Running

“ As he was crossing the common, a number of young fellows stripped and girt for racing—for speed greater than an Indian's saved many a life in those days, and running was part of the regular training of the young—bounded up to him like deer, giving a challenge: he too was very swift. But he named another day, impatient of the many interruptions that had already delayed him, and with long, rapid strides he had soon passed beyond the last fields and ranges of the town. Then he slackened his pace. Before him, a living wall, rose the edge of the wilderness. ”

“ In the winter, when there was but little doing in the fields, we organized running-matches. A dozen or so of us would start out on races that were simply tests of endurance, running on and on along a public road over the breezy hills like hounds, without stopping or getting tired. ”

“ From the perspective of today's jogger, running might seem an individual experience, and to a great extent it is. But fundamentally, running as a practical experience takes place among people sharing the notion of physical exercise and attaching to it social, cultural, economic, and medical meaning. We create ourselves not only when we write poetry, tend land, or manufacture machines, but also when we are involved in athletic experiences. ”

“ Somebody running after him all the time, and then ... running on ahead? And, of course, on a broad pavement there would be plenty of room for this running gentleman to run round; but on an eight- or nine-inch kerb, such as that of the new road out Lewisham way ... but perhaps he was a jumping gentleman too, and could jump over a man's head. You'd think he'd have to get past some way, wouldn't you?... I remember vaguely wondering whether the name of that Runner was not Conscience; but Conscience isn't a matter of molecules and osmosis.... ”

“ Running, on the other hand, when dressed in athletic costume, is one of the best forms of exercise and an essential accompaniment of our most popular outdoor games. Among the means which nature has bestowed on animals in general for the preservation and enjoyment of life, running is the most important. ”

“ Running, though more rapid than walking, consists like it in alternate treads of the two feet, whose step-curves follow each other at equal intervals; but it presents this difference, that in running the body leaves the ground for an instant at each step. ”

“ In the mornings I want every man, when it isn't raining, to go out and jog along the road, in running shoes and sweaters, for twenty minutes without a break; for thirty minutes, instead, on any morning when you can spare the time.
"Whenever you can do so, practice swift, short sprints. Many a nine, full of otherwise good men, loses a game or a season's record just because this important matter of speedy base running has been neglected. ”

“ Running is the most effective of all exercises of speed, and, like all exercises of speed, can be changed into one of endurance by a certain moderation in the pace. By [Pg 365] running the heart and lungs are developed more than by any other exercise. ”

“ Well, in our country you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time as we’ve been doing.
Red Queen
A slow sort of country. Now here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that. ”

“ When a man, toiling laboriously up a steep hill, collides with a man running down the same hill, which is the more apt to be bowled over by the impact?
The runner is reënforced by his own great impetus, the climber handicapped by his own fatigue and the sloping of the ground behind. ”

“ In practicing long-distance running, style is nothing—wind and freshness everything—let your arms, therefore, swing easy which ever way comes most natural, as the legs are the motors for this kind of work. ”

“ The man who runs flat-footedly is using up steam and endurance. Run balanced well forward on the balls of your feet. Throw your heels up; travel as though you were trying to kick the backs of your thighs. Breathe through the nose, always, in running, and master to the highest degree the trick of making a great air reservoir of your lungs. ”

“ Capital exercise and much useful knowledge are to be derived by running with a pack of beagles. There are the same difficulties to be contended with as in hunting with the ordinary harrier, and a very few days’ running will teach the youthful sportsman that he cannot run at the same pace over sound ground and over a deep ploughed field, up hill and down, or along and across furrows. ”

“ Running is good exercise, the bat and ball strengthen the arm and gauge the eye, the oar and boat broaden the chest and make the liberated lungs beat with life, and not a few others, if not too greatly indulged, prove helpful rather than detrimental. ”

“ The watchword of the good runner will always be—at those heights and distances where so much that is ahead must remain problematical—move onward on curves, so as to approach any obstacle by means of a bend, admitting of an inspection of the obstacle, if it is above the surface, before you are upon it, and which, if it is the running surface which presents a break, even a concealed one, will prevent your hurling yourself headlong into the trap. ”

“ For another thing, it is a long race that you are running before you reach the point from which your fellow runner starts; so you have got to save your wind. You need all your nerve. You have got to keep "clean to the bone," as Jack London expresses it. ”

“ He wrote the book before he became a physician. He considers horse-riding as the best and noblest of all exercises, it being “a mixed exercise, partly active and partly passive, while other sorts, such as walking, running, stooping, or the like, require some labour and more strength for their performance.” ”

“ The time of a step in quick running, compared to that in quick walking, is nearly as two to three, whilst the length of the steps are as two to one; consequently a person can run in a given time three times as fast as he can walk. In running, the object is to acquire a greater velocity in progression than can be attained in walking. ”

“ After running for a moment or two in the ordinary running step, the leader changes to a hopping step, then to a marching step, quick time, then to a marching step, slow time, claps and runs with hands on sides, hands on shoulders, hands behind, etc. ”

“ Most exercise physiologists claim that the physical, and very likely also the psychological, effects of other aerobic forms of exercise, such as bicycling, swimming, and cross-country skiing, are essentially equivalent to running. So, until we know otherwise, we will assume that what is true of running is likely to be true of other types of exercise that make similar demands on the body, and we will focus here on running. ”

“ As regards rapid running, from one hundred feet to one hundred yards may be attempted at full speed, and when the constitution is good, the body not too fat, the muscular developments fine, and the lungs sound, a quarter of a mile a minute may be accomplished, and a mile in five minutes, which is seldom done even in very good running. ”

“ In practicing for a mile race and upwards, a long, steady course of slow running must be gone through to get the limbs and the wind gradually accustomed to the work. As they improve, quicken your pace, and for mile running practice half a mile or so in about 2min. ”

“ In starting out for a walk, one should begin slowly, and gradually increase the pace, and in returning the same rule should be observed.
Running.—The force exerted in running is enormous. In running it is the length of the step more than anything else which increases the speed of the run; hence, the runner should learn to take long steps. But the greatest speed can only be kept up for a limited time ”

“ Those who could not sprint, leap the bars, throw hammer or discus, or do any other of the ordinary stunts, might, at least, have some chance of winning a prize in the climbing of the greased pole, the catching of the greased pig, the running of the obstacle race, or testing their ability to hop in the three-legged race, where each couple of boys would have a right and left leg bound together, and then attempt to cross a given line ahead of all like competitors. ”

“ In running, three or five generally entered at the same time; when there were more they seem to have been divided into parties of four, and in that case the winning party had to run once more to decide the final victory. The signal for running was given by the dropping of a rope stretched out in front of the runners; in running, they either held their arms with the elbows closely pressed to their sides or swung them violently and regularly backwards and forwards, corresponding in time to the feet; the former attitude{272}
Fig. ”

“ You are to round the rock by running to the right, and you must keep to the right of the path on returning, so that you won't run into anybody. The first to reach this mark on the return wins the race. ”

“ Save yourselves for the last three [2] quarters of a mile, and don’t try to leap the ‘combination jump’ or the ‘Liverpool’; get over by the side railings or run up the braces, as you’ve done in practice. It’s not style over the obstacles that’s going to win this race, but good hard running and lots of wind at the end. Keep your strength till you need it most. Don’t try to get ahead at the start; let the other fellow make the pace. And right now, while I think of it, do try not to take off too soon at the water jump. Moore, you try to remember about that, will you? ”

“ In all this walking the athlete must train himself to set his foot down straight, for walkers may not toe out. At the end of two or three weeks begin the alternate work as has been told of in the previous papers about the running events—that is, one day take a ten-mile walk at an easy gait, and the next day take a three-mile walk as fast as you can travel, and keep this up until you are ready to go on the track. ”

“ It represents four athletes running, hardly touching the ground with one foot, while the other is raised and moved forward in order to cover the greatest possible distance with one step. The hands are wide open; the arms are moved about freely and appear to act as the wings of the body, and their motion is in harmony with that of the lower limbs. ”

“ These may be classed as walking contests, for, although running was allowed, it was seldom practised, excepting for a few moments at a time, for the purpose of relief from cramped muscles. The great difficulty in competitive walking is to keep within the rules. ”

“ At exceptional times—riding with or from the sheriff, to get a doctor, or, for a young man in April, riding a fresh horse for a known and measured distance, speed is permitted. But the rule is to ride slowly and sedately, holding swiftness in reserve for need. Walk, running walk, pace, jog trot—those are the road gaits, to which horses are carefully trained, giving most mileage with least effort. Rack and single-foot are tolerated but frowningly. ”

“ In the same manner, endeavour to seize a ball by the toes at full length.
WALKING.
[Pg 44] These preliminary exercises having been practised, the young pupil will commence a course of more advanced exercises, such as walking, running, leaping, balancing, vaulting, and climbing. Walking is common to all, but few persons have a good walk, and nothing exhibits the person to so much disadvantage as a slovenly bad gait. It is true, that the walk of a person will indicate much of his character. ”

“ The seas were running mountain-high, their curling crescents frequently falling inboard with an alarming swish. A great wave, rushing through the blackness, towered high near them for an instant, as though contemplating its prey hungrily. ”

“ You know the story of Alice In Wonderland. The red queen has to run faster and faster and faster in order to keep still where she is. You see that's exactly what you are all doing. Running faster and faster and faster. But you are not moving anywhere. ”

“ This however is my teaching: he who wishes one day to fly, must first learn standing and walking and running and climbing and dancing:- one does not fly into flying! ”

“ He was balancing himself on the running board of his car with that resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American—that comes, I suppose, with the absence of lifting work or rigid sitting in youth and, even more, with the formless grace of our nervous, sporadic games. ”

“ HINTS IN, BEFORE, AND AFTER THE RACE.
In sprinting, a good start is of such importance that we would suggest a careful practice in it. It is a curious fact that a novice will invariably start with one foot a yard or so behind the other, either with the body bent down low, or with the body erect, and swinging the arms as if they were the means of propulsion about to be trusted to. In the former case, he runs one yard more than his distance, in the latter he exhausts and unsteadies himself. ”

“ No fear need be entertained of falling back on alighting if the run is sufficiently fast and the landing place level and soft; the impetus derived from the run gives the heaviest part of the jumper, the trunk, sufficient momentum to carry itself forward when the progress of the feet and legs is arrested. ”

“ If I am leading an elementary run uphill, I can soon pick out the experienced runners by the line they take and the pace at which they climb. The puffing, panting, stumbling people, who forge ahead, herring-boning or turning their ankles over their Skis so as to get a grip with their boots, are not included in my "experienced runners." ”

“ TRAINING PRACTICE, FAIR WALKING, ETC.
Walking is the most useful and at the same time most abused branch of athletic sports; not so much from the fault of the pedestrians as from the inability or want of courage of the judge or referee to stop the man who, in his eagerness for fame or determination to gain money anyhow, may trespass upon fair walking, and run. ”

“ In racing, the time made by the best men, travelling lightly clad, and under the best conditions of snow and weather, works out at about eight and a half miles an hour on a course of a little over nine miles, and nearly eight miles an hour on one of eighteen and a half miles. ”