Email to my friend Derek:
I stayed up late last night re-reading The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb. If you haven't read it, you should.
It recounts the struggles of Santee, Landy and Bannister to be the first to run the sub 4 minute mile and how Bannister does it but after Landy crushes his record, he realizes that he will have to beat him head to head.
It was after a 11 pm and there I was reading the excellent account of the Mile of the Century. The race between Bannister and Landy at the Empire Games in the summer of 1954. There have been a hundreds of great mile races over the years but this had to the best because it was the first. The only two men to date to run inder 4 minutes dueling in front of millions of TV watchers and thousands of people in the stands (I have stood on the track at BC Stadium outside Vancouver in the very spot they stood).
It was that last race between Affirmed and Alydar in the triple crown where Affirmed won by a nose (if that). It was Liquori and Ryan in 1971 at Franklin Field running shoulder to shoulder and Liqiouri winning by no more than a blink. It was my 1995 victory over Dick Chementi where I came from behind and beat him on the very last lap, gaining a slight lead, shocking him with my kick (he had more speed).
I should not read this stuff in the late evening. Oh you Elizabethans!
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