28 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



MIDDLE AND DISTANCE KUNNING 



By CHAS. E. HAMMETT 



JACOB TOME INSTITUTE 



IS middle and distance running as practised in our schools and col- 

 leges injurious or is it not? The verdict of spectators at an in- 

 tercollegiate or interscholastic track meet, as the contestants cross the 

 finish line frequently exhibiting every evidence of exhaustion, would 

 probably be in the affirmative. It is difficult for them to resist the be- 

 lief that a contest which so drains a man of his strength must, of 

 necessity, use up vitality that can never be completely restored, must 

 permanently weaken the heart, and perhaps injuriously affect him in 

 other respects. This investigation was undertaken in the hope of as- 

 certaining whether there is adequate foundation for such a belief. 



In an experience extending over fifteen years, the writer has at- 

 tended many track meets, has known personally hundreds of runners, 

 has time and again questioned them in regard to their personal ex- 

 perience. Curiously enough, he has never found a single man who 

 would admit that he had been injured by racing. The incompatibility 

 between the positive assertions of these men and the popular impres- 

 sion as to the effects of distance running was so pronounced, and 

 the subject is such an important one in its relation to schoolboys and 

 college men, that an investigation became imperative. The investi- 

 gation does not deal with the marathon running of the present day, 

 but solely with the distances usually run in school and college — one 

 half to two miles and cross-country seven miles. 



Athletes from all parts of the country have been consulted, prin- 

 cipally men who quit running years ago, and who have had ample 

 time to note in their own persons the after effects of the training 

 they underwent; men whose youthful enthusiasm has been sobered by 

 years of business or professional life and whose judgment is there- 

 fore to be respected. Some of them quit running thirty years ago; 

 others twenty-six, twenty-four, eighteen, twelve, etc. A few are still 

 running, only eight in all. Seven have just quit, nine stopped a 

 year ago and the great majority from two to thirty years ago, aver- 

 aging eight and a half years. Nearly one half of the whole number 

 ran for five or more years, training five to six days a week in two 

 groups, one group averaging twenty-six weeks a year, the other ten 

 weeks. Many trained six days a week, thirty to forty weeks a year. 

 These men have been allowed to speak for themselves, first as to 



