Sunday, March 1, 2015

Will Humans Ever Break 3:30 for the Mile?

In 1954, Roger Bannister was the first human ever to break four minutes for the mile. Ever since then, the record has slowly been tapering down to its current time of 3:43:13 for men. This record has stood for over ten years, longer than any mile record has ever been kept since IAAF has been officially keeping track. This could mean that we are nearing the maximum speed that a human can possibly run.

Does this mean that the exciting days of running are over? The days when records were broken left and right and we were beginning to see the true potential of ourselves. Unfortunately I was born too late into the 20th century to experience any of it. It very well may be that records will never be broken by more than mere milliseconds. 

In looking at the data of mile times from 1900 to today, it shows an exponential decay going towards the limit time of around 3:39. (https://gravityandlevity.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/the-fastest-possible-mile/) 

However, I believe that there is still hope that we will one day break 3:30 for the mile without any artificial help. As humans evolve, we become better and faster. I hope our limits have not been reached yet as I this track season am looking forward to breaking 5:00 for the mile. 




No comments:

Post a Comment