Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

CHAPTER I THE GENTLE ART OF RUNNING h is rather difficult for our modern conven– tional citizen to appreciate the gentle art of running. The limbs of our young men too rarely leap to the call of the chase, and our senses are fed on too complex foods to taste the simple joys of mere rhythmic muscular motion. No more does Atalanta lose her heart to the youth who can outrun her, and our bored Hippomenes stares languidly from the window of his club. Perhaps he fears that Atalanta- our new-made golfing Atalanta - would outstrip him in the race; perhaps he has lost interest even in Atalanta, and prefers to keep his golden apples for himself. Sport we enjoy, indeed, - if it is fashionable, or violent enough, or somebody is going to win, - and it is true that we are beginning to know and love the out-of-doors. No one with a drop of blood in his body can miss the music of an eight-oared crew; the splendid stress and shock as the elevens battle back and forth across the gridiron strikes fire in the tamest mind. Nor is 247