MIDDLE AND DISTANCE RUNNING 35 



highly specialized trainer of to-day was developed, and consequently 

 must have trained under more or less imperfect methods. It should 

 also be remembered that unlike football and crew men, runners are not 

 select specimens of plrysical manhood, picked because of their strength 

 and vigor. On the contrary, track men are fragile in comparison. 

 Strip a group of football and crew candidates and place them side by 

 side with a group of track men and no one could fail to be impressed 

 by the contrast in strength and development. 



Vitality. — Whether distance running drains vitality or not can 

 not be demonstrated in terms of percentage, as one may speak of the 

 number of bodily injuries or of functional heart derangements. A 

 conclusion must be reached deductively, if at all, from the statistics 

 given by the men ; the character of the injuries they have received ; the 

 nature of the benefits which accrued from their running; the probable 

 effect of these injuries and benefits on their vital organs; the 

 state of their health at the present time, etc. Vitality must be de- 

 termined by the condition of the blood, and of the organs which main- 

 tain life, the heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, etc. If running has re- 

 sulted in strengthening the heart and lungs of these athletes, in im- 

 proving their digestion, in stimulating to greater efficiency the func- 

 tioning of their vital organs, in endowing them with greater physical 

 vigor, it has evidently given them greater vitality, greater resistance to 

 disease; if, on the other hand, it has injured their hearts, weakened 

 their lungs, injuriously affected their vital organs; if a fair percentage 

 of them have become broken down athletes, it has impaired their phys- 

 ical vigor and drained vitality. Every one admits the value of run- 

 ning per se. It is generally recognized as the exercise par excellence 

 which develops vital strength, strength of heart and lungs, the kind of 

 strength that carries a man to a green old age. No one of our athletic 

 teams regularly presents to the eye such evidence of perfect physical 

 condition as does the track team. The practical value from a physio- 

 logical point of view of all the school and college sports is in direct 

 ratio to the amount of running involved. Eacing in itself may be 

 injurious, ten per cent, of the men believe it is, although their letters 

 show that half of these are opposed to it, not because of definite and 

 positive injury known to result from it, but from the vague general 

 feeling referred to on the first page of this inquiry, namely, the belief 

 that it is too great a strain. And this investigation shows that certain 

 injuries do result from it, though much less serious than is generally 

 believed. On the other hand, a large majority of the men deny that 

 racing is necessarily injurious, affirming that injury when incurred is 

 caused by poor condition, and that if a man is fit when he toes the mark, 

 he is not likely to injur.e himself, no matter how hard he runs. But it 

 is impossible to consider racing alone, since running is inseparably 

 connected with it. Boys can not race without training, and will not 



