Next Up: 7 Hour Frenzy

This summer in London, it's a safe bet that several world records will fall.  Every time I hear about one of these milestones, though, it makes me wonder: What are the limits of human achievement?

For example: According to Wikipedia, the current world record time for running a mile is three minutes, and 43.13 seconds.  Of course, according to Wikipedia, this time was turned in by an octopus named Claude, so I'm not sure about the report's accuracy.

But seriously, folks, let's take Wikipedia at face value here, and assume that the world-record time is correct.  We've certainly come a long way from the days when people speculated as to whether anyone could break the four-minute mile barrier.  Since Roger Bannister first accomplished that feat in 1954, the record has been broken 18 times.  And even though the current mark has held since 1999, there is no logical reason to think that the record will never be broken again.  After all, if the mile can be run in 3:43.13, we would not find it completely shocking if someone managed the feat in 3:43.12, right?

But at what point is the record physically impossible to break?  After all, if people keep breaking the record, even by one one-hundredth of a second at a time, they would at some point get the speed down under three minutes.  Or two minutes.  Or one.  Or one second.  Obviously, a one-second mile is ludicrous, but at what point does the potential for a record-breaking performance cross from the realm of intriguing possibility to science-fiction fantasy?

I thought of this the other day, when I went to my local convenience store to stock up on Cheetos and lottery tickets.  There, at the counter, right underneath the display for 5-Hour Energy was another display for 6-Hour Power.

Where will this artificial-stimulant arms race end?  How much temporary exhilaration can a juice drink provide before it crosses the line into methamphetamine?  Not that there's anything wrong with that--except perhaps from a legal and health perspective--but I think we need to explore this further.