How To Run.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 44, 21 February 1891, Page 3 (Supplement)

How To Run.

By Walter C. Dchm, Amateur Champion Middle Distance Running of America.

T__lC__ __T__S.__T_CS FOB 30YS,

The increased interest in track athletics manifested by boys throughout the country in general, and at tho large preparatory schools and academies more particularly, is one of the marked features of the advanced position which this form of sport has taken in amateur athletics. Four inner-scholastic athletic leagues now hold annual meetings at which youthful athletes measure speed, strength or agility against each other for championship laurels, while nearly all the individual members of these leagues have their ' field days 'as well. It is in the vicinity of tho largo athletic clubs and colleges that these sports create most interest, and the directors of the great New York clubs keep a watchful lookout for the discovery of athletic balenb that may in bhe course of a few years carry bhe emblems of their associations to the front in some great championship meeting. At the great athletic colleges. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Columbia, even deeper interest is manifested in the work of the ' prep' schools, for it is bhe embryo sprinter, jumper, and hurdler of these institutions who are to compose tho teams which later on will do battle for the intcr-collegiato championship honours. While in many cases the champion of an inter-scholastic league will develop into an inter-collegiate, or even a National champion, it sometimes happens that thero is no improvement in athletic ability, and the bright hopes of athletic successes entertained at school fail to materaliso. This arrested development is usually due either to improper training or whab is only another form of the same thing, too early specialisation in athletic work.

Tho most common, and at the same bimo the mistake most fatal to athletic success, which is made in training, not by boys alone, bub by four oub of evory rive beginnors, is doing too much work. In tho case of boys, many of them follow a system of training dosigned only for maturer athletes, or preparing for a race on a track where older athletes are training, thoy adhere closoly to the system which these men follow.

Now, between tho ages of 14 and 18 the greatest amount of physical development ordinarily takes place in a boy. He does not know that tho matured athlete, having already attained his matured growth, has only to replace tho tissue lost through severe muscular exertion, "while ho himself has, in addition to this, to meet tho wants of his growing system. The two havo nothing in common, and the result is that instead of the benefit which was to have been derived from the exercise, even permanent injury may be inflicted. As for specialising, no boy should think of confining himself solely to one form of athletic exercise. At every outdoor athlebic meeting we soe runners with poorly developed arms, whilo in the gymnasium we see athletes with undersized legs. It may be safely stated, however, that in no case arc men of such physique first-class performers, while, on tho other hand, I can recall no champion runner who has not, in addition to his strong legs, a stout pair of arms. Before a man can make a success as a specialist in athletics he must, like the specialist in medicino, have a general basis for his future work. The first thing, therefore, that the boy should do, in whatever branch of athletics ho may desire to excel, is to build himself up by general athletic work, and so insuro tho most perfect development of the whole system. Let him take parb in football and baseball; let him row and swim, and not imagine thab if he wants to become a runner, putting a big pair of arms and shoulders on himself will make him slower by giving his legs just so much extra weight to carry in a race. These sports for summer. Then in winter he can go into the gymnasium and wrestle and spar, jump and vault, turn and swing, and use Indian clubs and dumb bells. My own experience has satisfied me that this is the best course, and I am as regular an abbentlanb ab blip ' gym ' in winter as I am the track in spring and fall. And even while training for the Eastern championship, ab Travel's Island, I used almost daily to row four or five miles.

So much for the 'all-round ' work which is to give us general strength. In addition- to this, wo are, of course, to take a certain amount of practice in running itself. To begin with, you will want what is by courtesy termed a suit. The running suit consists of a cotton or knit woollen quarter-slecye jersey, and a pair of muslin or silk running drawers reaching to bhe knees, bhe wholo weighing about ounces —my ' suit' weighs a quarter ounce less. Then with a pair of running shoes— tho mosb importanb parb of your dross— your oubfib is complete. Tho shoes should be the regular spiked article worn by all abhlebes, and ib will be a good idea for you to get accustomed to them, after which they will be found a wonderful improvement over slippers, preventing you from slipping, keeping you on your toes, and lengthening your stride. You can get a good pair ready-mado for S3 or 64. Mado to order they will cost $5 or §6. A pair should lasb you ab least, four monbhs, but when you once begin racing you will want a new pair for nearly every race. My bill for running and jumping shoes in tho course of a year usually amounts to about .60. If you can practise on a regular running tracki whero you will have the benefit of dressing-rooms, baths, etc., so much the better, but these are not absolutely necessary. I have trained in a level field, where thero wasn't anything like a running track, and I have also taken my practice barefoot on bhe beach along bhe sea shore. While this training affords sufficient preparation for distance running, it is likely to make one a trifle slow, adding strength ab bhe expense of speed. For ' sprinting,' thab is rapid shorb disbance running, a firm, springy track musb bo Natural inclination will determine for you whether you aro likely to do best ' sprint' running, which includes all distances up to 350 yards; ' middle' distance running, which includes the quarter and half mile runs • or at the longer distances a mile and over.' Remember, thab if you elect' spfinbing'" you must confine yourself to that form of running almost exclusively, • heavy ' work, that is, running long distances, having the same effect on a * sprinter' thab handling heavy dumbbells would have on an acrobab—muscle would be cultivated at tho expense of speed and activity. You will find sprinting the easiest kind of running, but you should nob abbempb more bhan forty or fifty yards at first and should never, even after considerable'training, attempt more than 120 or 150 yards. Few of our best athletes oven after years of practice can run a 220 yards dash through at top speed. For long distance running endurance is, of course, the all-important factor, speed alone nob being sufficient to win a mile race. But in the ' middle ' distances both staying power and swiftness are required, and it is the unusual combination of these two qualities which is required to run a auarter or half-mile thab makes this form of running more difficult than either of tbe others. While, as I have beforo stated, training for the 'sprints' should exclude 'heavy' work, we musb bear in mind that in a distance race, when runners of equal endurance and pluck meet, the better sprinter of the two will win. Ib is an excellenb idea, therefore, to cultivate your speed, however ordinary it may be, to as high a poinb as is

consistent with ycur distance work. I havo seen more than one race won in the lasb bwenby yards by an athlete who, though nob as sbrong as his opponent, had just a sufficient 'turn of speed ' to win at the finish.

A striking confirmation of these two facts thab practice in sprinting enables one bo do a better performance in the distance, while too much heavy work detracts from one's speed, is afiordod by the series of races which I have run with W r . C. Downs of Harvard. Last year Downs won tho inter-collegiate championship in the halfmile, and bho championship of bhe Eastern United Stabcs in the samo event while ab tho samo meetings I took the quartermile runs. When tho present season opened Downs, whose weak point in quarter-mile runnings had been his inability to make a fast finish, developed his speed by continuous practice in sprinting. And I, who thought that 1 could run fast enough, but lacked only my rival s staying power, developed endurance by long distance Work. Imagino the result ! When we met at tho inter-collegiate and Eastern championships again, Downs defeated mo in the quarter, taking tho very championships which I had won the year before, while I turnod the tables on him by taking both his half-milors.

The amount of work you are to do on the track should bo .small, running being one of the mosb arduous forms of exorcise. Twice, or three timos a week on the outsido, is sufficient. And then sprint only short distances ; run the quarter and half only at a modcrato pace, and if you attempt as much as a mile make the gait so slow that there can be no possible chance of over-exertion. If you find yourself tiring, and the finish is yet a distance off, don't leb pride or pluck keep you running, bub stop, and next time you attempt it let it be at even an easier paco.

Dietetics—The question of what you shall cab and whab you shall drink is one with which you need not concern yourself for some years to cqme. Any kind of wellcooked, healthful food may be eaten, and all you need avoid is such rubbish as candy, pastry, and tho like.

I do nob ab all approve of a boy running in a race unless ho is at least 16 or 17 years old. Ho is to look upon his work now simply as a preparation for running later on, and not consider it a part of his career as an athleto any more than he looks upon his work at school as part of his business or professional life.

A word more and I have finished. Don't get discouraged if you are not successful in winning prizes and breaking records. Remember that the end and aim of athletics is not to run a hundred yards or a half mile a fractitional parb of a second faster bhan some one else, bub to insure health and recreation, and this object you can attain, though you may not be able to become even a third-class performer on the track.