Moving on 20 years to 6th May 2004, Daniel had, the previous month, broken the 3 hour barrier on his sixth attempt at the London Marathon. He had one more barrier that he particularly wanted to breach: five minutes for the mile. However, Britain's running boom seemed to be over, and there was no " Day of the Mile" event to commemorate 50 years since Bannister's achievement.
Back in 1954, Bannister had held his world record for just six weeks until his great rival, John Landy of Australia, broke it by more than a second with a time of 3:58.0. The stage was now set for a dramatic showdown between the two runners in the final of the One Mile at the Empire Games in Vancouver on 7th August 1954.
This race proved to be probably the most exciting mile race ever run and is still known as the "Miracle Mile". A statue stands in Vancouver to commemorate its moment of highest drama, when John Landy looked back over his left shoulder just as Roger Bannister passed him on his right. Of that instant John Landy said, “When Lot’s wife looked back she was turned into a pillar of salt. When I looked back I was turned into a pillar of bronze!”.
Fifty years to the day after the "Miracle Mile", on 7th August 2004, Daniel ran the One Mile at the London Inter-Club Challenge Meeting at Woodford Green in a time of 4:54.08. It was the first and only time that Daniel beat five minutes for the mile in an official race, and according to his own "Personal Bests" spreadsheet it was the best race he ever ran.
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