Bredin on Running & Training

RUNNING AND TRAINING. PART I. - CHAPTER I. SPRINTING. THOSE who wish to excel on the cinder path must, to commence with, be endowed with a certain amount of what may be termed athletic ability. "Ex nihilo nihil fit" is here applicable, as it also is in the more serious pursuits of life. The boy whose brains are set in a whirl at the intricacies of the "pons asinorum" of our childhood is scarcely likely to develop into a senior wrangler. But if the runner be provided with this all– important requisite, success, in a greater or lesser degree, lies straight ahead. All the weapons required in storming its fairy castle are patience, perseverance, and self-control. However, we are not all born athletes, though probably many a man has passed his life far from this exhilarating strife, who could have taken a prominent part in the athletic arena; and it would be easy to quote numerous instances showing how chance was the principal factor in u~hering future champion R.T.