Don’t leave us in suspense. How did the 4:57 kid die for the sport?
Figuratively
From vocabulary.com:
Figuratively means metaphorically, and literally describes something that actually happened. If you say that a guitar solo literally blew your head off, your head should not be attached to your body.
Really, no one knows and probably never will. Bowerman had a guy at Oregon who ran under 4:00 for the mile on 25 or so miles a week which is about what Bannister did.
Coached a kid in HS who ran sub-4.04 mile equivalent off that volume of training, but could also run 48 for 400 and sub-1.48 for 800m. He only ran one outdoor 1500 in HS (that race) as well. Knew he was ready for it when he ran a solo 1200TT in 3.00 (going 60/63/57). Some kids (but not many) just have that ability - played basketball and football in HS as well.
Now is a serious 1500m guy trying to make it to the Olympics.
I coached a high-schooler in England about 25 years ago (where nearly everything was through the club system rather than high-school/college coaching).
Was second in the English Schools 3000m in about 8:20, fourth in the National x-country championship, ran for England (won an international x-country match, home nations + Belgium, I believe). Ran solo 14:5x in first 5000m.
Did something like 40 miles a week over 6 days, three of which were some kind of interval session.
Idea was that I'd left plenty of upside as he got older. Didn't quite work out as when he left home for college got into college life-style and kind of drifted away.
Point is, though, you can do a lot on 40 miles a week with intensity.
Figuratively means metaphorically, and literally describes something that actually happened. If you say that a guitar solo literally blew your head off, your head should not be attached to your body.
Literally can mean figuratively as well now, the dictionaries caved to popular usage. You're like one of those Imperial Japanese soldiers stuck on an island for decades, thinking he's still fighting an already lost war.
My sister and I trained together, and I know for a fact she ran no farther and no faster than me over the summer or on weekends or whatever. Overall, I trained as hard or harder, but I'd say we did roughly the same amount of work.
She consistently ran one minute per mile faster than me. At least. That's 3 minutes for a 5K. That's the difference between solid contributor on the team (me) and getting written up regularly in the local paper (her).
As others have said, life is definitely not fair. At some point, you get over it. In my case, I learned to be proud of my sister's accomplishments. In high school, I was very discouraged and felt hard work made no difference. However, I realize now that's wrong.
Just by running around 40 mpw, I run a 5K about 5 minutes faster than on minimal training. That's huge. I'm usually in the top 5% for my gender in races, sometimes even in the top 1%. And it makes me happy to see my consistent training pay off.
Don't worry about your teammate, but yes, understand that if you weren't born with talent, you won't be a star. But running contributes to physical and mental health and can bring great joy even if you get beaten by more talented people. Your teammate will also get beaten by people more talented than him, even if he starts working hard and never skips practice.