You can get so emotionally invested in the negative stuff that you let it cloud your judgment. – Galen Rupp
I googled Joe Binks and one of the images, well, that’s it above. Get the sense Joe Binks looked nothing like that.
On the outside. On the inside, might just be a striking resemblance.
I googled Joe Binks because in the penultimate box of my archives, I found a handprinted note, from my Running magazine days in the late Seventies. 1978.
In a certain way I was something of a genius. And my genius was how much I loved the sport of running. What I’m saying is this note is pure. I might’ve been running a ninety-mile week, with a hitch in my giddy-up and not a little pain. But I loved it. Running was my mistress.
Had to get the miles in. Had to. I might’ve been the slowest guy ever to run that fast.
As slow as it was.
You can only imagine my interest in Joe Binks.
The Note. To wit:
In 1902, Joe Binks set a world record for the mile when he ran 4:16. Joe also ran a personal record three-mile of 14:10.
Whatever the race, Binks trained just one evening a week for a half hour. His workouts for the 3M consisted of an easy two-mile run, followed by a few sprints.
Remember, a half-hour weekly. Remember, 14:10 for three miles. It makes you wonder.
What’s your 3M PR? How much time do you spend training per week?
Let’s be honest here. The bunch of us who weren’t quite good enough, how many of those miles did we run just to run those miles? I often wonder.
Maybe not often, okay, but occasionally. What’s more important really. Those times you clocked which could’ve been faster maybe or the people you met. No need even for a question mark.
I googled Joe Binks and I am thinking Joe Binks would’ve run faster if he’d trained more miles and made more friends.
And as a Border Guard once told me, “Lose the hat.”
You can tell he’s a middle-distance runner by the eyes.
Joseph (Joe) Binks (1874-1966) was a former holder of the British mile record. Running for the Unity Athletic Club, he won the Mile Championship held at Stamford Bridge in 1902, establishing a British amateur record of 4 minutes 16.8 seconds.
Previously, the fastest known time for a mile by a British amateur was 4:17 by F. E. Bacon at the AAA Championships in 1895. The 1902 race was built up by four men, who each took a turn at pace-making with a view to running his opponents into the ground.
Binks’ 1902 record held up for nearly two decades until broken by Albert Hill in 1921.
http://racingpast.ca/bob-phillips.php?id=59