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ON STARTS IN HANDICAPS.

Never despair because you fancy that you have been unfairly treated by the handicapper. It to very difficult to handicap a really good man out of a race aItogether.
During my own career I have had to concede some seemingly impossible starts. Four hundred and seventy yards in two miles, and 600 yards in three miles, are pretty lengthy backwardations to have to make up. But I have had worse to face than this.
When making my, ten.mile record I was conceding seven or eight minutes’ start to the limit man. I am not very clear as to the actual start I was giving, and I cannot at the moment lay my hand on the figures, but I am sure that I am in no way overstating the facts. I have, indeed, given more than this seven minutes odd (if not more), which was the longest start ever given at Ibrox. For in one ten miles cross-country run I can remember that the limit man set off nine and a-half minutes before I did, say a two miles start in ten.
Nevertheless, on each of the occasions cited I managed to finish first man home. The length of the starts may have forced me to run more to race and less to record, but I don’t think so. I had set my heart on making history in the Ibrox race, and the fact that I succeeded in my ambition should serve as a useful guide to all runners. I thereby dotted the “i’s” and crossed the “ t’s “ of several of the maxims contained in this book, seeing that by laying myself down to cover the course inside all records I not only succeeded in compassing that end, but also in out-distancing all. my opponents.
Go thou, oh reader l and do likewise-on all occasions. It rests not with your stars, but with yourselves, whether you be champions or not.

SOME LAST WORDS ON STRIDE.

I may, perhaps here utter a final and really important warning to my readers to carefully refrain from all temptation either to acquire or to demonstrate any distinctive running “form;’ for that is a rock on which they will be bound to split. Critics talk and write en-thusiastically on “ long, springing “ strides, of men who “ more freely from their hips,” and whose magnificently free action simply devours the ground. These critics mean well, no doubt, but they don’t do long-distance running any good.
For however pretty this stylish running may look, it speedily brings on leg-weariness. A man who “ throws out” his fore-leg is bound to tire his knee-joints, while the man who strides high and long, covering 7 ft., or 8 ft. at a stride, will in the long run cover lees ground at n greater exertion than the man who lifts his feet and body clear from the track for as short a while and as little as possible. ‘
A high, springing stride inevitably means a jarring return to earth, to say nothing of a straining of the joints employed. Then the upright, erect carriage of the body inseparable therefrom involves the extra exer-tion of carrying a dead weight along.

The long-distance runner has to last out for as long as he can, and must therefore economise his powers as much as possible. He should run from his knees rather than from his hips, and should, moreover, do this as easily as possible. He should not lift his feet far off the track, because he wants to get them back there again as quickly as possible. He wants to lean his body forward also, just beyond the balancing point, in order to obtain the propulsion of his top hamper.

All this is rather difficult to explain on paper, but it seemed to me to be worth while going into in order that I might explain my reasons for recommending a style of running which is so diametrically opposed to all the accepted ideas on the subject. Long striding and high striding, of course, may both be all very well for the sprint or short-distance runner, who has to get over the ground as fast as he can, and who must perforce run in the style which suite him best, since he is a natural rather than n developed runner; but for any distance over a mile (or, to my mind, for any course over the half-mile) I am perfectly satisfied that the short, quick, gliding action is far and away the best.
I have been running now for a good many years-a good ten, shall we say, since I joined the Horsham Blue Star Harriers and won my first mile handicap-and during the time which has elapsed since I have partici-pated in all sorts of races over all sorts of courses in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and elsewhere, with a pretty fair measure of success

I have no particular physical development to boast about, and have sometimes been described as being rather insignificant in appearance--circumstances which have from time to time apparently occasioned a certain amount of wonder, on the grounds, I suppose, that it seemed impossible for so slightly-built a person as myself to have established so many records, and these particu-larly of a kind which are generally associated with con-siderable strength and stamina.
Well, I have husbanded such physical powers as I possessed, and have sought out such ways and means as would enable me to put them to the beet possible use and profit.
In so doing I have succeeded in convincing myself that the action, system of training, and methods of running a race were not only best adapted to my own physical peculiarities, but were also so reasonable and common-sensible (if I may say so) as to commend themselves to each and every man who seeks distinction on the running track.
I may, or may not be, correct in this opinion, but any-way you now have it, and can judge for yourselves.

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