Synopses & Reviews
There was a time when running the mile in four minutes was the elusive holy grail, believed to be beyond the limits of human speed. In 1952, after suffering defeat at the Helsinki Olympics, three world-class runners set out individually to break that barrier. Roger Bannister was a young English medical student who epitomized the ideal of the amateur driven not just by winning but by the nobility of the pursuit. John Landy was the privileged son of a genteel Australian family, who as a boy preferred butterfly collecting to running but who trained relentlessly in an almost spiritual attempt to achieve this singular task. Then there was Wes Santee, the swaggering American, a Kansas farm boy who was a natural athlete and who believed he was just plain better than everybody else.
Santee was the first to throw down the gauntlet in what would become a three-way race of body, heart, and soul. Each young man endured thousands of hours of training, bore the weight of his nation's expectations on his shoulders, and still dared to push his very limits. Their collective quest captivated the world and stole headlines from the Korean War, the atomic race, and such legendary figures as Edmund Hillary, Willie Mays, Native Dancer, and Ben Hogan. Who would be the first to achieve the unachievable? And who among them would be the best when they went head to head?
In the tradition of Seabiscuit and Chariots of Fire, Neal Bascomb delivers a breathtaking story of unlikely heroes and leaves us with a lasting portrait of the twilight years of the golden age of sport.
Review
"[A] rare literary win. In finding the right balance of humanity and a sense of immediacy along each training run and at every record attempt, Bascomb has penned a sports tribute book that transcends the genre." Oregonian
Review
"It was Bannister...who won the race to crack the four-minute wall. How he did so is a dramatic story, and Bascomb tells it well." Washington Post
Review
"Where Bascomb's meticulous approach and evocative style pay dividends is in his sketching of the backgrounds of the three runners." New York Times
Review
"This is an engaging tale that features detailed notes for each chapter, plus...black-and-white photos." Library Journal
Review
"In the extraordinary tale of three long-distance runners who sought to break the four-minute-mile, Neal Bascomb constructs a narrative that's so exhaustively researched it reads like a piece of detective work....Bascomb has written a tremendously absorbing human drama that will put you in awe of these men, and leave you longing for the pre-steroids era, when resolve and steely will were all that mattered." Adrienne Miller, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)
Synopsis
In the tradition of Seabiscuit, Bascomb delivers a breathtaking story of unlikely heroes and leaves readers with a lasting portrait of the twilight years of the golden age of sport.
Synopsis
For fans of The Perfect Mile and Born to Run, a riveting, three-pronged narrative about the golden era of running in America—the 1970s—as seen through the fascinating lives and careers of running greats, Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar.
About the Author
Neal Bascomb is the author of Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and The Making of a City. A former editor and journalist, he has appeared in documentaries on A&E and the History Channel. Foreign rights to The Perfect Mile have been sold in Britain and Japan, and motion picture rights have been optioned by Universal, Spyglass, and Kennedy-Marshall, the team behind the movie Seabiscuit.
Table of Contents
contents prologue ix part i A REASON TO RUN ~ 1 part ii THE BARRIER ~ 69 part iii THE PERFECT MILE ~ 195 epilogue 256 Authorand#8217;s Note 273 Acknowledgments 275 Notes 277 Index 307