FENCES IN YOUR MIND

For more than 100 years, runners tried to break the four-minute mile. It was considered the "Holy Grail" of track and field. Many said it couldn't be done. In fact, doctors wrote articles in medical journals explaining why it was physically impossible for the human body to run a mile in less than four minutes. However, in May 1954, a British medical student named Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3:59.4. His amazing accomplishment made headlines around the world. Yet what happened afterward is even more amazing. The four-minute mile was broken again the next month...and then again...and again. It has since been broken more than 700 times, sometimes by several people in the same race. What happened? They weren't training any differently, but for the first time they believed they could do it. The barriers to the mind had come down.