The Race of the Century by Neal Bascomb

Author:Neal Bascomb [Bascomb, Neal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2021-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

BY MID-APRIL 1954, Bannister felt spent. After four months of the most difficult training he had ever experienced, coupled with the intensity of his last days at St. Mary’s before taking the General Medical Council’s exam, he really needed a break. Chataway and Brasher were the same. All three were tired and felt as though their efforts on the track, no matter how strenuous, had stopped yielding a return.

Since December 1953 they had improved their lap times from 66 to 61 seconds. But in the past several weeks they hadn’t been able to get down to the magical 60-second mark, the point at which they could feel confident that the mile barrier was within range. Each attempt brought failure and each failure a sense that they had reached the limit of what their bodies could do. They tried again and again, but their time never improved. As Brasher said, they were “bogged down.”

Bannister had always been afraid that, by overtraining, he would reach a state where more running would only bring worse results and he would be overcome by a sense of listlessness. This was how his hero Jack Lovelock had described the condition of staleness. Its cause was unknown. Some thought it entirely physical: The muscles were worn out and overstrained, incapable of taking any more punishment. Others thought it entirely mental: The mind, tired of willing the body to work hard day after day, could not translate the desire for more speed into action. Whatever the cause, the effects of staleness were very real. An athlete experienced appetite loss and overwhelming physical and mental lethargy.

Franz Stampfl didn’t believe that overtraining led to staleness. He wrote, “It is a belief that finds no support in other fields of endeavor. The child learning to write, the pianist who practices for six hours a day, the bricklayer laying bricks—the work of these people does not deteriorate as a result of constant repetition of the same movements.” In his view, staleness was the result of having no competition and losing sight of your objective.

Whatever the reason, the three athletes risked sinking into lethargy if they continued to run 61-second laps in their interval training. The Oxford versus AAA meet was fast approaching, and Bannister knew that feeling jaded about his running was no way to approach the task of running a sub-four-minute mile.

Stampfl advised the three to relax by getting away from training for a few days. Brasher and Bannister went rock climbing in the Scottish Highlands. Chataway preferred to stay and recharge his batteries in the comfort of London. After driving through the night, Brasher, Bannister, and their mutual friend Dr. More arrived on Saturday morning at the Pass of Glencoe, just as day was breaking.

Light began to edge over the horizon, softly at first. Then colors spread across the sky. The thick mist that had settled over the land gave way, and the mountains surrounding them finally appeared. With the windows of the car rolled down, Bannister felt the cool, crisp air on his face and felt renewed.

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