Back in 1959, most experts believed it was physically impossible for a human to run a mile in under 4 minutes. Yet on May 6, 1954, on a track in Oxford, England, a man named Roger Bannister managed to do just that. To this day, this 3 minutes 59.4 second record run is considered by many to be the single “greatest individual athletic achievement of all times.”
I have a friend named Doug Keeley who teaches a leadership training course called “The Mark of a Leader” for large groups and corporations. And Doug uses Bannister’s 4-minute mile story as a teaching tool – to teach corporate leaders, of all things, the importance of teamwork.
Because apparently, as Roger Bannister freely admits in his interviews about the run, the 4 minute mile had nothing to do with an “individual” achievement – it was, in every respect, the work of a TEAM.
Sure, Bannister is the man with his name in the record books – and yes, he’s the one who ran the entire mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. But, what’s little known about Bannister’s run, is that he actually ran with a team of 3 other runners to reach this 4-minute goal.
As I remember the story, the team agreed that Bannister was the best runner of the group and had the best chance of breaking the individual record. So the created a strategy that would, as a team, give him the best chance to succeed.
As they left the starting line, the first member of the team (the rabbit) broke into the lead. His job was to set a blazing pace for the first 1/4 mile, to ensure that Bannister was on pace for the record at the end of this mark. Bannister and the rest of the team followed closely behind, as the first rabbit burned his energy in the first 1/4 mile and then the rabbit dropped back and handed the task of leading over to the next member of the team. As they’d practiced, rabbit #2 took over from there – leading the team through a blistering pace until they reached the 1/2 mile mark (where he was scheduled to drop back) and then rabbit #3 took the lead to the 3/4 mile mark.
All this time, Bannister ran with his team behind the pace of his lead “rabbits” – letting them push the pace and burn their energy , while he maintained a strong pace and conserved his energy for the final 1/4 mile push. And finally, at the 3/4 mile mark, the last “rabbit” dropped back and left him to close out the last 1/4 mile on his own and engrave his name forever in the history books.
So while Roger Bannister was the first man ever to break the 4-minute mile, he was also the first to admit he could have NEVER accomplished his groundbreaking feat with the help of his team.
Well today, I had my “rabbit” join me on The Dog Cancer Ride Across America.
We happen to be riding through Lincoln, Nebraska, staying with a friend (and mentor) of mine Bryan Todd. He and his business partner Perry Marshall “wrote the book” on marketing with Google Adwords, (and Perry was actually the man who suggested I do a bicycle ride across America for dog cancer charity in the first place).
At any rate, while we were out to dinner last night, Bryan said that he’d love to join me for a section of the ride today. Now that comes as a shock – I’ve ridden over 2,200 miles on the ride so far, about 2,197 of them on my own) – so the thought of having an actual friend of mine ride along with me is pretty darn amazing.
Even better, he’d picked an interesting day to join me – because for today I had scheduled my 2nd “100-Mile Century Ride” of the route. Bryan and I agreed that he’d never make it the full 100 miles, so we decided to send me off first and have him join me for the final 40 miles – to be my rabbit and help me make it to the finish.
It was great to have a friend and kindred spirit along to help me make it those last 40 miles – even though it was mighty hot (when I was planning the route Bryan did warn me that it might be a bit hot in Lincoln in the middle of July – and indeed it was) and we had to race the sunset for those last 20 miles. But as we crossed the finish line for my 101 mile day I was pretty proud of myself and very grateful to have had the help of my friend and Dog Cancer Ride Across America teammate for the day – Bryan Todd – to help me with the ride.
Bye for now from Bryan’s home in Lincoln, Nebraska
101 fewer miles to go along
The Dog Cancer Ride Across America
- Ted Schneck
