Running with Bernie
In 1958, he was in his junior year and running the Mile in about four and a half minutes, a startlingly good time for a kid training with the minimum coaching and equipment of that era.
By Neal Singer, HuffingtonPost.com
His advocates think Bernie Sanders is a moral candidate who refuses big money; his detractors describe him as a half-dotty old man. But when I knew him, he wasn’t running for office — he was running the mile; and as impressive as I find him now, he was just that good then. There’s a gold medal in my study because of Bernie Sanders.
In 1958, Bernie and I were on the James Madison High School track team. He was in his junior year and running the Mile in about four and a half minutes, a startlingly good time for a kid training with the minimum coaching and equipment of that era.
He had an unusual style. He ran with his torso vertical rather than leaning forward. His hands hung from his wrists like unwanted goods. Either he thought the energy cost of keeping his hands aligned with his forearms — the loose-fist position favored by most runners — did nothing to propel him, or perhaps he believed he could use his downward-hanging hands to streamline himself. I didn’t know. But he ran round and round our 1/8th mile track, methodically increasing his endurance as he trained himself to run faster.
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