Athletics

68 ATHLETICS. yard behind. I may say that all the weight is on the two hands and the left foot, the right only being used to give the send off. QUARTER-MILE AND HALF-MILE RUNNING. By the Rev. H. C. L. Tindall, M.A., C.U.A.C. and L.A.C.; Amateur Champion, Quarter-mile, 1888 and 1889 ; Half-mile, 1889 ; 440 Yards and1000 Yards Northern CountiesChampion, 1889. Holder BritishRecords, 400 Yards (43? sees.), 440 Yards (48^ sees.), 29 June, 1889, and 600 Yards (1min. 12 sees.), 15 March, 1889. I have been asked to jot down a few hints on quarter- mile and half-mile running, andif instead of laying down a few laws for training, which has been done overand over again ad nauseam, I give rather my experiences in running these distances, it is with the hopethey may be serviceable to some youngamateur; at all events my remarks shallbe practical. First, then, I would say, every manmust to a large extent be his own trainer. Written laws are all very good in theory, and as a sort of outline for training they are excellent, but each must modify them to suit his own peculiar con­ stitution. I writewithout fear of contradiction, that to stay the lastforty yards of a quarter, aman must be thoroughly "hard " all over. How manyof us have experienced the sensation of the calves giving way at the finish of a hard quarter, or again, the heartrending collapse, when victory seemed assured, from want of wind. Both have fallen to my lot, and I believe they can both be successfully overcome. At Cambridge my joys and sorrows of training were chiefly shared withE. F. W. Eliot, the three-miler, and, being a keen walker, I invariably accompanied him in his " grinds," with the result that I gotextremely fit,with the exception