Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

34 2 Track Athletz'cs away at the start for the express purpose of taking the heart .out of his less experienced and less con– fident opponents, or purposely hold back because he knows that he can beat them when it comes to the sprint home, or when the best way to wear out a rival may seem to be to hook one's self into his stride, force him to set the pace: and trust to taking the fight out of him by a sudden show of strength at the finish. All such things depend on the runner's temperament and physical condi– tion, the fields that he is up against, and the special accidents of the race. Whatever is done must be done quickly, and any one who has ever run a mile or a half mile knows that it is very much easier, after the race is over, to tell what ought to have been done at any given moment than it was to decide during the running, when things were moving like the pictures in a biograph machine, legs were leaden, and lungs were stone, and some rank outsider was showing his heels ten or fifteen yards ahead. And it is this strategic ability, this trick of thinking in action, that makes the difference between the runners who merely run pluckily, and those who run and win. The two Grant brothers illustrate vividly the consequences of running by impulse and run– ning with self-control and judgment. The younger of these Canadians, representing Penn– sylvania, won the two-mile race at Mott Haven