Relay race

“ I suggest that the New York and Brooklyn associations combine, because it seems to me that it would be more profitable, on account of the larger number of entries, the greater interest, and the greater attendance such a union would command. Should the bicycle event be stricken from the interscholastic card, an excellent substitute would be a relay race. Relay races, as I have frequently said within the past few weeks, are becoming more and more popular all over the country, and sooner or later the relay race will become a standard event on every track-athletic card. ”

“ These races also afford an opportunity for smaller schools, that have not any particularly able athletes, to send representatives in the form of a relay team, and such a team from a small school, if well trained, stands as good a chance of success as the runners from any larger institution, because success depends upon team-work. If relay races become fixed events on the in-door card, it is probable that the country schools—such as Lawrenceville, the Hill, and others—will eventually regularly enter a team at one or more of the winter meetings here. ”

“ It seemed to the mass of spectators, craning their necks to see what took place, as though that whole line of lithe runners sprang forward as one.
Every fellow doubtless had his favorite way of waiting for the signal; though a quick start is of far less importance in a long run of ten miles than when the race is a short dash. ”

“ Their powers of endurance are indeed, almost incredible: when trained for a chappow, or plundering expedition, they will carry their rider and provisions for seven or eight days together, at the rate of twenty or even thirty fursungs—that is, from eighty to one hundred miles—a day. Their mode of training is more like that of our pugilistic and pedestrian performers, than that adopted for race-horses. When any expedition of great length, and requiring the exertion of much speed, is in contemplation, they commence by running their horses every day for many miles together ”

“ Since the chariot-races, of which Greek and Roman antiquity were passionately fond, to our modern horse-races, men have never ceased to pursue with a lively interest the problem of rapid locomotion. What tests and comparisons have not been made to discover what race has most speed, what other most bottom, what crossings, what training give reason to expect still more speed? ”

“ A quarter of a mile is, perhaps, next to the 300 yards, the most patronized of any. Assuming our trainee to be in robust health, the muscles should be gradually accustomed to the exercise by slow spins of half a mile each, two or three times a day, taking about from 3min. to 2min. 25sec., according to the individual, to do it. When the distance is accomplished with comparative ease, practice style and pace for about 300 yards to 350 yards to within about a week of the race, when the whole distance may be run, two or three times at top speed for 400 yards, slower the last 40. ”

“ For weeks before it the children practiced racing, and trained themselves in jumping, football, quoiting and such sports. Young men stole away to secret places in the moor to train and harden themselves, timing their performances and concentrating on the strenuous day ahead when they would compete with one another in fair tests of speed, strength, skill and endurance.
One event was always a special attraction, even to professional racers all over the country. This was known as the "Red Hose Race," about which many legends were told. ”

“ But a tail-race is a long race and a hundred yards' start is a serious handicap in a quarter of a mile. Down the sloping trail the bronchos were running savagely, their noses close to earth, their feet on the hard ground like the roar of a kettledrum, their harness and trappings fluttering over their backs, the wagon pitching like a ship in a gale, the girl clinging to its high seat as a sailor to a swaying mast. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In addition to this private trials are necessary in the presence of someone who is accustomed to timing races by the aid of a stop-watch—a by no means easy task, considering that a slight particle of a second means so many yards, and the average speed working out at about 16 yards per second—nearly twice as fast as the fastest pedestrian sprinter, and altogether beyond the power of the fleetest race-horse. ”

“ It was the heavy, regular puffing of a powerful engine coming up a steep gradient, under full steam.
"No mistake: my star is with me!" the man muttered, and as the train approached he stretched his muscles and, taking a firmer grip of his bundle, he bent forward in the stooping attitude that runners take when about to start off in a race. ”

“ There’s nothing very spectacular about a mile race. It is rather a test of endurance than of speed when compared to the middle distances and sprints, and as the time for the distance is likely to be somewhere around five minutes the pace is not fast enough to be inspiring to the spectators. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Running and leaping, however, are nearly always combined on every occasion in two descriptions of contests, viz., steeplechasing and hurdle-racing. Race-walking finds most votaries in London, the northern counties of England, and in Ireland, all distances, from 1 mile to 7, being in vogue amongst amateurs. Running comprises all distances from 100 yards up to 4 miles. Leaping may be divided into three principal heads, viz., running high-leaping, running wide-leaping, and running pole-leaping, which are found to be included in nearly every athletic programme. ”

“ The longest sprint race should be, for boys, 50 yards, for juniors, 75 yards. No adolescent who is not past the pubescent stage should run sprint races longer than 100 yards. Cross-country running is beneficial when taken at a slow pace and without competition. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This speed of thirteen leagues an hour, which blows a horse in a quarter of an hour’s race, the locomotive keeps up and even exceeds as long as may be desired. No comparison, you see, is possible between the iron steed and the steed of flesh and blood.
“Let us turn to the subject of the horse’s strength. [365] A riding horse carries on an average from 100 to 175 kilograms at a slow gait. If the load is a rider of 80 kilograms, the horse can travel seven hours and cover ten leagues of four kilometers each. ”

“ CAUGHT IN THE STORM.
“We ought to begin our training for the motor cycle race soon,” said Jerry one morning, when he stopped at Ned’s house, coming back from the post-office.
“I guess you’re right,” Ned assented. “I think a few good long trips on the road as a starter would be a fine thing. What we need most is an endurance run, for that’s what will count in the twenty-five mile race that we are going to compete in.” ”

“ When the world was without railways, jockeys required to walk their horses from one race meeting to another; and strings of these animals, accompanied by their grooms, might during the race season be encountered proceeding leisurely along the highways of the country at about the rate of sixteen or twenty miles a day. ”

“ On alternate days our training consisted in cross-country walks of ten or a dozen miles. Our favorite paths led along the chalk cliffs, and commanded a lordly view of the Channel. Sometimes, 139 for the sake of variety, we went by train to the Devil's Dyke and tramped back over the downs, now crossing golf-links and now skirting cornfields ablaze with poppies. All this walking filled our lungs with the Brighton air, and by keeping our minds off our races, prevented worry. Sprinters and distance men walked together, though the sprinters usually turned back a mile or two before the rest. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is a competition between the two ends of the alley to see which end can make the most of what energy it has. Let the athlete exert all his strength to propel the spheres; see them arrive at the end of the alley after their journey of four hundred feet, with sluggish speed; the boy lifts them to a height of five feet to the chute, gives them a gentle push, and they are returned to the athlete’s end, arriving, not as sluggards, but as filled with energy. A short tack up and a long tack down is what does it. ”

“ Amongst other races he organised, was the Victoria Cross Race, which was exciting, the idea being that each rider had to place a dummy figure of sorts lying on the ground or in some perilous position, the riders would then have to ride as hard as ever they could over certain jumps, pick up the figure, and bring it back over more jumps into safety, just as if they were trying to save life. ”

“ As the last coach comes by I sprint in the same direction with it. It is a swift, short sprint. I cannot hope to equal the speed of the train, but I can reduce the difference of our speed to the minimum, and, hence, reduce the shock of impact, when I leap on board. In the fleeting instant of darkness I do not see the iron hand-rail of the last platform; nor is there time for me to locate it. I reach for where I think it ought to be, and at the same instant my feet leave the ground. It is all in the toss. The next moment I may be rolling in the gravel with broken ribs, or arms, or head. ”

“ At a half-mile race track, a little distance out, a very early rising citizen, if he happened to be in that vicinity at daybreak, would have wondered greatly to see a half-clad figure on an old bicycle go flying round and round the track. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This means that the highest rate of speed must be well over 70 miles an hour. This on a pair of steel runners, head foremost, with your face a few inches above the solid ice, with nothing to check you except a small-toothed rake on the toe of each boot! Yet so wonderfully skilful is the construction of the run, so cunningly is it built to safeguard the headlong traveller, that accidents are very few. ”

“ In such a long race the interest does not get fully awakened until several miles have been passed over. And in order that those on the athletic field might not be wholly without some shreds of information while the runners were far away, the managers had influenced some of the boys to arrange a code of signals, to be worked by operators at the other end of the two and a half mile turn. ”

“ Next week takes us to Gatwick and Sandown— (or rather the train takes us—another absurd expression) —the last day of the latter Meeting being devoted to "Jumping Races," which is the contemptuous way some people speak of the winter branch of our National Sport!—forgetting that it demands the two most desirable qualities in a horse, speed and endurance—whereas the modern flat-racing has degenerated, for the most part, into scrambles and gambles, where speed is the only requisite!—but more of this anon—but not anonymous, as I believe in signed articles, as the apprentice said! ”

“ Since the days of Roman chariot racing the records of man describe nothing that parallels automobile racing, and, so far as we have any knowledge, chariot racing, save for the plaudits of vast throngs of spectators, was tame and uneventful compared with the frightful pace of sixty and eighty miles an hour in a throbbing, bounding, careering road locomotive, over roads practically unknown, passing persons, teams, vehicles, cattle, obstacles, and obstructions of all kinds, with a thousand hair-breadth escapes from wreck and destruction. ”