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Roger Bannister

Roger Bannister Books

Athlete

Roger Bannister, born on March 23, 1929, in the United Kingdom, was a renowned long-distance runner. He broke the world record for running one mile in under four minutes on May 6, 1954, a milestone in the history of athletics.

The First Four Minutes

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“Beating John Landy was my defining race.”

Author:Roger Bannister

“It's amazing that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have broken the 4-minute mile.”

People Minutes Broken Miles Everest Mount Everest Climbing Mount Everest

Author:Roger Bannister

“I trained for less than three-quarters of an hour, maybe five days a week - I didn't have time to do more. But it was all about quality, not quantity - so I didn't waste time jogging, ever.”

Three Hours Quality Five Week Waste Quarters Wasting Time Quantity Jogging Quality Not Quantity

Author:Roger Bannister

“Just because they say it's impossible doesn't mean you can't do it.”

Mean Impossible

Author:Roger Bannister

“Without the concentration of the mind and the will, performance would not result.”

Mind Results Performances Concentration

Author:Roger Bannister

“It seems quite impossible to walk in America.”

Seems America Walks Impossible

Book:The First Four Minutes

Source: The First Four Minutes

“I couldn't touch my toes with straight legs, but I could break 4 minutes for the mile.”

Break Minutes Legs Miles Toes

Author:Roger Bannister

“The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”

Men Motivational Success Winning Effort Attitude Self Esteem Emotional Determination Perseverance Painful Persistence Fitness Weight Loss Motivational Running Will And Determination Determination Motivational Track And Field Running Marathon Determination Perseverance Distance Running Cross Country Running Perseverance And Determination Determination And Persistence Marathon Running Running Training Great Determination Training For A Marathon Track Running Running Track Motivational Cross Country Running Marathon Motivational Cross Country Motivational Motivation And Determination Inspirational Track Inspirational Winning Dedication And Perseverance Life Determination I Will Win Drive And Determination Motivation To Win Hard Work And Determination Great Winning Winning Inspirational Motivational Winning Winning Motivational Dedication And Determination Determination By Famous People Indomitable Spirit Hurt And Pain Hurt Pain

Author:Roger Bannister

“The reason sport is attractive to many of the general public is that it's filled with reversals. What you think may happen doesn't happen. A champion is beaten, an unknown becomes a champion.”

Thinking May Reason Happens Sports Filled Athlete Attractive Champion Beaten General Public Reversal

Author:Roger Bannister

“I raced supremely well. I felt I was as well fitted to do it as I had ever been, and as perhaps I might ever be. I went climbing three weeks before, because I was feeling fed up with running.”

Wells Feelings Might Running Three Felt Sports Week Athlete Feds Climbing Fed Up

Author:Roger Bannister

“If there was the opportunity to climb a mountain, or to go ballooning, or some adventurous activity, I would always be keen to do it. I loved the countryside.”

Ifs Opportunity Sports Activity Mountain Athlete Climbs Adventurous Countryside

Author:Roger Bannister

“Athletics is a luxury.”

Athlete Luxury Athletic Athletics

Author:Roger Bannister

“I enjoy singing, and the instruments which truly move me are the horn, the trumpet and the cello.”

Moving Sports Enjoy Singing Instruments Athlete Horns Trumpets

Author:Roger Bannister

“I wanted to be a neurologist. That seemed to be the most difficult, most intriguing, and the most important aspect of medicine, which had links with psychology, aggression, behavior, and human affairs.”

Humans Important Wanted Sports Difficult Psychology Behavior Aspect Medicine Affair Athlete Links Aggression Intriguing Neurologists

Author:Roger Bannister

“It's a question of spreading the available energy, aerobic and anaerobic, evenly over four minutes. If you run one part too fast, you pay a price. If you run another part more slowly your overall time is slower.”

Ifs Running Energy Sports Pay Four Minutes Athlete Available Aerobics

Author:Roger Bannister

“We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable.”

“I came from such a simple origin, without any great privilege, and I would say I also wanted to make a mark. It wasn't until I was about 15 that I appeared in a race.”

Wanted Sports Simple Race Mark Athlete Privilege

Author:Roger Bannister

“I couldn't disappoint people. I did not want to fail and exhaust myself, because I was the kind of runner who trained so little that I couldn't race again within another 10 days.”

People Want Kind Littles Sports Race Failing Athlete Runners Disappoint

Author:Roger Bannister

“I found longer races boring. I found the mile just perfect.”

Found Perfect Race Athlete Boring Miles

Author:Roger Bannister

“I lived on the top of one hill and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car - we didn't have any cars during the war. So that to and from school was itself a training.”

War School Sports Car Training Athlete Hills

Author:Roger Bannister

“It had always been a British preoccupation to hold this mile record.”

Records Athlete British Miles Preoccupation

Author:Roger Bannister

“I think that is a universal adolescent feeling, trying to find your place. The adolescent who is perfectly adjusted to his environment, I've yet to meet.”

Thinking Trying Feelings Environment Universal Athlete

Author:Roger Bannister

“I've always been very impatient. At age 10 I frankly found life boring, and I can remember age 9 having the awful thought, as it seems now looking back on it, A war! That should liven things up a bit!”

Should I Can War Seems Age Remember Found Bits Sports Athlete Boring Awful Looking Back Impatient Boring Life

Author:Roger Bannister

“I was always a great bundle of energy. As a child, instead of walking, I would run. And so running, which is a pain to a lot of people, was always a pleasure to me because it was so easy.”

People Children Running Pain Romance Energy Easy Sports Pleasure Walking Athlete Bundles

Author:Roger Bannister

“I was involved in music, acting, and some running, but my firm wish was to become a doctor. That was the formative age when I had decided on the pattern of my career.”

Running Age Wish Acting Careers Involved Decided Doctors Athlete Patterns Firm

Author:Roger Bannister

“I was playing rugby and the other games English school children do, and there was an event which was planned in which races were run, and I simply just won these by a considerable margin”

Inspirational Children Running School Games Sports Race Events Athlete Margins Rugby Playing Rugby

Author:Roger Bannister

“Life was very simple. My parents had come from the North of England, which is a fairly rugged, bleak, hard-working part of England, and so there was not the expectation of luxury.”

Hard Sports Parent Simple Hard Work Expectations England Athlete Luxury Bleak Life Is Hard Hard Life Rugged

Author:Roger Bannister

“May is a very early time in the year and the weather is usually bad. You cannot run a fast mile race if there is a strong wind, because it makes your running uneven.”

Ifs Years May Running Strong Race Wind Athlete Miles Weather Strong Winds

Author:Roger Bannister

“Mothers, unless they were very poor, didn't work. Both of my parents had to leave education. My mother had to work in a cotton mill until 18 or 19, when she took some training in domestic science.”

Mother Sports Parent Poor Training Athlete Cotton Mills

Author:Roger Bannister

“My athleticism was really the core to social acceptance, because in those days the overwhelming number of students came from more of a public school background than I did.”

School Social Sports Numbers Acceptance Students Athlete Core Backgrounds Overwhelming Public School Athleticism Social Acceptance

Author:Roger Bannister

“My concentration was really on getting to university and becoming a doctor. My parents let me know that school marks were important. Achievement was something which came by hard work.”

Knows Important Hard School Sports Parent Hard Work Becoming Achievement Doctors Let Me Mark University Athlete Concentration Becoming A Doctor

Author:Roger Bannister

“My family actually lived in the same village for about 400 years. They had great stability until the last century. People lived and intermarried in small villages.”

People Years Lasts Sports Century My Family Athlete Village Stability Small Villages

Author:Roger Bannister

“My introduction to track racing was through the background of cross country running, which is not a sport perhaps as popular in America as it is in England.”

Country Running America Sports Crosses England Athlete Track Backgrounds Racing Introduction Cross Country Running Motivational Cross Country Running

Author:Roger Bannister

“Our house was bombed, and the roof fell in. We were sitting under the stairs of the basement, and we were quite safe, but it brought home the realization. In two nights 400 people were killed in small town.”

People Two Home Night House Sports Safe Sitting Towns Athlete Realization Roof Small Town Stairs Basements

Author:Roger Bannister

“The Athletic Association competed against the University. So there was an event. You cannot break world records unless it is an established event, and you have three timekeepers, and the whole thing is organized.”

World Whole Three Sports Break Records Events University Athlete Organized Association Athletic World Records

Author:Roger Bannister

“When I was about to break a world record and become well known, my mother used to say that for her the important thing was for me to become a doctor - a career which had not been possible in her generation and in her society. Sport was something to be set aside.”

World Wells Important Used Mother Sports Known Careers Break Records Generations Doctors Important Things Athlete Well Known World Records

Author:Roger Bannister

“You get very tired, and there was a certain amount of pain and you slow up. Your legs are so tired that you are in fact slowing. If you don't keep running, keep your blood circulating, the muscles stop pumping the blood back and you get dizzy.”

Ifs Facts Running Pain Certain Sports Blood Amount Tired Athlete Legs Muscles Slowing Dizzy Keep Running

Author:Roger Bannister

“Your spikes, which were really quite long then, would catch the material of the track and your shoe would get heavier. I was simply filing them down and rubbing some graphite on the spikes, so that I thought I would run more effectively.”

Long Running Materials Down And Shoes Athlete Track Filing

Author:Roger Bannister

“Doctors and scientists said breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead”

“The human spirit is indomitable. No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that. There will never be a time when the human spirit will not be able to better existing records.”

Giving Humans Running Able Spirit Records Higher Giving Up Faster Not Giving Up Human Spirit Indomitable

Author:Roger Bannister

“The essence of sports is that while you're doing it, nothing else matters, but after you stop, there is a place, generally not very important, where you would put it.”

Important Matter Sports Essence Motivational Sports Short Sports Sports In General

Author:Roger Bannister

“Sport, like all of life, is about taking your chances.”

Running Life Is Sports Chance Risk Luck Inspirational Sports Take A Chance Risk-taking

Author:Roger Bannister

“Our concept of a family holiday was going to a guest house in the Lake district or Wales, where walking was part of the holiday.”

House Walking Concepts Holiday Lakes Guests Wales Family Holiday

Author:Roger Bannister

“If I faltered, there would be no arms to hold me and the world would be a cold and forbidding place.”

Ifs World Would Be Running Arms Cold Hold Me

Book:The First Four Minutes

Source: The First Four Minutes

“Sport is not about being wrapped up in cotton wool. Sport as about adapting to the unexpected and being able to modify plans at the last minute. Sport, like all life, is about taking risks.”

Running Able Lasts Life Is Sports Leadership Plans Risk Minutes Unexpected Cotton Taking Risks Adapting Last Minute Wool

Author:Roger Bannister

“If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten.”

Ifs Men Running Blame Coaches Beaten Inspirational Running Inspirational Runner

Book:The First Four Minutes

Source: The First Four Minutes

“It is a paradox to say the human body has no 'limit.' There must be a limit to the speed at which men can run. I feel this may be around 3:30 for the mile. However, another paradox remains - if an athlete manages to run 3:30, another runner could be found to marginally improve on that time.”

“The mile has all the elements of a drama.”

Running Drama Elements Miles Marathon Runners Distance Runner Distance Running Running Training Training For A Marathon

Author:Roger Bannister

“We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves”

Source: The First Four Minutes

“The man who goes on, even when it's the hardest to be the winner.”

Men Loss He Man Goes On Hardest Winner Weight Loss

Author:Roger Bannister

About the Author

Born: March 23, 1929
Known for: Athlete
Quotes: 55

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