Before I get to part two (and three) of the previous post, I came across an interesting article in the most recent copy of The New Yorker worth noting. This was an article entitled “Running to Beijing,” a story profiling US Olympic marathon runner Ryan Hall. The part that of the article that stuck out the most for me was his obsession over meeting the time of 4:05 to run a mile. Below:

“Hall ran the sixteen hundred metres (a distance close to a mile) in four minutes and twenty-two seconds. Hall had a natural stride, and he also had the obsession that characterizes top runners. He posted photographs of world-class milers in his bedroom, and he listened to the Olympic anthem repeatedly. On Halloween, when he was fifteen years old, he carved out a jack-o’-lantern with the five rings and “2008,” because that was the year he planned to run in the Games. Before eleventh grade he got a notion about the numbers 4:05. He inscribed “4:05” into wet cement outside the house, and he wrote “4:05” all over his school note-books. When it snowed, he scratched “4:05” onto the window of the family car. The following spring, in 2000, he ran the sixteen hundred metres in exactly four minutes and five seconds.”

I’m going to tag this characteristic “eye on the prize.” If anyone has any interesting stories, I would love to hear them.