Athletics track

“ I do not believe that Olympian Zeus—or whatever enlightened heathen god it was who invented and fostered track athletics—ever intended that sprints and shot-putting should be held under a roof. He surely would have drawn the line at bicycles, had he known anything about them. He wisely preferred the less-murderous four-horse chariot. But, to my mind, track athletics were never intended as an in-door sport. The gymnasium is not a hippodrome. ”

“ In the field and track events—what we understand in this country by athletics—the Americans were vastly superior. The broad jump was theirs, the pole vaulting, the hurdles, the four hundred metres and fifteen hundred metres runs. Drake won the discus throw and Snyder hurled the hammer further than it had ever gone before. ”

“ Those who knew better saw that the good runners did not start at headlong pace. They held back in a bunch, and were saving their wind. In a run that covers five or ten miles it is the height of folly to make any effort at great speed at the start. By degrees experienced and knowing runners get into their stride, and in this fashion are able to finish strongly. ”

“ The enthusiasm over a track meet grew, and many more lads than were expected put in an appearance at the gymnasium, to try out their skill over the hurdles, vaulting the bar, in hundred yard dashes, putting [69] the weight, shot and hammer, while any number said they were going to try to qualify for the mile run, and the broad and high jumps.
Meanwhile, more or less correspondence went on among the athletic committees of the four institutions that naturally would form the new league, if matters came to a head. ”

“ Two thirds of the athletes participated freely in general athletics when not in training for track—in football, baseball, basketball, tennis, hockey, gymnastics, etc., and were practically engaged in vigorous exercise for a period of five and a half years. Their statistics do not show appreciable variation from those of the one third who engaged in running only. ”

“ And so the run over the course of the Marathon race that was to be a leading feature of the athletic meet had been productive of several thrilling incidents that would not soon be forgotten by the three lads who were chiefly concerned. ”

“ The second week in March witnessed the return of the track team candidates to practise in the gymnasium. Spring was unusually late that year—perhaps you recollect the fact?—and several feet of snow hid the ground until well toward the last of March. But meanwhile the candidates, thirty-eight in number, were divided into two squads and were daily put through chest-weight and dumb-bell exercises and sent careening around the running track. ”

“ Of these the running contests are called “track athletics,” and the rest “field” events.
International athletic contests of any importance have, with the exception of the modern Olympic games, invariably taken place between Britons, Americans and Canadians, the continental European countries having as yet produced few track or field athletes of the first class, although the interest in sports in general has greatly increased in Europe during the last ten years. In 1844 George Seward, an American professional runner, visited England and competed with success against the best athletes there ”

“ How to Conduct a Track Meet The Competitors.
Every athlete should be entered in the meet a sufficient time before in order that the places, events and handicaps may be arranged. Handicaps may be granted if a mediocre runner is running with one of stellar ability. Every athlete should have a number. ”

“ Others were practising the broad and standing jump; and close by the apparatus used for the high jump was in constant use, the crossbar falling from the uprights again and again, as some aspirant’s foot caught in going over. ”

“ N. 10, ’06. 230w. + Outlook. 84: 678. N. 17, ’06. 100w. Crowther, Samuel, jr., and Ruhl, A. Rowing and Track athletics. **$2. Macmillan.
A double volume in which the first subject is treated by Mr. Crowther and the second by Mr. Ruhl appears in the “American sportsman’s library.” “The treatment of rowing is largely historical, several chapters being devoted to the origin and development of collegiate rowing in the United States. The exposition of track athletics gives a convenient résumé of all the important records made in this branch of athletics during recent years.” ”

“ Track-Events are sports practiced on a circular path. They comprise running and hurdling. Running includes sprinting for 50, 100 or 440 yards and runs of 1⁄2, 1 and 2 miles. Hurdling is sprinting for 120 or 220 yards and leaping 10 hurdles, those of the longer course being 21⁄2 feet in height, those of the shorter course a foot higher. ”

“ The longest sprint race, and the most severe of all, is the furlong dash—two hundred and twenty yards. This kind of racing is a tremendous strain on the lungs and heart, as the same pace which carries the runner over the hundred yard track has to be kept up and even increased. It requires a broad deep chest in the runner, with little flesh, and that hard and firm. To train for such a race requires at least a year's practice, and amateurs would do well to leave it alone altogether. ”

“ A First Class runner turns as little as possible and slows up as little as possible before each turn. His turns are done at a high speed on all but very steep ground.
The candidate must satisfy the Judges that his running combines high speed, thorough steadiness on difficult ground and difficult snow, and an easy, effortless control of his ski.
SKI-JUMPING TESTS. GENERAL REGULATIONS. 1. The length of a jump shall be measured with a taut tape from the edge of the take-off to that point at which the hindermost ski touches the alighting track with the part immediately below the binding. ”

“ This size of building and track will be found the best for large cities, on account of the advantages it gives for the [34] meetings of athletic clubs, who always have two or more sprint races and handicap mile or two-mile walks. Hundred-yard dashes on such a track are made down one side, with the least possible turn; and by laying the finishing line on a slant across the curve at the end, the outside men can be favored enough to make all run just the same distance. There is no trouble about starting five or six men at a time on such a track. ”

“ A splendid body of athletes, twenty in number, had faced the starter, and at the crack of his pistol had darted off like greyhounds freed from the leash. They formed a magnificent picture of youth and vigor as they sped around the track. For the first mile or two they kept a fairly compact formation; but then the line began to lengthen. Some through weariness, others through craftiness, fell to the rear and let the others make the pace. By the time five miles had been covered, the sifting process began. Brawn and wind and staying power asserted themselves. ”

“ The jogging around the track should be taken very slowly, and is intended purely as a leg exercise and to develop the muscles of the calves and thighs. A long loose jog will lengthen the stride. When preparing for a contest lay off altogether the day immediately preceding it, and don't run your distance against time for three or four days previously. Run only fifty yards at those times if you are going into the 100, and try 150 if you intend entering the 220. ”

“ In a foot race around a circular track judges do not let sprinters pick out their own course and "cut across lots" whenever they choose. Nor is it allowed in horse races, auto races, or any form of sport where time records are registered on curving courses. ”

“ The school race will be a relay race—each man of the four entered by each school to run a quarter of a mile. The college race, however, is to be a team race, all the contestants to start together, and every man to run a mile.
The track will be of clay and loam, six inches deep and twenty feet wide, rolled hard. Consequently spike shoes will be allowed, and, as a result, there ought to be considerable record-smashing. Spike shoes will also be allowed in the jumps.
Most of the New York schools will send strong teams to the Garden. ”

“ It is generally recognized as the exercise par excellence which develops vital strength, strength of heart and lungs, the kind of strength that carries a man to a green old age. No one of our athletic teams regularly presents to the eye such evidence of perfect physical condition as does the track team. The practical value from a physiological point of view of all the school and college sports is in direct ratio to the amount of running involved. ”

“ A new track-athletic league has been formed by the larger boarding-schools of the Eastern States, and it is proposed now to hold an annual field meeting in the spring, alternately at New Haven and Princeton. ”

“ George W. Rollins, Boston, Mass.—The best kind of training for a ten-mile bicycle race is to take short spins of a mile or two at speed on a track, and long rides of from fifteen to eighteen miles on the road, on alternate days, for two or three weeks previous to the date of the race. If you can ascertain what road the race is to be run over, it is well to become as familiar with it as possible; but do not try to ride the distance on time more frequently than once in ten days. ”

“ Imagine a track some six feet in width, formed of snow turned to ice by the process of constant watering, and so smooth and slippery that a burnished mirror would be rough and dull in comparison. Imagine this track inclined at a steep angle, walled in on both sides with low ice-banks, and trailing a long and sinuous course for a length of over a mile! Here we have the potentialities of speed when we remember that racing "bobs" are just low frameworks of wood whose steel runners glide over the polished track with as little friction as a flash of lightning traversing a thunder-cloud. ”

“ Aborn in the mile, who can run in about 5 min.; Coolidge in the high jump, who has a record of 5 ft. 31⁄2 in.; and Green in the 440, who has no record as yet, but is a promising man, and may enter also in the 50 yards.
The order of track events at the N.M.A.C. games Saturday night will be as follows: 50-yard dash, Senior, trial heats; 50-yard dash, Junior, trial heats; 440-yard run, trial heats; 50-yard hurdles, trial heats; one-mile walk; 50-yard dash, Senior, final heat; 50-yard dash, Junior, final heat; 50-yard hurdles, final heat; one-mile run; 440-yard run, final heat ”

“ SPRINT RUNNER.
We have thus fully noticed long-distance running before treating of "sprint" races and other short dashes, because it is a more important branch of athletics. The correct system is one that can be readily acquired by all, old and young, and will be found of great value whenever one is in a hurry to go to a certain place. ”

“ Two ropes were stretched across the course at the starting-point—one the whole width of the track, the other leaving a gap through which the horses could pass into line so as to get as fair a start as possible; though every one knows, and the fantino as much as any one, that the start has little to do with the race. ”

“ This excellent showing is the natural result of the hard training and constant energy of the hundreds of runners and jumpers in the schools; and the ever-increasing number of contestants all over the country proves that track and field sports have secured a firm foothold, and now deserve to be recognized as equal in importance to both football and baseball. ”

“ May it not, for example, be best to jump with level feet when the track is smooth and easy, but with one foot forward when it is irregular 98 and difficult? On the Continent rough jumping on tour has hardly yet “caught on,” everything being regarded, so to speak, through competition spectacles. ”

“ It is noteworthy in this connection that in the Odyssey the Phæacians had opened their games with the foot-race.
The technique of foot-racing, the style of running most advantageous, and the training and qualities necessary for it, differ considerably with the distance covered. Accordingly very early in the history of the Olympic festival races of varying length were one by one introduced, and the variety doubtless tended to attract a larger number of competitors and to make the occasion more interesting. ”

“ After this, increase the distance half a mile every day, until five miles are gone over at each row. Then, if there are no blisters on the hands, row the whole distance at racing pace. Every other day, row eight or ten miles, up to within twenty-four hours of the race. Less rowing than this should not be taken; more will not hurt.
Clerks, bookkeepers, etc., generally require two weeks more of training than men who have been always used to heavy lifting; but, when a man once does get into good training, his race becomes an easy matter for him. ”

“ One afternoon, a few days subsequent to the beginning of the track candidates’ training, the gymnasium was more than usually full and noisy. The crew was hard at work in the rowing room, a half dozen fellows were trotting [135] about the track, and the boys under Don were putting in a preliminary ten minutes at the weights. Taken as a whole they were a fine-looking lot, though to the uninitiated many would have appeared too slight in build for athletic success. These were the sprinters and hurdlers and those of the new candidates who were desirous of becoming such. ”

“ Present day racing comprises track meetings, practically all over the country, every Saturday. Many of these are unimportant. The aspirants to fame should keep a look out for the N.C.U. Championships which are now allotted to various centres. The clubs in London, Manchester, Birmingham, etc., hold various track meetings for races varying from one mile to fifty miles, the longer distances being sometimes paced by tandems. ”