Athletics of To-Day 1929

86 Athletics of To-day five miles a day to work and a similar distance home again, and all this while he and his stop watch were evolving the method that was to revolutionise middle distance running. That cheap watch was his only opponent. He learned to run against time, and thus eliminated the human element. He has grown abnormally sensitive to pace, and it is useless for his opponents to try to jockey him. Great American middle distance men, like John Paul J ones and "Chesty" Joie Ray, had set a fa hion of running a mile with sensational first and final quarters and a rest period ov r the middle stages of the race. This practice was g neral, until Nurmi came along to run his epic rac s all in one stretch to an even time sch dul . Those eh dui s ar planned to allow the " Phantom inn," as he is nicknam d, to run all the sprint out of his rivals in a race in which there are no" br athers," and no chance to store up finishing spe d. It i in the third quart r mile, where others are accustomed to 1 t the pace flag, that Iurmi beats th m all ; for that third lap h runs as fast as any other. After he has got his form the matter of .first mom nt to the miler is the making of his time s hedule. For no gr at mile races are fortuitous nowadays, and, all lse being equal, the man who can stick to a pr -arranged time schedule will win ight times out of ten. The first quart r mil i bound to be a bit fast r than the others, x pt possibly the la t, b caus of the initial print for position, but th late am Mus abini was I think the finest judg of a mil r I hav ver known, and it is his schedule that is given here for tb guidanc of th reader : i mil I ~ mile ! mile r mile s. m. s. m. m. m. s. The 5 mins. man 0 68 2 25 3 42 5 0 The av rage useful miler 0 65 2 r8 3 31 4 45 The 4 mins. 30 secs. man 0 62 2 IO~ 3 20 4 30 The 4 mins. 25 s cs. man 0 6r 2 8 3 r6 4 25 The 4 mins. 20 secs. man 0 6o 2 6 3 I2t 4 20 The 4 mins. r6 secs. man 0 59 2 4 3 9 4 r6