Bredin on Running & Training

26 RUNNING AND TRAINING. winning a championship, or laughed at for entering in it. Even were some figures placed in print opposite your name to furnish the fact that on a certain date you managed to cover so many yards in such a space of time, a new arrival on the athletic scenes will later on cause them to be displaced by a fresh record, and soon would your best performances be forgotten, or only vaguely remembered like a dream that has passed. Thinking of the limit division, I can see now the look of disgust and anger on the face of a not very athletic member of the L.A. C., when, arriving early at Stamford Bridge in the afternoon on which a meeting was to be held, he found his name chalked up in big letters on the outside of the large double doors, with these words following it: "Is a certain starter. Don't miss him." Perhaps this was purely an attempt at pleasantry on the part of the writer; or who can tell whether it had not a deeper significance, and was placed there as a protest against this somewhat over-advertising age, in which the public and their shillings are so run after through the columns of the sporting press ? There is one small fact the knowledge of which it is better to acquire through books than by experience, which is, that, owing to constant practice in training and races on one track, a runner will soon acquire the habit of commencing to finish his races at a particular point, most frequently (on a four laps to the mile track) as he turns into the straight. As tracks differ in shape, it is well worth while to walk round the course, and estimate the distance from the last bend to the winning– post, before a race takes place in which one will shortly be competing. Failing to notice how much