James Henry Peters was a long-distance runner from England. He broke the world record for the men's marathon four times during the 1950s. He was the first runner to complete a marathon in under 2 hours 20 minutes; the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races has compared the significance of that barrier to the four-minute mile. Jim Peters (United Kingdom) set the men's marathon world record of 2:17:39.4 in Polytechnic Marathon on June 26, 1954. It stood 2.1 years, until Paavo Kotila's 2:18:04.8 on August 12, 1956. Wiki link