Bredin on Running & Training

! I MY CAREER AS AN ATHLETE. t7I my legs, with regard to track work, during the week that intervened between the 6oo yards race and the next Kilpatrick match arranged over half a mile. Eating and drinking without stint, I turned out for the latter event weighing ro st. rt lbs., which additional flesh caused a very marked improvement in my running. As Kilpatrick had run the fastest half-mile ever accomplished (r min. 53i sees.), with both English and American watches timing the event, which took place during the L.A. C. v. N.Y. A. C. match in New York, and I had done some respectable performances over that distance, I was anxious to run the most important race of the series in London. After some little difficulty I managed to obtain Stamford Bridge grounds for this half-mile, Kilpatrick leaving these matters entirely in iny hands. We came on to the track on Monday evening, August the 8th, the weather being decidedly favourable to fast times. Kilpatrick stipulated that the race should be run left-hand inside, the reverse of the usual methods at Stamford Bridge, and to give the spectators occupying the grand stand every opportunity of seeing the finish, we started half-way round the bend facing this stand. At the flash of the pistol, or correctly speaking, shortly after it, the American made the running at a very slow pace, taking approximately 30 seconds for his first 220 yards (owing to the race commencing from the point I have just mentioned, it was easy to see how far the leader had progressed during the first half-minute) ; he then quickened up and covered the first quarter in 57~ sees., some five yards ahead; the remainder of the distance we raced, '