The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb

This book is an extremely well written portrait of the three defining athletes across the world - Roger Bannister, John Landy and Wes Santee each of whom chased the holy grail of the first four minute mile.

It is an inspiring tale - actually it is three inspiring tales - one each of Bannister (well known), Landy (less known) and Santee (unknown!).

To me the bulk of the inspiration from the tale springs from the fact that each of the above, endured a horrific letdown at the Helsinki Olympics but refused to be bogged down by it. And each approached it differently but not one backed off from the challenge. Santee's tale in particular is tragic due to his run-ins with the establishment, but he did lead a decent life. Landy of course went on to win a medal at Melbourne in 1956. Roger Bannister remained an amazing amateur choosing to focus on his career in medicine. As wiki promptly informs us, he seems to think his career in medicine makes him prouder of himself. Makes you like him even more!

Strong recommendation to read if you are a runner. Good read even if you aren't since it is an inspiring tale with loads of personality profiles of all characters involved in each of the three stories and how their lives were interlinked for a while, especially in an era of telegrams, newspapers and amateur athletics.

Spoiler Alert on Four Minutes!

I did see the ESPN movie "Four Minutes" and it doesn't do justice to the true story. For one, the movie doesn't really highlight the role played by Brasher and Chataway enough. Two, I am unable to find why they had to fictionalize the coach Stampfl in the movie - despite Plummer's role, the movie is dull at the least, despite such a stirring tale to back it. Not to mention another inaccuracy on Bannister's love life.