a very humble, kind older gentleman asked me where i was from today. i told him my parents were from cambodia. he mentioned how horrible it was the khmer rouge killed 2 million cambodians in the 70’s. i was amazed at how accurate that factoid was. a few minutes pass, and turns out he’s jim beatty, the first person to break a 4 minute mile. mr. beatty, mr. tobin (a good friend of jim’s), and i end up having a great conversation encompassing the vienam war, mr. tobin’s time in laos, my parents, and even mr. beatty’s running career all in the span of only a few minutes believe it or not.
a mile under 4 minutes? how incredible. the first person in human history to do it and i so happened to engage in conversation with him. man, was that cool, or was that cool?
-ratha, 12:15pm, 9.28.17