32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ercise 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. 



Naturally and yet unexpectedly the men who trained on an aver- 

 age of about ten weeks a year, notwithstanding they numbered less 

 than two fifths of the whole number, had nearly twice the percentage of 

 injuries. In attempting to fit themselves for the strain of a distance 

 race in such a short time, they overworked, with consequent bad effects. 

 Curiously enough, the men who trained twenty-six weeks a year and 

 continued running from seven to twelve or fifteen years, had no in- 

 juries at all. It might be supposed that this vigorous exercise con- 

 tinued for such a long time would drain their vitality. Exactly the 

 contrary has been the case. With one exception, all claim to be more 

 vigorous than the average man of their age, and the exception de- 

 clares himself fully as vigorous. 



One half of the athletes began running as schoolboys, and 78.5 

 per cent, made good in college, as compared with 75 per cent, of those 

 who did not take up the sport until they entered college. Twice as 

 many of the boys who ran only a year or two in school made good, as 

 of those who ran three or four years. This seems to indicate that boys 

 who begin at school, if they do not begin too young, and if they are 

 brought along gradually, learning stride and pace and developing 

 stamina, have a slightly better chance than even the more mature man 

 who takes up the sport after he enters college. There is nothing sur- 

 prising in this, as it requires several years to bring a distance runner 

 to his best. C. H. Kilpatrick, winner of the American and Canadian 

 championships, '94, '95 and '96, and until recently holder of the world's 

 record for the half mile, began running while at school, as did also 

 George Orton, intercollegiate mile champion for several years. Melvin 

 Sheppard before becoming an Olympic champion was famous through- 

 out the middle Atlantic states as a school-boy runner. It is a common 

 saying, however, that school-boy stars usually " fall down " in college 

 and unquestionably many runners of promise are spoiled before they 

 get there, but, generally speaking, the school-boy star fails to develop 

 into a college star because he has stepped from the narrow limits of 

 school competition into the much greater range of college athletics. 

 I am inclined to believe that unless he has been overrun, he equals in 

 college his school records and usually surpasses them, and while the 

 data to support it are not at hand, I should expect this to be particularly 

 true of distance running, at which a man should get better and better 

 the longer he keeps at it. The evidence shows, furthermore, that boys 

 who were over sixteen years of age when they began running did twice 

 as well after they entered college as boys who began under sixteen. Evi- 

 dently the boy who begins too young is throwing away his chances in 

 college. 



