Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-03-01
TAKING CORNERS
Harry l.. Dadmun Tells the Way
to Run An Indoor Track.
And Points to Many Worcester Runners
Who Have Become Proficient in This
Important Feature Of Indoor
Running.

Harry L. Dadmun, who conducts the
athletic department of the Boston Times,
has in this weeks issue an interesting
story upon How to run on an indoor
track" Mr.. Dadmun has always borne
the reputation of being one of the very
fastest indoor runners, and knows
whereof he speaks in dealing with the
subject. In the course of the story he
speaks of the ability that Worcester
men have always shown at indoor meet
ings, but very modestly omits his own
name from the list. He says:
The good indoor runner must not only
have the ability to run outdoors and be
really fast man, but to run indoors
successfully, he must go still further
and learn how to adapt his speed to the
difficulties of sharp corners
There is but one way to become an
expert runner on such a track as is to
be found in Mechanics building, and
that is by long and continued practice
on track very nearly like it.
Harvard has been eminently success
full at indoor running and the principal
reason is that the Harvard runners have
had a board track with difficult turns
uDOI WHICH THEY nave u dll0Q 1OA q
number of years and which has been the
greatest factor in developing the fast
indoor relay runners that have come
from that university.
Yale is reported to be thinking of
building such a track and Worcester
Academy and Exeter already have done
so.
For the last five years, Worcester
Academy and Worcester high school
have sent leading teams to the inter-
scholastic championships and the main
strength of these teams has been at the
middle distances or in runs where abil-
ity to get along on small track counted
for the most. The reason that the Wor-
cester teams have been able to do so
well is because they have always had an
opportunity to train on a board track
similar to the one in Mechanics hall,
and have not had to depend upon a
gymnasium to get into condition,
Look over the list Of interscholasuc
records during the past seven or eight
years and see whence the champions
have come. OF the seven interscholastic
champions in the 300-yard run, four
have come from Worcester-Hull, Bige-
low, Robinson and Butler; in the 500
yard run, four out of seven winners
have come from the Worcester schools
Davis Gaskill, Howe and Mills, Whlle
in the 40-yard dash, in which the train
ing is very similar to that in the shorter
runs, three out OF eight champions
have come from the same place, Blge-
low, Roche and Robinson having been
the winners
While these named are all good men
and fast ones in the different events
their preliminary training in
the Worcester skating rink on track
of fourteen laps to the mile and similar
to the Boston track, has Lad great
deal to do with their success.
Capt Frank H. Bigelow of the Har-
ward track team is perhaps one of the
best examples of what constant practice
ON an indoor track will do for run
ner who is naturally not adapted to
such work Captain Bigelow first be-
gan running when at the Worcester
high school and was sprinter from the
of his career. When he first
began running indoors, in the winter
season, he had the greatest difficulty IN
doing so, and it took him two seasons
TO get over the great fault of indoor
runners, that of trying to get around
the corners at top speed. Now he is one
of the fastest indoor relay runners In
the country, having been the fastest
man on the Harvard team in number
of record breaking performances, his
Yale on Feb. being fresh in the minds
of all the 5000 people who witnessed it.
On the same team was Fish, who also
learned to run indoors on the Worces-
ter track under the direction Of William
F. Donovan, while the latter was hand
ling the Worcester Academy runners
three or four years ago. Fish, by his
position on the team, was acknowledged
to be the fastest man at Harvard and
to those who watched his work closely
the remarkable manner in which he
took the sharp turns, was very APP
parent
AS it is impossible for any man to ~
around the corners of an indoor track
as fast as he can run, the point to be
in running on such a track is
to try and approach ones maximum
speed as nearly as it is possible to do
so and keep it up for the required dis
lance.
There is one point in indoor running,
also, that requires a great deal of at
tention and it is one to which much inn
portance is not attached by the average
runner unless he has raced long enough
to learn by experience, and that is, the
Importance of beginning the race as
soon as the pistol is fred
Most races Of from 300 to 600 yards
are won in the first and the last quar-
ters of the distance, the middle half be-
ing the time for doing the easy part of
the racing, if there be any to do, which
is rarely the case The start and
good position in the early part of the
race, is most important matter to look
after.
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