COMMUNITY

Breaking 4

By Jack Huber

On July 25, 2026, under a perfectly blue summer sky in Charlevoix, Michigan, I broke four minutes in the mile for the first time. Running a sub-four-minute mile had been my dream since I started running, but the mark became a realistic possibility for me only in the last couple of years.

The first timed mile I ever ran was a 4:55 in my sophomore year at Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar. I joined the cross-country team in the fall of that school year and immediately fell in love with the sport. I appreciated the objectivity and ancient simplicity of the sport. By the end of high school, I’d dropped my mile time to 4:20 and was committed to run at Michigan State University.

At Michigan State, my running stagnated. I graduated with a 1,500 meters personal best of 3:55, the equivalent of about a 4:13 mile. I knew I wasn’t going to stop running. I enjoyed it too much, but I didn’t expect to drop significant time in the mile, let alone break four.

After college, most runners choose to move up to the roads and run long, but the thrill of a middle-distance race was too addictive to give up. In my first track race out of college, I ran a 3:53 personal best in the 1,500 meters and closed the final lap in 56 seconds. A week later, I followed it with a personal-best 1:51 in the 800. Within a year of graduating, my mile time was 4:07, close enough to make sub-four a realistic possibility.

In early July of this year, I accepted an invitation to run the Ryan Shay Mile in Charlevoix, Michigan. A week before the race, I won a mile race with a time of 4:04 in Portland, Maine. That race lacked a rabbit, and the pace lagged severely in the third lap, which was 64 seconds. I was close.

I toed the starting line on that Saturday in Charlevoix, thinking, for the first time, with a field of this caliber, that breaking four minutes was within reach.

The Ryan Shay Mile is an annual invitation-only elite road mile. It’s named after Ryan Shay, who ran for Notre Dame and won the NCAA 10,000-meter title in 2001, earning nine All-American honors. He died in 2007 while competing in the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials. The annual race named in his honor is one of the fastest road miles in the country, with a course record of 3:52.4.

My goal was to place as high as I could. There are no exact splits on the road, and you can’t mentally break down the race into four quarters like you can on the track. My plan was simple: stay with the lead pack and compete. If I could do that, I really believed I’d run a sub-4.

There is bonus money for the leader at halfway which caused the race to get out very quickly. One runner took off to collect the money, while I stayed behind in the chase pack. As we crossed halfway, I heard someone’s coach yell out “1:57!” It was by far the fastest I’d ever gone out in a mile, and I knew I was well under goal pace. I bridged up to the front of the pack and started to believe I had a chance to win. I could see the finish in the distance and the crowd started to get louder.

With about 200 meters to go, the race started to get away from me. I looked to my left and saw the eventual winner, Australian Jack Antsey, move decisively to the front. He looked good. I felt my legs seizing up and the burning in my appendages became intolerable. I faded from third to seventh place, but once the clock was in view, I could make out the time ticking up from the 3:40s. I was exhilarated when I crossed the line in 3:54.7.

When I was 18, my dad gave me a signed Roger Bannister photo for my birthday. Roger Bannister was 25 years old when he became the first person ever to run a mile in under four minutes, clocking 3:59.4 on May 6, 1954. That signed photo used to represent my dream. I used to stare at his face, twisted with pain as he broke the string, wondering what he felt at that moment. Now, at age 25 myself, I know.

Jack Huber (Jack’s Email to Come) is a graduate of Bethlehem Central High School and Michigan State University, where he ran on the track and cross-country teams. Winner of the Troy Turkey Trot in 2025 with a time of 31:06, he is currently living in Boston and is a PhD student in biology at Boston University.