Bredin on Running & Training

30 RUNNING AND TRAINING. round runner yet seen in this country, from 100 yards to one mile, was the late L. E. Myers. His speed was due to a short spare body on excessively long legs, added to the fact that he possessed plenty of internal space for heart and lung action. No one can be very successful athletically whose formation fails in the latter respect. With a long, low stride, and moving in the approved and cultivated American method of carrying the arms straight down by the sides, keeping them almost without movement, he might have been taken as exemplifying the poetry of action in running. With regard to this style, Americans claim that a pronounced backward and forward swing of the arms is detrimental to the runner by adding unnecessarily to the general exertion. Whether this evil is not obviated by the fact that with a slight swinging motion the balance of the body can the most easily be maintained, is a question that I do not feel com– petent to answer. In any case when Nature cries" Hold, enough! " we all find ourselves struggling, " action thrown to the winds and arms 'way up in the air," as our trans-Atlantic cousins somewhat aptly express it. From the numerous fast milers who have run, and were able to run, good half-miles, it is almost invidious to select names. However, to quote two examples, Harold Wade, the old Lea Harrier and L.A. C. man, who showed such fine form during the summer of '92, winning the A. A.A. mile championship in 4 mins. 19g sees., was also a very good half-miler, and on that day I think would have won the half also by defeating W. J. Holmes, who easily beat a somewhat poor field in this event in exactly two minutes, a time Holmes could certainly