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Sunday, September 14, 2014

Give It All You Got - Roger Bannister Report

Running is the one sport I've been doing all my life. Running influences how I live, how I breath, and how I maintain a balanced lifestyle. I've never been the best runner. There's always that one person who totally dominates me when it comes to speed or endurance. Either if it was a tall dude with long legs --- making my 3 strides look like his 1 stride --- or a short dude with exasperating energy and speedy Gonzalez power legs, I still ran with or against these amazing guys. I never thought of pushing myself hard enough because my body was not capable enough or I didn't have the correct mindset at the given moment. I've heard stories and  seen videos of athletes burning themselves out, pushing their limits and injuring their muscle capacity. My brother showed me Youtube videos of track athletes breaking down, but there was one man that broke down after a mile. It wasn't any mile, it was the very first mile under 4 minutes.

The first 4 minute mile breaker is named Roger Bannister. He's an Englishman who gained reputation and respect for doing something no one could do at that time. Bannister was an Oxford grad and a medical student in progress at an incipient stage of his running career. His specialty was long distance and mid-distance running events such as the 880m and 1600m. For mile runs like the 1600m, he would lower his mile times seconds by seconds in the big events. He was a runner up for the Olympic trials, but decided to keep practicing. The 1952 Olympics was coming up and Sir Bannister was nominated as the top contenders to win mid-distance and long distance events. Bannister won the 880m event like a piece of cake, but when it came to the mile, he only managed to take fourth place and soon was disappointed with himself.

 As dissatisfying as it may be, Bannister wanted to do the impossible after the tragic loss. He couldn't do it alone. Speed was his main goal and he intended to pursue it with the help on pacemakers. Pacemakers were the ones to challenge your current speed and make you run faster than them by passing them; it's exactly like the Native American run, but smaller in size of two or three runners. The Oxford grad was determined to convert his energy to a high powered motivational force.

If you're not convinced enough at this point, Bannister didn't practice for five days before the big meet. Taking in from a runner's experience, a track runner especially, practice makes perfect and if you don't do so you can seriously injure yourself immensely. This was a big risk indeed for Sir Bannister, which meant ending his running career. No matter what the consequences were, it had to be done before anyone else.

 The air was chilly, wind settles in; this was not an average running day and not the perfect conditions to compete in. I breathed in the cool air, inhaled then exhaled. This sensation was what Bannister had gone through and thought that it wasn't the day. The red coated track referee points the gun. "On your mark." "Set." Inhale. He triggers the gun. Exhale and the heart starts again. Bannister ran second place for 3/4 of the race. Two laps under a lap time of 58, 59 seconds. The third lap was 1 minute and 3 seconds with Bannister still in second place. At that given instant, Banner overtook first place Chris Cathaway and pacmanned it to the finish line at 3.59.4 minutes. All the energy was lost at the end of that race, but the battle was victorious to the greater extent.

Roger Bannister was well deserved with gratitude and enrichment of exciting expressions from the crowd. Sir Bannister's message was to accomplish what no one could do and never give up with what you have now. At the climax of his life, Bannister gave it all he had when he was thinking of retiring track and field in 1954. I hit the "brick walls" and "lock my legs" all the time, but I push my body to the extreme. As bad as I wanted to win like Bannister had, I loved to finish the line with nothing in my soul and then receive resuscitation after a run like that. Not only did Bannister inspire runners around the world to break their mile times, but he changed the perceived idea that our minds can combat our physical fitness and that it is more powerful to become a winner. If you truly want to live with a greater mindset, it's better to give it all you got.

On a side note, Roger Bannister did finish medical school and took his career further into neurology and master at Oxford University.

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