The Perfect Mile: halfway point

It's embarrassing to admit, but I haven't been putting in one percent as much effort in finishing this book as these amazing runners put into running a 4 minute mile. I've been trying to do about a chapter a night, but I don't read it every night, so the going is slow. And for a book about running, The Perfect Mile sometimes seems to trudge.

The book is split into several sections:

• Part I: A Reason To Run - 1
  
• Part II: The Barrier - 69
  
• Part III: The Perfect Mile -195

As you can see, Part II is over one hundred pages long! And for me, it's dragging out. I stand by my comment that the writer, Neal Bascomb, is good at weaving his prose, but there are sections where it's like a list of stats and history, explaining so-and-sos work out, and that could probably be present a little bit more excitingly. It's not something that a general reader would be interested in; rather something a runner would be more interested in. Who is the audience for this book? Sometimes I find myself getting distracted (because apparently my eyes go over the words and read them, but I am thinking about something else so I have to go back and reread).

But part of the reason that it feels like it is going so slowly is because I want to know who it is that runs the 4 minute mile first. Every time I finish a chapter I hope that I am turning to Part III, but it is pages and pages away. How can there be so much to talk about? But I think that the length of this second section helps to portray just how agonizing it must have been for fans and those who wanted to see the four minute mile finally be done.

I think what amazes me most is the shear amount of researching that must have been done. Bascomb uses so much detail to really put the reader in the scene - how did he find all this information out? I mean each page is crowded with stats, facts, details... and the book is 269 pages long! I wonder how long it took him to write it. Here is an example:

By six o'clock the ticket sellers had run out of the specially made programs. The police transmitted an SOS to headquarters, requesting reinforcements to handle the unexpected snarl of traffic. Over one thousand cars sat bumper to bumper on Batman Avenue, some not having moved in over an hour. More and more people poured into the stadium. Tickets could not be sold fast enough. Lines formed hundreds of yards long behind the booths. (154)

With a five day weekend (!), hopefully I will be able to finish this book soon!

Next read: The Golden Compass (a reread)