Mon 5/6/2024 8:07 AM
On May 6, 1954, seventy years ago today, Roger Bannister became the first person ever to run a mile in under 4 minutes. The race took place at Iffley Road Track at Oxford University, where the 25-year-old Bannister was not just an athlete, but also a full-time medical student. Since Bannister’s historic run, fewer than 2,000 people in the history of the world have run a mile under 4 minutes.
After his running career was over, Bannister spent the next forty years of his life practicing medicine in the field of neurology—that is, a doctor of the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system—where he made major contributions and published more than eighty papers. He once said, “I’d rather be remembered for my work in neurology than my running.”
Now, I’ve seen you all out in the front parking lot running your Presidential Fitness miles over the course of this year. And while nobody’s been close to the four-minute mark, there have been some impressive performances. But as you know, the start of the race is never the challenge—the real test comes when it starts to get difficult. As Bannister once said, “[t]he man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”
His line reminded me of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, in which he writes: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.”
My question for us this morning is: How do we learn to drive ourselves further once the effort gets painful? Whether it is a mile race, or your studies in school, or something else entirely, how can you make sure that when it gets hard, you press on to win the prize rather than easing up?
Have a wonderful day.
