The One About The 4-Minute Mile

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:00:32]:
Hello there. Hello, hello, hello, hello, welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me. Whether you’re watching, whether you’re listening, however you’re catching this, thank you so much for joining me for another episode of the Keith Blakemore Noble Radio Show. Remember, please do give us a Like a comment, share a subscribe, give us a on your favourite platform. It all helps to spread awareness of the show, spread the message, get it out far and wide. We preach that. Remember, you can catch us on all the major podcast platforms.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:01:04]:
Catch us on Apple Podcast, Amazon music, Spotify, Audible, YouTube. We’re on grow Radio. Basically, anywhere you can get a podcast, you can get this show. What are we talking about today? The four minute mile. What’s that got to do with anything? Well, keep listening and we’ll find out. So the four minute mile. Four minute running a mile in under four minutes. This was go back to the late 1800s, from 1886.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:01:44]:
From at least 1886, athletes, professional and amateur around the world had been trying to crack the goal of running a mile in less than four minutes. 1886 is the first time record I’ve been able to find of people attempting this and it’s. It occupied the minds and bodies of the most brilliant coaches, the most amazing, amazing athletes throughout North America, Europe, Australia, across the whole world. They were almost obsessed with trying to break this barrier, trying to run a mile in less than four minutes, doing it for decades and never getting there, just never quite, never quite beating that four minute barrier. It had become as much as a physical, of a physical, as much as it was a physical barrier, it become a psychological barrier. It was like, is this something that could ever be done? Like something that’s just completely unconquerable? They get closer and closer but never reaching it, never crossing that four minute mile mark. And it really became a huge psychological barrier. Over time they started to work out what was going to be the best conditions under which to crack this, to burst through this barrier.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:03:23]:
And after a while there was, there was a consensus formed and experts believed if it could be beaten at all, because they still weren’t sure if it could be done, if it could be beaten, it was going to require precise, perfect conditions. Some American experts decided it would need to be perfect weather, 68 degrees Fahrenheit. It would have to be no wind on a hard, dry clay track as you have to be a dry day and it would have to be in front of A massive boisterous vocal crowd, really cheering, cheering the runner on. They said if it could even be done at all, those are the conditions that would have to be met in order to give an athlete even a chance of being able to run a mile in under four minutes. Bear in mind they’ve been trying to do this since 1886. Had not succeeded. It was, it was beginning to seem as though it was impossible. Where do you get those perfect conditions, let alone everything else? And that takes us to a cold, wet, damp day in Oxford in the UK.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:04:54]:
6th of May 1954 to be precise. Cold day, a wet track. The crowd, not a particularly large crowd, gathered as athlete Roger Bannister made his attempt. And he did it. He cracked it. He ran 1 mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. 6th of May 1954. About 70 years after they first started trying to figure out if it was even possible.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:05:36]:
After 70 years. Roger Bannister, 6th of May 1954, runs 1 mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Becoming the very first person ever to run a sub 4 minute mile. After 70 years of athletes and coaches and experts putting everything into it, it was finally done. And then something interesting happened. Something really interesting happened 46 days later. 46 days later, an Australian runner by the name of John Landy ran a ran a mile in three minutes 58 seconds. Just 46 days after Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:06:35]:
John Landy broke the four minute mile. They’ve been trying for 70 years. Huh? Well that’s a coincidence. Wow. Two super, super humans breaking the four minute mile in close succession. A year later there was a race in which three runners broke the four minute mile barrier in one single race. Three runners in the same race one year later broke the the four minute barrier. Okay.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:07:11]:
And in the 70 years since Sir Roger broke that four minute mile barrier, over a thousand runners have run sub four minute miles. Over a thousand runners in the 70 years since Sir Roger Broke their four minute mile barrier. And that is interesting. I don’t know about you, but I find that interesting because they spent 70 years attempting to find a way to break this barrier. And now all of a sudden it’s, it’s almost routine. Almost routine nowadays. Did, did people did 1954. Was that a sudden watershed where people suddenly turned into superhumans? No, not at all.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:08:00]:
But something really interesting did happen. The really interesting thing that happened was Sir Roger breaking the four minute mile barrier. Because up until that point it had been seen as something which was maybe possible, but there were Doubts. Lots of people were trying but no, nobody, nobody was able to succeed. It was, it was almost as if this was something that was impossible and then somebody did it. Psychologically that one thing made a huge difference because all of a sudden you now have this 4 sub. 4 minute mile is possible because somebody has done it. The limitation had been removed.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:08:50]:
The mental block, the mental barrier had been smashed. You see, breaking that four minute mile barrier was as much mindset and as much mental approach as it was a physical approach. And yes, Sir Roger had to be, had to be an exceptional athlete at the peak of his condition in order to be able to achieve that. But he also had to have the right mindset as well. He had to know that he could do it. Not believe, yeah, maybe somebody will do it someday. Yeah, it’s probably possible, I suppose somebody will do it. No, no, no, not maybe I could be the one.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:09:37]:
No, no. He had to know with absolute certainty that he not only could achieve it, but he was going to achieve it. He had to know mentally as well as physically he had. He had to break that four minute mile mentally before he even set foot on that track that day. There are two really important things to take from this. The form, the four minute mile barrier. Two very important things. One is that whole mindset, the mindset, our mindset is crucial, critical for things that we do.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:10:22]:
There’s, there’s the old apocryphal, oh, what’s his name? Henry Ford saying or the saying that’s, that’s attributed to Henry Ford. Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t. You’re right. Yeah, okay. It’s a bit trite and it’s, it’s, it’s not quite that simplistic but there is a lot of truth behind it. What’s up here in your head. Your mindset has a very big part to play in what we, what do we do? If Sir Roger, if Sir Roger had thought I’ll give it a go but I doubt I’m going to beat the four minute mile, he wouldn’t have done it, he wouldn’t have beaten it. He had to know with absolute certainty that he was going to beat it.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:11:11]:
And there’s the same with everything that we try or everything that we do. I should say try, yeah, that’s giving it away a bit as well. Yeah, I’ll try. Will you or will you just do it? If we approach something and we think, yeah, we’ll give it a try, we’ll see what happens. I’m not convinced but hey, you never know, it might work. It’s not going to. You’re not going to achieve it because your mind doesn’t believe you can do it. In fact, your mind believes you can’t do it.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:11:43]:
And it’s going to be looking for evidence to prove that you are right to doubt the ability to achieve this. So as soon as any slight hint that it might not work, your mind’s going to go, hey, look, see, told you it wouldn’t work. Yeah, there we go. It’s not working. You have to know with absolute certainty. And it’s, it’s not just telling yourself over and over again, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. Because if deep inside you don’t believe you can. And we’ve looked at this in other episodes, we’ve looked at why affirmations just absolutely do not work for so many people.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:12:18]:
It’s when you’re bashing yourself over the head, I can succeed. No, you can’t. I am successful. No, you’re not. Look, here’s all the evidence that you’re not. It’s not about bashing yourself over the head with this. It’s about having that true inner belief that you will succeed. Not only that you can do this, but you will do this.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:12:39]:
You are doing it. Basically, you have to have done it in your mind before you can even attempt it. Can we, can we develop that absolute certainty, that sure, certain belief in ourselves? Yes, we can. And yes, it’s something I’ve helped other people to do. If you want to, you can develop that absolute certainty whether you think you can or whether, think you can’t. You’re right. So approaching something, you need the mindset in place before you can physically do that, do the thing. And that was just as true for Sir Roger.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:13:29]:
For Sir Roger, with the 4 minute mile as it is for any of us in absolutely anything that we do, you have to have that mental, mental belief. The mindset needs to be, needs to be there. That’s one really important thing. And that’s why after he did it, that’s why so many others were able to do it. Because all of a sudden it went from, you know, this is probably impossible to, well, if he can do it, darn well sure I can do it. Suddenly that mental certainty was there, the belief was there. The absolute knowledge that it can be done and you are jolly well going to do it is there. Which is why it’s sometimes really useful to read or study how other people have done the things that we want to do partly to learn how they did it.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:14:17]:
So perhaps we can learn from that and do the same things, but also just so we can go, you know what, it absolutely can be done. I am not attempting something impossible. It can be done. And hey, you know what? I am going to do this. I am going to do this. The other part that’s useful to take away from this. Obviously Roger Bannister had some amazing athletics coach to coach him on the way. He didn’t set out on there.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:14:51]:
You know what I think today I’m going to run a four minute mile. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. Finish my breakfast and then we’ll go and do a four minute mile. No, he had a coach who, who helped him, an expert who helped him every step of the way, helped him identify exactly what he needed to do, helped keep him on the right course, helped him to make the best decisions, helped spot what was working, spot what wasn’t working. Remove the bits that don’t work, focus on the bits that work. But it is very important to note that Roger Bannister’s coach had never run a four minute mile. Of course he hadn’t. That’s the whole point.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:15:33]:
Nobody had until Roger did it. And that’s the thing, that’s the thing with coaches. A coach does not have to have done the exact thing you are seeking to do. A coach does not have to have achieved the results that you want to achieve. Because I mean, look at athletics. There would be no ever improving results from athletes and competitors and sportsmen working with coaches if the coach hadn’t achieved the thing that the athlete wanted to achieve. Wow. There would be no coaching.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:16:08]:
A coach doesn’t have to have done what you want to do. I’ll say that again. A coach does not have to have done what you want to do. A coach is there to help you bring out the best in you, help you become the best you can be to achieve what it is that you want to achieve. A coach uses their expertise to help you hone your expertise and achieve greatness in whatever aspect it is you are seeking to, to improve and to win in. Think about it. I mean, think about it. Neil Armstrong, the first man set foot on the moon, had people train.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:16:53]:
He and Buzz Aldrin and Ed Collins had people training them for the Apollo missions. Nobody had set foot on the moon beforehand. There was nobody to teach him how to set foot on the moon. But does that mean he didn’t need those teachers, those guides, those trainers? Absolutely not. He needed them. They all needed them and helped them to build and reach the point where he was able to take that one small step for man, that one giant leap for mankind. So that’s what I thought was an in A couple of interesting things to take from Sir Roger Bannister’s beating of the four minute mile. And it has implications for all of us.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:17:41]:
I’m not saying you’re going to want to run a four minute mile. No, I certainly don’t want to run a four minute mile. But there are still many things that I want to achieve. That’s why I have a coach. There are many things my clients want to achieve. That’s why they have me as their coach. Doesn’t mean my coach, doesn’t mean that my coach has achieved what I want to achieve, but they can help me because that’s what a coach does. It doesn’t mean that I’ve achieved what my clients want to achieve, but I know how to help them help themselves to become the best they can be to achieve the things they want to achieve.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:18:15]:
And that includes having that absolute certainty that you will do it. It starts with the mind. If you believe you can’t achieve it, you’re not going to achieve it. If you believe you can’t do something, your mind is going to be looking for proof to prove that you can’t do it. And every time something doesn’t go 100% perfect, which newsflash, nothing ever goes 100% perfectly. But as soon as something goes slightly adrift, your mind’s going to go, hey, look, see, I knew we couldn’t do it. There’s proof we can’t do it. Might as well give up.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:18:54]:
It’s having that absolute certainty that you will do this. So your mind is going, okay, we failed that time, but we can do this. We are going to do this. We are doing this. Yeah, things go wrong, we learn from what went wrong and do it even better next time. And we keep doing it and we keep doing it until we have done it. Because you know what? We will do this. Having that absolute certainty, that absolute belief, having that in your mindset, that is definitely something a good coach can help you with.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:19:30]:
So I leave that thought with you. What would you like to achieve? What’s stopping you? What would it feel like to achieve that? And what do you need to believe in yourself in order to be able to achieve what you want to achieve? Just a thought. That’s it for this week. Do remember, please do give us a like comment. Share. Subscribe Give us a review on your favorite platform. I will catch you in another episode very soon. I’ve got another great guest lined up for the next episode, but until then, take care, look after yourself and just have a think.

Keith Blakemore Noble [00:20:11]:
What would life be like if you achieved that, that thing that you really want to achieve? And how can you go about achieving that? And where’s a coach? How can a coach help you with that? They don’t have to have done it, but they can help you figure out exactly what you need to be able to do in order to do it. Bye.