Going into the race, Stahr talked about breaking the legendary four-minute barrier.

So in the eight years since Bannister's breakthrough, the four-minute barrier had survived indoors.

The race was all his, with the fastest schoolboy time in the country this year, but the four-minute barrier remained just beyond his reach.

Now it appeared that the men who had broken the fabled four-minute barrier might have been turned temporarily into superathletes by the use of drugs.

The mile had glamour, charismatic personalities and the historical weight of the four-minute barrier.

He first broke the four-minute barrier indoors with a time of 3:58.9 in 1962 at Los Angeles.

His tunes often broke the four-minute barrier, while most ska songs were barely longer than two minutes.

But other runners were making attempts at the four-minute barrier and coming close as well.

Comparing this first-timer breakthrough with the fall of the four-minute barrier might be stretching it a bit, but Janzen's larger point is a good one.

Webb, who had just turned 18, became the first prep runner to break the four-minute barrier since Marty Liquori did it in 1967.