Bredin on Running & Training

SPRINTING. 7 yards, reluctantly stopping after the starter had shouted himself hoarse. This performance being twice repeated, the Frenchman officiating with the pistol must have become somewhat weary of his business, for at the next attempt he allowed the men to go some forty yards, and then fired . As this race was supposed to be a level one and not a handicap, I retreated from a somewhat lengthy sojourn on the mark to the dressing– room. However, in 1900, during the sports held in connection with the Exhibition, I found a marked improvement; but the characteristic excitability was by no means eradicated by a more thorough knowledge of the laws of athletics, for one poor man in the level quarter would insist on flying off immediately we were told to get ready, and on Snook (the old English miler), in whose hands the starting was wisely entrusted, expostulating in vehement terms, the French– men replied in a pleading tone, "Ce n'est pas rna faute," which sounded as a somewhat curious excuse, but may perhaps have been not altogether lacking in truth. Holes wherein to place the feet at the start of a race are of great assistance to the sprinter, and have become the more needful since the stooping position with hands touching the track has been so universally adopted, as the more acute the angle at which the body leans towards the ground the less secure will its foothold be. It is necessarily of importance that no chance of the slightest slip backwards is incurred; in addition to this the runner depends on springing forward and getting quickly into his running by an instantaneous pressure of the feet against the ground, and a fH·m foothold is