Why? The Science of Athletics

258 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS fatigue. That is to say, constant speed is the most economical. The man who cannot tell the speed at which he is travelling is likely to run himself clean out very quickly, when the competition is such that another runner has a pace-maker to break up the opposition. On the other hand, the man who knows his own "best-speed" and can judge the pace at which the race is being run ea n generally afford to let the field go until he knows that the time has come for him to strike. Bonthron himself told me that he, Venzke and Cunningham in I933-34 got quite into the habit ofletting the 4-I8 milers go right away from them, if they wanted to, in the early stages of a race, well knowing that the early sprinters would inevitably come back to the field before the last lap was entered upon. In the same way, Phil Edwards, representing British Guiana in the half-mile at the ·Empire Games, I934, ran the English Champion, J. A. Cooper, clean into the ground by covering the opening 440 yards in 53 I/5 secs. _ Had Cooper been content to let his rival run he might well have ·been right up with him at the finish, for Edwards won in the riot very fast time of I min. 54 2/5 secs . Pace judgment may be acquired in a number of ways. The Sport Clock, referred to in an earlier chapter, will be invaluable ; meantime, in training, the stop-watch carried in the hand, at any rate for distances of a mile and over, is still the best mentor. Many a man, as has been suggested, has lost the race he should have won· through his inability to judge the pace at which he was travelling. But it is equally true to say that although constant speed running is the most economical, and p.erhaps the surest way of breaking records, it does postulate a tremendous strain on the nerves, despite the -possession of an iron will, to stick to the schedule and await the orders ofyour stop-watch when the whole field may be going right away from you. And -yet it is only the old story of the hare and the tortoise