Monmouth University's Ford Palmer has a four-minute mile within his sights

Ford Palmer plopped on the maroon synthetic track at Monmouth University last week and peeled the Asics running shoe and ankle sock from his right foot. As the sun beat down, he grabbed a Band-Aid and a piece of athletic tape and used them to cover the bright red blister on the inside of his foot.

"I don’t normally get blisters, but I have so many holes in my socks," Palmer said. "I have 15 pairs of socks and they all have at least one hole in them."

Palmer laced up his shoe, hopped to his feet and prepared for another crucial practice as he aims to make history at the small private college eight blocks from the beach in West Long Branch. The socks — and blisters — are merely results of his dogged pursuit.

During the winter indoor track season, Palmer set a school record by running the mile in 4:00.46. The mark, however, was more tease than milestone. It left him less than a half-second from eclipsing the 4-minute mile barrier — perhaps the most identifiable benchmark in the world of track.

Being so close to breaking the 4-minute mark has forced Palmer to ramp up his training as he closes in on the end of his senior season and his last chance at the record books, which comes Saturday at the Kansas Relays. But shaving the final half-second — after years and years of shaving half-seconds — is an unending battle of his physical and mental wits.

"You’re talking about a tenth of a second here or there, so you don’t want to leave anything to chance," said Chris Tarello, a Monmouth assistant coach who works with the middle-distance runners. "We’re at the point right now where we’re just trying to have him sharp."

Monmouth’s runners have rallied behind Palmer’s quest by showering him with encouragement and pushing him each day at practice in hopes of seeing his many sacrifices pay off. It would also be an appropriate ending for the team’s most unlikely star.

Palmer was a 6-foot, 185-pound linebacker coming out of South Jersey’s Absegami High who only traded football for track after suffering one too many concussions in high school. He did not run the mile at Monmouth until his junior season, instead focusing on the 800 meters. And over the past 16 months, the cheeseburger-and-chicken-wing-devouring Palmer became a vegan, helping him shed 30 pounds to get within striking distance of 4 minutes.

"The guys that break four minutes, they’re natural runners," Tarello said. "That’s not Ford. Ford had to make himself into this."

DIET OF HARD WORK

After warming up last week, Palmer and five other runners headed to the far side of the track to begin practice. It was the first day of speed training — which meant Palmer and his teammates would run numerous sets of 200-, 300- and 400-meter sprints at a challenging clip of about 54 seconds. The goal is to increase Palmer’s speed and stamina to allow him to finish the mile stronger than ever.

"You want to be your fastest at the end of the race," Tarello said. "He’s strong, but we want to get him quick so he can finish off that last quarter."

Palmer and the other runners zipped around the track for each set with Tarello — stop watch in hand — running across the infield shouting their splits. Palmer circled the track bare-chested with long, smooth strides, his sinewy muscles lined with veins. His bushy brown hair was blown back by the wind into a permanent pompadour.

Midway through the workout, Palmer’s calves and thighs burned with fatigue. He did not allow the training to slow.

"He’s an animal," said Andrew Langille, a sophomore runner from Canada. "I’m not kidding. No one trains harder than him."

When Palmer, 22, started taking the mile seriously last year, his changes had an influence on the rest of the team. He began swimming a mile about four times each week, and now some of the other middle-distances runners join him. On days when teammates want to run five miles instead of the usual eight, Palmer doesn’t allow it.

Over the summer, Palmer still worked out nearly every day, running over sand, rowing through the ocean and swimming in the sea before his lifeguard shifts with the Upper Township Beach Patrol.

"I was an average runner and I stepped up to the next level mainly because of Ford and the training," said Alex Leight, a sophomore from Old Bridge. "I would have never hit those times if I wasn’t running with Ford."

But teammates draw the line at his diet. Palmer sticks to salad wraps, veggie burgers, oatmeal, hummus, beans, pasta, fruits and vegetables. His teammates laugh watching him build monstrous veggie wraps in the dining hall.

"He’ll stuff everything he thinks is good for you into a wrap," Langille said. "Not typical stuff. He’ll put Goldfish crackers. Broccoli. Black beans. Avocado. There’s so much stuff in there you can’t even close it."

Palmer’s funky diet and miles of swimming are all in pursuit of the singular goal: Breaking four.

CLOCK IS TICKING

The 4-minute mile barrier was broken for the first time by Britain’s Roger Bannister in 1954. Since then, 15 high school, college or professional runners from New Jersey have eclipsed the mark, Monmouth coach Joe Compagni said. Most, if not all, have a more traditional running pedigree than Palmer.

Besides Palmer, no runner from Monmouth has ever been within seven seconds of the time. For several years the school’s president — Paul G. Gaffney II — owned the fastest time on campus.

"President Gaffney ran at the Naval Academy and he ran 4:10 in the mile," Compagni said. "So there were a few years that we joked the fastest miler on campus was our president because that was true. Fortunately Ford’s taken care of that and the fastest guy isn’t an old retiring guy."

It took Palmer years to make it to the cusp of the milestone. Coming out of high school, he ran a sluggish 4:25. As a junior, his time dropped to 4:08. By that point, he began obsessing over breaking the mark, daydreaming about it as he sat through his criminology and psychology classes.

"At this point, I assume I’m capable of breaking it," Palmer said. "Now, it’s just a matter of my next attempt."

Palmer ran the mile in 4:01.90 in January and was poised to break the mark at the Colombia Last Chance meet in March. He woke up the morning of the event with a fever and ended up dropping out of the race halfway through.

He will have the last chance of his college career Saturday in Kansas — his last official opportunity to finally break four.

"To be this close is just an honor as it is," Palmer said. "I mean, my mile PR coming out of high school was a 4:25 and now all of a sudden I’m running a 4-flat. I didn’t see that coming."

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.