Bredin on Running & Training

MY CAREER AS AN ATHLETE. 137 At the L. A. C. spring meeting Ovenden defeated me by about half a yard in the 220 yards race for the club challenge cup, and I could get no nearer than third for the I,ooo yards open handicap, starting from scratch, being beaten five yards in 2 mins. 16 ~ sees. C. E. Martineau, the winner from fifty-eight yards start, subsequently lost his life in a most deplorable manner, being accidentally shot whilst chamois-hunting in the Pyrenees. A week later, at Surbiton sports, I failed to concede Ovenden four yards start in the invitation quarter-mile handicap, which he won outright by very nearly the length of his start, my position being again the second one. This not unnaturally led to the supposition that he had greatly improved by the winter's rest, whilst I had deteriorated a little from my previous year's form, and many good judges were of opinion that I should fail to regain possession of the club's 440 yards challenge cup to be run for at their second spring meeting. The fact of my winning the handicap quarter-mile from scratch on the beautifully level grass course at Trent Bridge at the Nottingham Forest Football Club's annual sports in 49 ~ sees. lent additional interest to this event. Ovenden and myself were the only two starters, and the former set a hot pace and led by about two yards, until we were well into the straight, at which point, as the reporters frequently observe, " the severity of the pace began to tell," and Ovenden stopped, allowing me to trot home in 50~ sees. I was foolish enough to start in a level three-quarters of a mile race on June 2nd at Kensal Rise, this distance