The Perfect Mile Book Report

The Book “The Perfect Mile” by Neal Bascomb, is about a dedicated runner named Roger Bannister. Roger was a young English medical student who had a dream. He believed that nothing was impossible if you followed three simple steps; worked hard, never gave up and gave it you all each day. He lived by these three rules and made each day count. Everyone told Neal that running a mile in under four minutes was physically impossible and he could never do it. He used that as motivation to keep training. However, Roger was not the only man who wanted to run a mile in under four minutes. He was up against 2 world class olympic runners. One being John Landy. The privileged son of a genteel worker and part of an Australian family. He also trained relentlessly “in an almost spiritual attempt to shape his mind and body to this singular task”(Bascomb 18). Then there was Wes Santee,a Kansas farm boy and natural athlete who believed he was just plain better than everybody else. The day finally came for Roger to show that the impossible was possible. On May 9, 1954 Roger ran a mile on the oxford tract in three minutes and fifty nine point four seconds. Proving the world wrong.

SImilarly to show readers that nothing is impossible and if the world tells you you can’t do something shut them up by going out and doing it. I believe is the reason the author wrote the book because it says “..people doubted him, newspapers printed about how he could never do it” (bascomb 3four). If most people had articles in a newspaper articles written about them saying they can not do something they would simply quit. This book shows readers what can happen is you do not