Ben Wall (in white) trails Sam Ruthe and Sam Tanner towards his four-minute mile. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
This weekend, Ben Wall ticks off a big item off from his bucket list, when he attends the China Formula One Grand Prix.
"I'm a bit of an F1 fan," he admitted from outside the Shanghai International Circuit. "I've been wanting to go for a race for a while and saw there was an Air New Zealand sale to China around the time of this race, so I thought I'd take the opportunity and go for it."
Consider it an unexpected reward for achieving another life ambition just three days ago, as the Feilding middle-distance journeyman dipped under four minutes for the mile for the very first time.
As Olympian Sam Tanner stepped aside to usher teenage Sam Ruthe into history, attention briefly turned to the interloper threatening to crash their party down the homestraight of Mt Smart Stadium.
"After 800 metres, I was starting to feel the pace a bit, but managed to relax and hang on there nicely," Wall recalled. "With 200 metres to go, I was still feeling pretty good and thought I'd see what I could do.
"At 150, I improved up onto Sam Ruthe's shoulder, and he noticed that and ran a bit wider. That was when he started to take off.
"Sam Tanner was always going to run wide to let him through, because that was the plan. I didn't quite have enough in the tank, but it was a pretty substantial personal best and everything I had."
Tanner would win the race in lane three, clocking 3m 58.29s - nine seconds slower than his best - as he encouraged his training mate to the finish-line. Ruthe, 15, became the youngest to ever break four minutes with his 3m 58.35s, as Wall chased him home in 3m 59.00s.
While everyone else celebrated Ruthe's amazing feat, Wall was left to quietly relish his own personal milestone, as he became New Zealand's 50th man under four minutes.
The benchmark has become more commonplace since Sir Roger Bannister first flew around Oxford's Iffley Road Track in 1954, but it still holds a certain mystique that differentiates between a serious miler and a pretender.
During his illustrious career, former world recordholder Sir John Walker - whose 3m 49.08s still stands as our national mark - became the first to run 100 sub-fours, while two-time Olympic 1500m medallist Nick Willis broke the barrier over 20 consecutive years, aged 38.
The mile is as much part of Kiwi sporting folklore as the All Blacks, so Wall, 23, now finds himself in exclusive company.
"It's pretty significant to me," he said. "It's something I've always wanted to do and I'd always said, if I finished my career without doing it, I would have been quite disappointed."
His breakthrough did not overly surprise Wall, who had clocked 3m 43s over 1500 metres last month.
"That's like a 4.01 equivalent over a mile, so I thought, on a really good day, I could get close to four flat or sneak under," he said.
"I always had a feeling that it was there and I hadn't executed some of my previous races as well as I should have, but I also wasn't expecting to do it.
"I had a feeling I could do it, but wasn't sure if it would happen."
Wall's previous best was 4m 03.1s, and he partly credits the atmosphere and hype around Ruthe's age record attempt for his performance, but he must now reset to focus on a new goal.
"I'd like to break 3m 40s for 1500 metres… get into the 3m 30s," he said. "Sub-four equivalent is around 3m 42s, so I need to be a little bit quicker than that.
"I haven't left the country to race, so I'd like to go to Europe and get into some races there."
Maybe Wall can work that around his next visit to the Formula One circuit.
"It may be a couple of years before I get to another one," he admits.
