Conditions seemed almost perfect in the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center in Boston last Saturday when the nation’s top 10 collegiate distance runners took their mark. In the chase for running’s most celebrated barrier, though, ‘almost perfect’ won’t cut it.

‘We thought this might be the weekend but the race just didn’t pan out,’ Syracuse track and field coach Chris Fox said.

It was as disappointing as a two-second differential could be for SU senior Kyle Heath, whose fifth-place finish wasn’t as frustrating as knowing he missed out on an opportunity. Even for milers, the milliseconds add up. The ‘rabbit’ was just off. The pace was slightly unsteady. The race was a smidgen too physical to go smoothly.

‘It didn’t end up being that type of race,’ Heath said.

And so, the quest continues for two of Syracuse’s top athletes in their career-long pursuit at a mark that has defined running for over 50 years. No SU runner has ever broken the four-minute mile – the barrier famously cracked by Roger Bannister in 1954. But since track has been a sport at Syracuse, no one has come closer than Brad Miller and Kyle Heath.

And soon one of them will break it. If the conditions are right.

‘It’s like the guy trying to shoot 60 on the golf course: it’s got to be perfect,’ Fox said. ‘Yeah, they’re close, but that one second is huge. Brad’s down to one-tenth. They’re good enough to do it, no doubt about that. But it’s got to be perfect conditions.’

On Jan. 24, Miller came within 19-hundredths of a second off the mark at the Boston Terrier Invitational, setting a school record and breaking Heath’s run of 4 minutes, 1.68 seconds last season.

It was a first-place finish in the race for Miller, and a spot in SU’s record books, but he still tossed and turned the next few nights thinking about it. What does a distance runner do to shave two-tenths of a second off his time?

For anyone else, it’s incomprehensibly miniscule. For Miller, it’s the defining chasm of a runner’s class. It’s career-labeling. He’s an eye blink behind the others who’ve broken the mark. But when he thinks about himself, he can’t get past the impression that he’s still too slow.

‘It does (seem far away),’ Miller said. ‘People who’ve run 3:59 have this different air about them. I know I can get there, but they just seem so much better, so much faster than someone who’s run four flat.

‘I feel like someone who has run 3:59.9 is so much faster than I am. It’s just the way I think about it.’

If the four-minute mile seems like an Everest of sorts for distance runners, it’s because it is: it still contains an aura despite being outdated as a truly mystical achievement. In Boston last weekend, five runners ran sub-four-minute miles (though the top collegiate finish was 4:01.17). To Miller, it’s the line that separates great runners from the rest. Fox likened it to averaging 30 points per game in basketball.

‘These guys are all elite level that break four minutes,’ Fox said. ‘It’s kind of one of those ultimate athletic feats.’

For Syracuse, it’s also history. No runner has ever broken it before. Suddenly, there are two right on the precipice.

Both insist it’s never been a competition to see who breaks it first. Miller said he’d be happier if Heath did it. Heath said he was thrilled when Miller ran his 4:00.19. Neither wanted to claim the task for themselves.

But the workouts together have been tough, mostly because they’re neck and neck in everything they do. They refuse to be outworked by each other. Five-mile runs in the mornings lead to more conditioning in the afternoon. Three times a week, they battle each other (along with graduate assistants John Butler and Jordan Davis) in intense circuit training aimed at improving times. In total, both run about 90 miles per week, Fox said.

All this training, all this devotion, for four minutes – or less.

‘He’s as capable as I am at running a sub-4:00,’ Heath said. ‘He’s right there. It’s just whoever gets the opportunity in that race and focused on that specific opportunity to break four. It’s not whether we can do it – we’re both ready to do it.’

Heath’s read the books and seen the film clips. He knows all about Bannister and that historic windy day in Oxford, England, when he accomplished what was thought to be impossible. For any runner, Bannister’s mark remains the archetype of individual achievement.

And why is that? Why is 4:00 such a distinguished number when the world record is almost 17 seconds faster?

‘It’s kind of like the purpose of running,’ Heath said, ‘is to try to break four minutes.’

Anything short of that – to the millisecond – won’t be accepted by the two Syracuse runners racing with each other to be the first.

‘Everything in the race has to be perfect,’ Heath said. ‘And then, if everything’s set up right, that’s what you have to have to run that type of race. And if it’s all there, you’re ready for it. I’m ready for it.’

Zach Schonbrun is the sports columnist for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Wednesday. He can be reached at zsschonb@syr.edu.

Published on February 10, 2009 at 12:00 pm