Jim Ryun reflectpatagonia better sweater hoody women's sale0s upon 50th anpatagonia better sweater hoody women's sale1niversary of breaking four
But don t look for any iconic pictures of Ryun finishing that race. Certainly nothing like the dramatic picture of him crossing the finish line nearly a year later when he won the mile at the state track meet in Wichita with a 3:58.3.
When you finish eighth as Ryun did that night in Compton no one is waiting to take your picture.
Ryun, however, also was a 17 year old junior at East Higpatagonia better sweater hoody women's saleh School competing against a world class field of older runners.
His placing didn t mattpatagonia better sweater womenser. His time of 3:59 did.
On Thursday night, Ryun will be at San Diego s Balboa Stadium when the milestone is honored.
His early efforts in sports didn t go well.
He was cut by his church s baseball team, cut by the Curtis Junior High basketball squad. He couldn t even make his junior high s track team.
During my junior high days, Ryun said during a telephone interview this week, I d go to bed at night and pray, Dear God, if you ve got a plan for my life, I d appreciate it if you d show up sooner or later, because it s not going very well.
And if you could fit sports into it, I d really like that.
His thinking was that letter jackets help attract girls.
As a sophomore at East High, he found distance running. In less than two years, he would be running the mile under 4 minutes and making the Olympic team for the first time.
Ryun lost his first high school race to a defending state champion, but he never lost again in the mile to prep only competition.
He had a passion to work hard and didn t flinch at gpatagonia outlet store europerueling workouts developed by his coach, Bob Timmons, a Marine combat vetepatagonia outlet store 3462ran of World War II.
Timmons quickly saw potential in the tall, patagonia better sweater jacket for men saleskinny lad. He set lofty goals for Ryun.
After running a 5:38 mile in the fall of his sophomore year, Ryun quickly progressed and won the Washington Relays in 4:21 in Kansas City, Kan. On the bus ride home, Timmons askepatagonia discount code nordstromd Ryun to sit down beside him.
Congratulations, Jim, Timmons told Ryun, but I think you can run faster. I m thinking you can run under four minutes.
Ryun went to the back of the bus, puzzled and unable to cpatagonia everlong review freeomprehend what that meant.
But that was the genesis to all this, he said.
The whole East High team began working for the same goal of seeing Ryun break 4 minutes. For instance, if the team was patagonia everlong review 4sharedrunning repeat 440 yard intervals, he would start fpatagonia everlong review 99ive or six seconds behind his teammates and try to catch patagonia better sweater hoody women's sale3up.
It was a way to get me to the next level, he said. They weren t offended by it. They saw it as a chance to do something historical.
At the state meet as a sophomore, Ryun won in a record time of 4:16.2. As a junior, just weeks before going to California for his historic moment, he won the state meet in 4:06.4 not only breaking his state record but also the national mark patagonia better sweater hoody women's sale2of 4:08.7.
Ryun was grabbing the attention of meet organizers across the country. The week beforpatagonia houdini 9 reviewe the Compton Invitational, he ran a 4:01.7 at the Modesto Relays in California.
