Surfers in utter disbelief after Josh Kerr shatters world record mile time

"He did what?"

Surfers around the world woke up today all the way stunned, stupefied even, after learning that Josh Kerr obliterated the 27-year-old world record mile time four days ago. Roger Bannister, who hailed from England, made famous history back in 1954 to become the first person to run a sub-four minute mile. Doctors, at the time, thought his face would melt at that speed.

It did not and since then the mile time crept steadily downward until 1999 when the Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj busted a 3:43.13.

Kerr, anyhow, made it his mission to best the mark, and embarked on the ambitious Project 222, 222 being the number of seconds in a 3:42 mile. He trained and worked, worked and trained, and became bored, telling People Magazine, “The sessions were not hard, but the week-to-week was very difficult. The structure of getting to bed and eating on time, nutrition, meetings — it’s all very mundane. Everything accumulates. There were some distinct moments that I’m just, ‘F— this’. I’m 16 miles into a day and I’m sitting here eating a salad and a couple of grains of rice, like, what are we doing?”

But the aerialist famous for his Club Sandwich kept at it and showed up in London, on July 18, locked and loaded. 60,000 people packed the stands to witness potential history and did not leaved disappointed, Kerr crossing the line with an official time of 3:42.66. While running, he shared that he lost his hearing, saying, “It’s a very calming sensation, a trigger. As soon as it happens, it is my body telling me everything I don’t need is shutting off, and I’m going to get to the line as quickly as possible.”

So I guess the doctors who predicted face melting were not all the way wrong.

Surfers, anyhow, gobsmacked.

Sierra should be very proud.