An Athletics Compendium

The Literature of Athletics Overview Thorn's Pedestrianism (1813),the first book specifically devotedto athletics, is a rich mixture of biography, history and training manual. It describes the feats of Captain Barclay Allardice, who in 1809 became the first man to walk a thousand miles in a thousand hours. Pedestrianism outlines his training methods and provides a comprehensive list of running performances of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. CaptainBarclay's mainclaim to fameliesin remainingawakeat speedsof around three and a half miles per hour, but it is only fairto observe that he ran a milein four minutesfifty-sixseconds and a quarter of a milein fifty-sixseconds,good achievements for the period. But though the Captain's training methods endured in one form or another until well into the twentieth century, they were essentially the conventional wisdomof an earlier periodand echoed those previouslydescribedin Sir John Sinclair's The CodeofHealthand longevity, publishedin 1806. Thorn's performancestatistics relate solely to runningand provide us with our mainunderstandingof eighteenth centuryathletics. He observesthat the ScotJohn Todd ran a milein four minutes ten seconds from HydeParkCorner to the first milestonein the Uxbridge Road, but makesno comment on the unlikelynatureof Todd's feat, or of the achievementof 'Skewball,the LancashireShepherd' in runningtwelveseconds for a hundred and forty yardsat Hackney in 1808. Thom's naivetyas a chroniclerundoubtedly reflectsthe natureof athletics at the time, of matches run over uncertaindistances on turnpikeroadsor racecourses,with the useof the stopwatchhalf acenturyaway. Most of the technical manualswhich followed Pedestrianism concentrated mainly on endurancerunning and repeatedthe Barclayline,with its emphasison sweatingand purging. And though there is occasional mention of field events (often in works on gymnastics),these usuallyamount to littiemore than cursorydescriptions.Thus, though there was a growth in field event-based rural sports towards the third quarter of the century,theseevents are not reflected stronglyin the technicalliterature.This is because in the pre-amateurperiod the publicinterest layin runningmatcheswith, in the second halfof the century, the addition of pedestrian carnivalsand a handicap running-based amateurmovement. [ xv ]