The Perfect Mile - Neal Bascomb

Date: March 5, 2007
Recommendation: the best sports book I have ever read.



Ok, so call me biased. I coach athletics. As such, it would seem that I would be predisposed to enjoying this book. Perhaps. But Neal Bascomb has written such a riveting account of the pursuit of the first 4:00 minute mile, that it is easy to recommend for all readers. Bascomb's story telling is so vivid you will feel part of the small crowd that gathered on a blustery afternoon at Oxford track in 1954, when 1 man's grit and determination helped him inscribe his name in immortality, joining the likes of Sir Edmund Hillary and Roald Amundsen for having conquered hitherto unthinkable achievements.