I love the Olympics. In fact, some might call me slightly obsessed! So, I was looking for a good running book to get ready for all those track and field events. I came across The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb, and it is the perfect book to get you geared up for the Olympics. Although not about the Olympics per say, it is a great glimpse into the training and competitive drive it takes to be a world class runner. The Perfect Mile is about the race to become the first person in history to break the four minute mile barrier. In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, three runners from three different continents had disappointing performances. After returning home, each, for different reasons, decided he was going to be the first to run the mile in under four minutes. All three faced their own personal obstacles. John Landy of Australia had no coach and extremely poor track conditions to race on. Englishman Roger Bannister was in medical school and had extremely limited time for training. The American, Wes Santee, had to put his KU teammates above himself which left little time to focus on perfecting the mile. Not to mention, the three men were true amateurs, receiving no rich sponsorship deals or any kind of money for their races, even though their races attracted huge amounts of fans and generated lots of money for others.  Each man was aware the others were all gunning to be the first one to break the barrier, so the pressure was on. Even though I knew the eventual outcome, it didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the book one bit, and I would definitely recommend this book to all athletes or sports fans out there.