Athletic Training

CHAPTER VII THE ONE-MILE AND TWO-MILE RUNS IF there is any event on the athletic pro– gramme which challenges the quarter mile in demanding unusual powers of endurance it is the mile run. There was a time when it was thought that to be a competent mile runner required only the ability to "loaf" through the first three-quarters and then to sprint the last. .A history of the mile run at the In– tercollegiate Championships shows the great change which has been wrought in this event. In 1876, the first year of the championships, the mile .was won in 4.58!, time which would shame a schoolboy of the present day. Three · years later 5.24! was fast enough to win. In 1880 it was run under 4.40 for the first time, but not until 1889 was it run under 4.30. It hovered around this mark until 1895, when the record was reduced to 4.23f. This rec- 60