Word: ryun
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...years since Britain's Roger Bannister opened the floodgates by running a 3-min. 59.4-sec. mile, no fewer than 84 athletes have cracked the mythical 4-min. "barrier"-running a total of 278 sub-4-min. miles. Tops among them, of course, is Jim Ryun, the University of Kansas junior who at 20 is already the fastest middle-distance runner of all time. Last month in Bakersfield, Calif., Ryun lowered his own world record for the mile to 3 min. 51.1 sec. Two weeks ago in Los Angeles, he zipped through 1,500 meters-120 yds. short...
Obviously somebody is going to break 3 min. 50 sec. for the mile-probably Ryun and possibly this season. Track Coach Bill Bowerman, who has turned out nine sub-4-min. milers at the University of Oregon, predicts that Ryun may lower the record all the way to 3 min. 45 sec. before he is through. But hardly anybody thinks that will give Jim any permanent place in the record book. Advances in nutrition, training methods, equipment, medicine and psychology undoubtedly will produce even faster runners than Ryun. The man who started it all, Roger Bannister...
Giving a hound the once-over makes you think of both Jim Ryun's slender power and Mohammad Ali's dense bulk. Ribs stick out all over, but so do muscles. Twiggy bigjointed legs. Deer eyes, Teacup muzzles sheathed in leather. Deadleaf ears...
Then there was Jim Ryun. Already the fastest miler in history at 3 min. 51.3 sec., the University of Kansas sophomore had little hope of beating that time last week. Nowadays, world mile records are nearly always the result of careful planning and coordination: human mechanical rabbits are employed to insure a fast early pace, and the whole operation is carefully monitored by coaches armed with timing charts and stop watches. But there were no rabbits at Bakersfield, and the pace was so slow on the first lap that Ryun reluctantly decided to do his own pacemaking. His time...
...equipment, there is the matter of modern training. Athletes have always trained, but never so scientifically, so intensely. Glenn Cunningham, who set a world mark of 4 min. 6.8 sec. for the mile in 1934, used to call it a day after a lazy three-mile practice run; Jim Ryun, the University of Kansas sophomore who last year lowered the record to 3 min. 51.3 sec., runs at least twelve miles a day, lifts weights to increase lung capacity and competes against sprinters in relays to sharpen his speed. No longer do athletes worry about becoming musclebound, says Chemical Engineer...