Bredin on Running & Training

THE GOVERNING BODY. 107 of athletics, besides those beginners who wish to seek guidance in their training-that is, if there is such a thing as a novice who cares for advice: my opinion certainly points to the fact that the novice on the path knows everything; it is only after some years passed in practical experience that a runner gradually becomes aware that he is not omniscient, and has yet much to learn. Had the members of the governing body all been animated by an equally pure love of athletics, it is most unlikely that running would have reached its present unsatisfactory condition. As an instance I will take a quotation from the chapter entitled "Athletic Government." After saying that a number of present so-called amateurs would have become professionals had not amateurism been more lucrative, or words to that effect, the author adds: " Of this class it may be safely said that they will never abandon the amateur ranks until they find that there is more money to be made as professionals. The recog– nition and encouragement of an honest and open professsional athleticism throughout all districts of the country would be the best possible means of purging the amateur ranks of those who have no business to remain in them.'' In 1896 the Amateur Athletic Association permanently suspended most of the best amateur runners in the king– dom, for breaking its laws by receiving money from the secretaries of various clubs for competing at their sports. This was no doubt a proper course, though open to question, when the secretaries of clubs who induced them to accept this money ; who wrote letters asking these men to compete, offering them a certain sum for