Delimiting the limits

From Bannister running a mile under four minutes to Kipchoge completing marathon in two hours, how much athletes can raise the bar?

Eliud Kipchoge beat his own world record by 30 seconds, running 2:01:09 at the Berlin Marathon. Credit: AFP File Photo

If you look at the image of Roger Bannister cutting the tape - more like gracing a string - at Iffley Road on May 6, 1954, you would be pressed to believe that the experts were right.

He looks like he is on the edge of survival: eyes closed, nostrils flaring, mouth ajar, lactic acid build-up in the thighs unmistakable.

It was believed among experts that humans were not capable of running a mile in under four minutes, some went so far as saying that the human heart was not capable of such exertion and our lungs incapable of consuming as much oxygen as quickly.

A particularly peculiar assessment given that many had come close to the mark but fallen shy by seconds. But into those seconds, a limitation was forged. Athletes believed they couldn’t, wouldn’t and shouldn’t.

That was until a 25-year-old full-time medical student from St Mary’s Hospital Medical school, who had trained no more than 45 minutes a day owing to a busy schedule, decided to transform the narrative.

Bannister crossed the line in three minutes, 59.4 seconds and collapsed. Even at this point, the experts were sure he was done for and that they were right. That was until he stood up and eventually smiled. The glass ceiling was broken.

Since then, over 2000 runners have run the mile in under four minutes, and every single one of them survived to tell the tale. In fact, there are high schoolers who have achieved the feat. The mark now stands at 3:43.13 by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999.

“Moments like that (Bannister's run) are epochal,” says Ramji Srinivasan, a biomechanics expert. “What’s interesting about these moments is that it inspires the whole of humanity. It’s not only about athletes at this point. It’s about us realising that we are capable of much, much more.”

Ramji has worked with some of the finest athletes in the world and in witnessing their abilities, he has deduced that genetics and physiology play a part in athletes crossing perceived thresholds, but pushing the boundaries of athletic endeavour is more so in the mind. He uses the example of Eliud Kipchoge to drive home the point.

Last month in Berlin, the Kenyan ran the marathon in a time of two hours, one minute and 9 seconds, a full 30 seconds faster than his previous record. This also means he is 69 seconds shy of becoming the first man to run a 'sub-2 hour' marathon. At 37, he isn’t getting any younger, but he sure is getting better.

“I have a feeling the run he did with Nike changed his mindset,” says Ramji, referring to the controlled marathon that Nike staged in 2019.

With rotating pacemakers, delivery of hydration by bicycle, and lack of competition, Kipchoge was able to run the famed distance in an hour and 59.40 seconds. While the run was not recognised by World Athletics, the fact that he was able to break the mental barrier was enough. For him.

“Once he saw that clock stop at 1:59, he knew he could do it. He is old, but most long-distance runners peak late, and he isn’t going to stop short of going sub-2,” Ramji predicts. “But for me, what’s fascinating is how quickly his brain reconfigured the yardstick. That level of neuroplasticity is remarkable. It’s not unheard of, but it sure is remarkable nevertheless.”

At this point, Ramji is asked if there is a point at which athletic excellence stops. He laughs.

Attempts have been on, more so since industrialisation, to establish limits for human performance. It was an inevitable science because of the rate at which athletes were improving. Of course, the progress is not always distributed evenly across track and field disciplines because one does not have the luxury of time to drop seconds, or milliseconds, in short-distance races. The same can’t be said for long-distance races or even javelin and shot-put events.

Interestingly enough, the rate of progress is significantly higher among women than men.

Kavita Verma is an ultra-marathoner from Uttarakhand. She isn’t a professional. In fact, she barely even clocks her runs. She just knows that she has to go from one city to another a couple of times over to cover the distance of the day. Usually, that’s 123 kilometres. “It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?!” she says.

When asked ‘why?’, she responds with ‘why not?’

Therein ends that line of questioning, but she does speak about the power of the mind. “I could barely do two kilometres a couple of years ago. I was fat, I have no shame in saying that, and I felt like I needed to change what I saw in the mirror so I started running,” she says.

“I didn’t want to go to the gym so I ran more and more every day, but one day I decided to run a marathon for fun. It wasn’t easy but I had achieved something. The next month I randomly pushed it to 70, a few months after that I did 100…”

Kavita has suffered multiple stress fractures, shin splints, torn ligaments, broken ankles, lung infections, and has run through all of that.

“Where the mind stops, the body stops,” says CS Santosh, the first Indian to ride the Dakar Rally, arguably the toughest race on earth. “These limits are set by yourself, and some are societal. You are told you shouldn’t, can’t, and won’t be able to. But some people have that something that burns inside that says, go for it. Even if that means death."

Santosh doesn’t say that casually either. He has come close to dying a fair few times on his rides, but he isn’t stopping now. He can’t.

“People like this are addicted to pushing the limit,” says a famous neurobiologist from Chennai.

He didn’t want to be named because of the controversial nature of his papers, and when he brings up the Nazis in conversation his discretion makes more sense.

“I am not sure if you’re aware but the initial wave of blitzkrieg, that was orchestrated by the Wehrmacht, would not have been possible if not for methamphetamine and cocaine. What they found out was once these substances are pumped into their systems, they lose fear and are willing to risk everything,” he notes.

Asked how this ties to athletic prowess, he laughs: “Athletes have this ability to go into that space. It’s a flow state that they can tap into on command. In that state, they can do all things. It’s remarkable how far humans can truly go, but if you ask me what the limit is, I can tell you that there is no such thing.”

He points to a study in 2019 which concluded that humans can only burn calories at 2.5 times their resting metabolic rate, and not even the world’s best marathoners were able to surpass that limit. The paper noted that beyond this point, the body starts to break down its own tissues to make up for the caloric deficit. It also noted that the limited capabilities of the digestive tract might have a part to play in limiting us.

“I’m sure the scientists know what they are talking about, but is science from 20 years ago pertinent today? Like the Bannister example, they believed the body would fold, but it didn’t. Science is evolving, just like athletes are themselves so don’t believe in everything they say,” says Ramji.

Ramji insists that society plays a much bigger role in breaking norms than people know. He cites the example of those from Ethiopia and Kenya who have a fabled history of long-distance greatness. He says: “They believe they have every right to be there, and break every record in that field. And once you have that belief, you can do much more than you would if you had first to break the shackles and then go over and beyond your mental abilities.”

At this point, the consensus is that it’s mostly in the mind. Of course, none of them discounted the impact of evolving sports sciences, medical care and so on, but the mind is where the limit is set. At least, that's what came through in these conversations.

Perhaps, the experts will disagree with this inference too, but weren’t they wrong in 1954?