Question: Where did the half mile run come from?
About the article "Track and field", section "Middle distance".

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The Due West Railway was a shortline railroad that served western South Carolina in the first half of the 20th century.
The carrier was incorporated and opened for operation in 1907.
The approximately 4.5-mile route ran from Due West, South Carolina, to Donalds, South Carolina, where a branch of the Southern Railway (U.S.) operated.
The Due West Railway was unusual in that it did not run on Sunday and it would not carry express parcels of alcohol.  
Six Mile Run derives its name (along with other area streams including Mile Run, Three Mile Run, Nine Mile Run, and Ten Mile Run) from the distance early surveyors estimated it was from the point where the historic King's Highway (now Rt.
27) left the Raritan River at New Brunswick to the point the roadway crossed the stream.
The estimates were not very accurate but the stream names have remained in use ever since. 
1930 Australian Team & Results.
Men's 440 Yard Run/Quarter Mile  George Augustus Golding - Bronze, 49.6 s (in heat)  Herbert Alexander Bascombe - 6th, 49.4 s (in heat) Men's 880 Yard Run/Half Mile  Herbert Alexander Bascombe - 5th in Heat 1  George Augustus Golding - Did Not Finish Men's 1 Mile Run  William "Tickle" Miller Whyte - Silver, 4 min 17.0 s  Russell McDougall - 7th Men's 2 Mile Steeplechase  Alex John Hillhouse - Silver Men's 3 Mile Run  Alex John Hillhouse - Silver, 14 min 27.6 s Men's 6 Mile Run  Alex John Hillhouse - Did Not Start Men's 4 x 110 Yard Relay  Australia - Did Not Start  
From its origin, the North Branch skirts the northern edge of the world-renowned Pine Valley Golf Club and enters Lekau Lake a mile down.
A teardrop-shaped impoundment about third of a mile (0.5 km) long, Lekau Lake lies at an elevation of in a hollow of the hills.
Leaving the lake, the North Branch twines its way a mile northwest, down to , and enters Clementon Lake in Clementon, long a recreational mecca for the region.
A quarter mile (0.4 km) below the lake Trout Run enters from the east, and a half mile farther on, Gravelly Run.
The North Branch then runs more to the west for a mile to Laurel Lake, a sinuous half-mile-long (0.8 km) impoundment which lies at an elevation of about .
The North Branch continues its westerly course for three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) below Laurel Lake, turning northward where Mason Run enters from the south.
It turns to the westward again after another three-quarters of a mile, immediately after which it receives Signey Run from the north.
The North Branch then tends northwestward, widening and slowing a mile along, and, turning west upon receiving Otter Branch from the north a half mile farther down, enters an impoundment at Chews Landing.
This impoundment is a consequence of the constriction at the point about a third of a mile (0.5 km) down where the North Branch passes under the Black Horse Pike.
The North Branch is now tidal and runs westward through wetlands another mile to its confluence with the South Branch. 
 "Where Did Our Love Go" "Run, Run, Run" "Baby Love" "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" "Come See About Me" "Long Gone Lover" (Smokey Robinson)