The first Person to run the 4:00 mile
Written by Conquer Athlete Coach Tommy Pomatico
I came across a quote the other day that read, “Without failure, how will you ever know what you’re capable of?” I thought a lot about this and how it relates to athletes in the sport of CrossFit.
Many people are under the interpretation that the best athletes in the world always have amazing training days and everything comes so easy. When in reality, they’re very similar to everyday people. They face failure often and have tough days!
What separates them from the rest is that they don’t allow failure to define them. Instead of quitting, they try and try again, until they figure it out. This then led me to think about the first man to ever run a mile in under 4:00! This feat was accomplished in 1953 by Roger Bannister in 3:59.4. Prior to this ever being accomplished, people thought it was physically impossible. Countless athletes tried and tried again for years on end but were never successful. Scientists were led to believe that the heart would literally explode before a human could complete this task. The world saw it as impossible, until Roger made it possible! The most remarkable part of this story is that just 2 months later, a man by John Landy then accomplished the same task. He was in a race against Roger when he did, one that he lost but he did finish the mile in under 4:00. Fast forward almost 70 years later and a man by the name of Jakob Ingebristen ran 2 miles in under 8:00!
The moral of the story here is that everything's impossible until it's not! And without these athletes who are willing to fail time after time, none of it would be possible. Failure is a part of the process for everyone, including the immortals. If you truly want to accomplish your goals, you just need to be willing to work for them.
Fitness/ CrossFit is a journey and one that needs to take into account so many factors in order to be safe and drive longevity and success around the goals. Oftentimes you have to fail forward to see what is truly possible. If you have any questions or want to learn how we work with athletes with our Individual Design coaching, email help@conquerathlete.com. Or, check out our website www.conquerathlete.com and set up a free discovery call.
