The Perfect Mile

The Perfect Mile

Cover of paperback, depicting Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute mile record
Author	Neal Bascomb
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Mariner Books
Publication date	2004
Publication place	United States
Pages	344
ISBN	0-618-56209-5
OCLC	54001404
Preceded by	Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City
Followed by	Red Mutiny: Eleven Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It (2004) by Neal Bascomb is a non-fiction book about three runners and their attempts to become the first man to run a mile under four minutes and their first subsequent head-to-head competition. The runners are Englishman Roger Bannister, American Wes Santee, and Australian John Landy.

June 21, 1954: Less than six weeks after Bannister’s historic feat, Australian John Landy runs 3:58 at a track meet in Finland, throwing down the gauntlet.

August 7, 1954: The Empire Games in Vancouver, Canada, pits the two titans against one another in an event billed the “Miracle Mile.”

The Perfect Mile (also called the Miracle Mile) is not against the clock, rather it is what was required in heated competition between John Landy and Roger Bannister.

Reception

The New York Times' review calls it an "enthralling book" and says Bascomb "expertly winds up the tension of the three men's many failed attempts to get closer to the magic mark, before Bannister wrote himself into legend first on a windy day at the Oxford University track".^[1]

References

1. Horspool, David (May 2, 2004). "Breaking Away". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-15.

External links

• Audio Interview with author and text excerpt on NPR