Success in Athletics and how to obtain it

18 SUCCESS IN ATHLETICS and conscientiously practised the exercises prescribed for him, and set out in the Appendix to this volume, also he refrained from competition for a time. Imagine then the amazement of his opponents when, after running an exceedingly fast four miles, he began to sprint some three hundred yards from home. "Let him go on," thought they; " he will run himself to a standstill before the tape is reached." And let him go on they did. Their chagrin may be better imagined than described when he kept up his pace all the way to the tape, and beat them all " hands down " in better time than he had ever shown before, and, what is more, finished fresh as paint and hardly blowing at all. The reason why this man could not sustain the long sprint before was that he had allowed the arches of the feet to drop, and had not paid sufficient attention to the other sprinting muscles in the lower and upper parts of the limbs, and consequently, these muscles being undeveloped, when the call was made upon them, they, being already tired from the long run, could not sustain the effort of the sprint for more than a hundred yards at the most. But after these hitherto deficient muscles had been built up on scientific lines, the effort of going full speed for three hundred yards, even after the long distance travelled was accom– plished, did not prove too much for him, for it must be remembered that the stamina of the man was adequate in the first place, his wind had not given out and his strength was unimpaired, only he was deficient in sprinting capabilities. As has already been said, the foot is· the principal feature in all athletic feats. On this member is built up the whole human frame, so far as the athlete is concerned.