Defying Limits: Lessons From The First Man to Beat the 4-Minute Mile

History is full of examples that show the surest path towards overcoming any limitations. By pushing past a psychological barrier first, any physical limitation can be overcome.

This was certainly true when the late Roger Bannister attempted and succeeded in doing what seemed humanly impossible at the time — running 1 mile in less than 4 minutes.

The four-minute barrier took a sort of mythical status in everyone’s mind. Anyone who dared to attempt running one mile in four minutes risked death or severe injury. Bannister disagreed and he went on to achieve what no other man has done before.

As of 2018, the year when Sir Roger Bannister passed away, at least 1400 people have run sub-four-minute miles — a feat previously thought of as impossible just 65 years ago.

If you feel like success is out of reach, Bannister’s story might offer some ideas on how to break past your limits.

Here are five lessons from that moment in history.

1. Bannister took action to bring the dream within his reach.

Since the 1930’s athletes have been attempting to run 1 mile in 4 minutes even though experts argued it couldn’t be done. In 1941, Gunder Hagg from Sweden set a new record of 4:01.4 seconds. Something everyone thought was impossible just 100 years before suddenly seemed achievable.

Bannister realized that it was only a matter of time before someone broke through the 4-minute barrier. So, why not him? In his early years, Bannister was barely breaking 5 minutes in the mile. But that didn’t stop him from daring to do the impossible.

And he wasn’t aiming for some impossible dream. Bannister grew up with a passion for distance running. As a boy, he enjoyed running to school. He looked up to some incredible runners in his time and dreamed of becoming just like them. In university, he gained the training, experience and knowledge of human physiology which gave him an advantage over others attempting to break the world record.

2. He focused on the process.

For Bannister, running one mile in less than 4 minutes was an experiment with the human body as the subject. The machinery is the heart, the lungs, the muscles; the basics of running were already laid out in his brain.

Because his brain had an overall image of what needed to be achieved, the question for him was: Can the brain do its job without being interrupted? To what extent can the machinery release the physical and nervous energy required to run one mile in less than four minutes? These questions became an important focus of his training.

He also did something that was different from other runners. His training was severely restricted to just 35 minutes a day. For him, it didn’t make sense to train all day if the race lasted only 4 minutes or less.

3. He transformed fear and anger into fuel for his dream.

In the 1952 Olympics, Bannister came in 4th in the 1500m race. This failure forced him to rethink his career. Was he going to retire or continue racing? Fortunately for humanity, he didn’t give up and instead set himself up for a new goal to be the first man to run one mile in 4 minutes.

Bannister admitted that he was angry after his failure in the Olympics. But he seemed to have used this anger as fuel for his ambitions. He made an attempt at the British record in 1953 and raced one mile in 4:3.6 — beating the record of his idol and role model, the British runner Sidney Wooderson. It was at this event that Bannister felt the world record was within his reach.

4. Bannister seized an imperfect opportunity.

The weather on May 6th, 1954 flip-flopped between rain and sunshine. On the train to Oxford, Bannister’s coach said he believed running a mile in 3 minutes and 56 seconds was possible. He further advised Bannister that if he didn’t seize the opportunity due to the weather, he might never have another chance.

By the afternoon, the weather seemed to improve and Bannister decided, just 30 minutes before he was scheduled to race, that the attempt was on.

In an interview, Bannister recalls, “It’s amazing that one can be indecisive up to the point of decision. When I noticed that the wind had settled the flag, I talked to myself and realized that I must do it.”

5. Finally, he surrendered to the flow.

Listening to Roger Bannister’s account of that day is like hearing about someone’s experience of the mental state called “Flow”. He felt so full of running that his legs seemed to meet no resistance at all, “almost as if impelled by an unknown force”.

Running seemed so effortless that he began to worry that the pace was too slow. He heard the time of the first lap, which was 57.5 seconds, and in his excitement, he forgot all knowledge of pace. Again, he started worrying that the speed was off.

Someone from the crowd shouted “Relax!” and unconsciously Bannister obeyed. Soon, he was so relaxed that his effort seemed barely perceptible. If the speed was wrong, he thought, it was too late to do anything anyway.

While in the Flow state, people report being so relaxed and immersed in the task that time seems to stand still or cease to exist.

Bannister described this state as :

“….a moment when time seems to slow up and the finishing line, instead of getting nearer … it almost seems to recede. I was very, very tired, indeed, and I more or less flung myself at the tape. And then, feeling faint, I really had no knowledge for a few seconds as to what was happening.” — Roger Bannister

Bannister’s attempt that day set a new world record of 3:59.4 seconds. He had achieved what everyone believed was impossible.

Reimagining what’s possible

Historic events leading up to Bannister’s moment had conspired to make the 4-minute mark less of a psychological and physical “barrier”. In 1954, the pathway of record-breaking had reached a magical, critical moment of 4 minutes — 4 laps at 1 minute each of a quarter mile track.

Bannister’s world record lasted a mere six weeks before it was broken again by Australian John Landy who shaved 2 seconds off of Bannister’s record. Even though it took years to do the impossible, eventually the 4-minute mile became possible.

Sir Roger Bannister predicted that by the 2000’s, athletes will be running the mile in 3 minutes. This hasn’t happened yet. It could take another 65 years for this to happen. But it takes just one person to break a barrier and show everyone what could be possible.