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.

Bannister running for England competed against Landy for the first time in a race billed as "The Miracle Mile". Just 46 days later on 21 June in Turku Finland Bannister's record was broken by his rival Landy with a time of 3 min 57. When he ran his semifinal Bannister finiRoger Bannisterd fifth and thereby qualified for the final but he felt "blown and unhappy.

When the announcer declared "The time was three. " the cheers of the crowd drowned-out the details of the result which was 3 min 59. When asked whether the 4-minute mile was his proudest achievement he said he felt prouder of his contribution to academic medicine through research into the responses of the nervous system.