Bredin on Running & Training

HALF-MILE, MILE, AND DISTANCE RUNNING. 31 have improved upon had it been necessary; but Wade preferred to reserve his energy for a mile with a view of displacing George's old record. On the only occasion in which both these men met, both fit and well, at Huddersfield A. C. sports of the same year, Wade proved the victor. W. E. Lutyens, who won so many inter-'Varsity mile races, also getting inside 4 mins. 20 sees. in one of these, was a better half-miler than Wade, and no doubt equal to about I min. s6 sees. on a good day. I timed him to pass the half-mile mark in I min. 57l sees. at Stamford Bridge in July, '98, going on for I,ooo yards during windy weather. Coming to our third class, in rotation, F. J. K. Cross, the old Oxonian, stands out pre-eminently, running a quarter, as he did, inside 51 sees. at Oxford, holding for a time the 6oo yards record, and covering a mile in 4 mins. 2J~ sec. in the inter-'Varsity sports. He was indeed a fine, all-round athlete, but, in my opinion, was better suited to four furlongs than any other distance, perhaps excepting the more unusual yet very similar one (to good stayers) of I,ooo yards. There has always been a doubt in many minds with reference to his brilliant performance of I min. 54i sees. at Oxford in '88, owing to the fact that A. G. Le Maitre, who started level with him on that occasion, was reported to have been within sixteen yards when Cross broke the worsted; and as there are, or were, two finishing posts at the Iffley Road ground, about twenty yards apart, it was thought that the tape was attached to the nearer one, and the distance consequently that amount short of the full half-mile, from the following circumstances: