Sir Roger Bannister discussed the importance of athletics, the nature of world records and how, in less than four minutes, he became the fastest man who had ever lived in a speech to about 300 people in Collis Common Ground last night.
Bannister stunned the world in 1954 by running a mile in less than four minutes, a feat believed impossible by most people at the time. World-record holder John Landy had likened the four-minute mile to "a brick wall," Bannister said.
The speech was part of the Class of 1996 Senior Symposium titled "They Said It Couldn't Be Done."
"Ever since the 1850s, when people began organized athletics with stop watches, people wondered: 'What is the limit?'" Bannister said. "They said you can't go on running faster forever."
The four-minute mile "changed no one's life. It was just sport," he said. "It won't change the world, but that's not to say it was without significance."
Bannister said he, in a small way, changed the way people perceive human limits with his feat.
And even more important than his feet, or the rest of his body, was his mind, Bannister said.
"There is no physical record that can't be broken," said Banister, who is a medical doctor. "The real limit is not physical, but mental."
"It is the brain, not the heart or the lungs, that is critical," he said. He said champions are those people capable of ignoring the pain of extreme effort.
Bannister said his milestone world record was an inexpensive "impossibility" compared to those described by the other senior symposium speakers.
The Apollo 11 project, described by symposium speaker NASA Historian Roger Launius Monday, cost $150 billion, and the "Chunnel" tunnel beneath the English channel, described by Peter Behl last night, cost $10 billion.
Bannister said he spent the equivalent of $30 on a pair of shoes.
It was a blustery spring afternoon in 1954 that Bannister chose for his historic attempt. After five days of rest, Bannister donned his $30 shoes and went to the cinder track of Oxford University, where he was a medical student.
Paced by a friend, Bannister ran the first quarter in 58 seconds, the second quarter in 60 seconds.
A different friend paced Bannister through the third quarter mile. The next 60 seconds would make or break Bannister's career.
"I took over in the last lap, and that was that," he said.
Bannister spoke little of his world-record attempt, focusing instead on future possibilities.
Bannister said world records will tumble once developing countries muster their best athletes. The billions of people living in China and India should provide more of those "people who are rare -- freaks, if you like."
Those freaks may someday run the mile in 3:30, Banister said. But he declined to guess when.
Bannister said world records will continue to be set in events other than running, because of cleverness.
Bannister mentioned the famous "Fosbury Flop" style of high-jumping, which allowed athletes to set new world records. The Fosbury Flop allows a jumper to clear the bar, although his center of gravity passes underneath it.
Bannister said his role as a physician gives him special concerns about the state of athletics. He said world health statistics are appalling, there are too few athletic facilities for regular people and abuse of steroids is a major problem.
When he began running, Bannister said "it was difficult to find 100 Englishmen willing to run in our national marathon."
Bannister compared this to today, when millions of people run for recreation.
More than 37,000 people will run the Boston Marathon this Monday, he said.
Bannister, who seldom ran more than five miles while training, said "the marathon may be a bit far."
