First man to break 4-minute mile, Roger Bannister, is dead

"However ordinary each of us may seem, we are all in some way special, and can do things that are extraordinary, perhaps until then . . .  even thought impossible" --Roger Bannister

My childhood inspiration, Roger Bannister, is dead. 

He was the first human being to break the 4-minute barrier in the mile. 

He was 88 and had suffered from Parkinson's Disease. His family said that he died peacefully on Saturday in Oxford.

It was a windy late afternoon in Oxford, England on May 6, 1954. I vaguely remember hearing about that day as a young child, then later, as a teenager, sitting at the counter of the local Brooklyn luncheonette reading Bannister's account of the run. 

Roger Bannister ran the four quarter mile laps in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds and cracked the elusive 4-minute barrier, something previously believed impossible. He had two of his running friends pace him over the cinder track.

Several months later, at the Empire Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Bannister beat John Landy, his Australian rival in the "Miracle Mile" as both broke the 4-minute mark and got folks to think differently about what humans can achieve.

Roger Bannister left running to become a distinguished neurologist Master at Pembroke College in Oxford.

I wish I had met him in person, simply to thank him for the way he not only inspired me, but my entire generation across the Western world.

Rest in peace, Doctor Bannister.


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