It is notable that this transcendence of the personal self and surrender to the very essence or spirit of life often occur at a point just beyond the apparent limit of the athlete’s ability. The seeming barrier is predicated by the paradigm of one’s own past accomplishments or of what has been recognized as theoretically possible, such as the historic “four-minute mile.” Until Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, it was universally accepted that it was not humanly possible to run any faster than that; Bannister’s greatness was not just in breaking the record, but in breaking through
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