Bredin on Running & Training

MY CAREER AS AN ATHLETE. r6r to be passing through Manchester at the time, I stayed the night at that town and attended this match, which created a considerable amount of interest locally, and brought a large concourse of spectators, although the weather was most unfavourable. During the previous spring I had sold a small property in Ceylon that had brought me in a fluctuating income, and with no inclinations either to obtain a livelihood surreptitiously from amateur athletics or to starve in an office for about forty shillings a week, I was waiting, like Mr. Micawber, for something to turn up. In the meantime I called at the office of the Sporting Life, to inquire from men on the staff of that paper who had practical knowledge on the subject of pedestrianism -owing to their acting constantly as stake-holders, referees, etc.-as to whether I should be likely to obtain any acceptances to a challenge if I decided to issue one, also to find out what the capabilities of the leading professionals were likely to be. Now, I do not think I could be ever truthfully charged with an inordinate amount of athletic conceit and self-assurance, but I was of opinion that, with the advantages of a professional system of training, I might reasonably ex– pect to hold my own with crack runners from England and America. However, this conversation at the" Life" was calculated to effectually put a damper on my holding any first-class athletic pretensions for the time being, as my informant pointed out that only men at the top of the tree would be likely to derive much benefit from the new boom in pedestrianism, and that my claims to that exalted position were somewhat dubious. According to this authority the two leading quarter- R.T. l\1