Running Recollections and How to Train

CHAPTER XXTV. NOTES ON MY TRAINERS. I HAVE had many trainers in my time, chief among whom may be reckoned " Jimmy" Duckworth, of Edinburgh. "Jim" understood me better than anyone else, myself included, and a knowledge of a man's temperament is half the battle to a trainer. We first became acquainted at the St. Bernard'sSports in 1892. I was on virtual scratch in the sprint handicap, and, having justwon my heat, was looking for someone to rub me down prior to turning out in the second round. "Jim," whom I had never seen before, offered his services. "Thank you," 1 said, "you're a Christian." I also offered him a tip in the shape of a shilling. I was only an apprentice engineer, remember, and I had not as yet learned to turn my running abilities to account by the accumulation of wealth therefrom. " Na ! na ! my lad," he said ; " you win the handicap,and that'll do me fine." The following summer, I put myself under Duckworth's charge, and he brought me on wonderfully. In fact, what confidence in my running Imay be possessed of, I learned from old "Jim." He had a knack of talking to me about any race in which I might be running, which made me feel that itwas impossible for me to get beaten, and that feeling I still have, except, of course, when I'm not fit. " Jim " trained me for all my Scotch championships,also for my matches with Mills, Cross, Bredin at 440, and for the first 500, in which, however, I was beaten, for the occasion upon which I showed four-and-a-half yards inside evens at Edinburgh, and for a host of minor events.