Last night we had the opportunity to see local running great Sandy Roberts attempt to break the four-minute mile at Cardinal Gibbons High School. He barely fell short of his goal with the impressive time of 4:06. I tried to get the best pictures I could and given the slight technical issues – it was dark, the lights, it was me behind the camera this was what I ended up with. The one above by far my favorite because I feel like it gives a real sense of motion. (Sandy is wearing yellow his brother is pacing his first half mile in front of him.) The crowd was great there was a quarter-mile of people lined around the track. Goal or not it was incredible to watch someone run that fast and appear to glide across the track effortlessly.
In the sport of athletics, the four-minute mile is the act of completing the mile run (1,760 yards, or 1,609.344 metres) in less than four minutes. It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister in 3:59.4.[1] The “four-minute barrier” has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all male professional middle distance runners. In the last 50 years the mile record has been lowered by almost 17 seconds.[2] Running a mile in four minutes translates to a speed of 15 miles per hour (24.14 km/h, or 2:29.13 per kilometer, or 14.91 seconds per 100 meters). [Wikipedia]
The pictures are by far not my best but this was my first time standing that close to someone moving that fast. Most didn’t turn out at all but I did learn a couple of things along the way. Maybe next time they’ll be better.
