Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1908-09-04

WINNING THE
MARATHON RACE,
John Hayes Tells How It Was
! Run and Won.
"A CASE OF USING BRAINS.'

Plueky Athlete Who Carried Stars and
Stripes to Victory In Olympic CIss.
sic Ran Course Without Tirine-Pays
Tribute to Gareness of Dorando and
Hefferon.
Without a word OF boasting John J.
Hayes Of New York, winner of the
Marathon race, who recently returned
from London. told how he ran and won
the classic event Of the Olympic games
1T isn't anything wonderful that so
many Americans finished up in front"
said Hayes when questioned by Robert
Edgreu for the New York Evening
World. 1T was just case of using
our brains. I Cont suppose we are so
much faster than the English, but we
go at things with our heads instead OF
our legs. We make a careful study OF
the art of getting out the best that's In
us. That's ALL"
And you?" asked.
"Oh, I've studied Marathon running
for four years" Hayes admitted. I've
run three at Boston and one at Yon-
kers, besides the Canadian round the
bay race, which Is only nineteen miles.
| ought to be good judge Of pace.
always study the other fellows care
fully, and l come pretty near telling
what they can do and regulating my
own pace to fit
We studied all the conditions in
England We did our training very
carefully and lost no sleep over the
stories about the terrible pace the Eng
lish distance runners would cut out.
Mike Murphy was with us, and we
knew we had the best advice anyway.
There's a man who's entitled to lot
of credit.
about fifteen miles. The Indian, Te
wanima. won that | was minute
or two behind. l used my natural pace,
and / felt sure that the Indian ran too
fast TO keep it up over the long course
If he could have kept it up | would
have been glad, at that, because he
carried the flag too
"One thing that gave us lot of con
fidence before the race was a trial the
English had. Duncan, the best of the
Englishmen, ran ten miles with the har.
riers They have some good men. but
Duncan went out of sight ahead of the
bunch between eight and nine miles.
AS soon as heard that felt sure we
had them. Duncan's pace was too fast
for man training for Marathon.
knew he'd try the same pace in the
big race. and | knew that no living
man could stick it out and finish well
going like that. So we kept plugging
on with our work.
"The day of the big race was pretty
hot. We had formed in four lines in
the grounds Of Windsor castle. There
We're about sixty of us starting, men
from all over the world. The Princess
of Wales fred the starting pistol. No,
she didn't hold it. She pressed but
ton, they told me. was in the third
line from the front. OF course it didn't
make any difference about that. We
were close enough together for such a
long race.
"The road for a mile or so was all
cobbles-rough going, but fellow
doesn't give whoop about that when
he's fit I didn't care how rough it
was so long as the others had to cover
ha hot tpn hIlt
it was just as hot for the others as it
was for me. Everything was for a
fair field and no favors in that race.
'The Englishmen started Off at ter
ribe clip. That was just what I ex-
pected. and it didn't worry me at all.
set my pace and paid no attention to
anybody else 1t wouldn't have made
me change a step If they had all run
away from me at first. | had 1t all
scientifically figured out. You've got
to be scientific in Marathon. You
have just so much power and endur-
ance to spend in little over twenty
six miles, and you've got to fix your
own pace so that you get out the best
average speed for the entire distance.
You must have just enough left at the
finish to make squirt If 1t Is close. A
man in good condition can run indef-
nitely at certain clip.without feeling
any strain at all, but If he exceeds
that speed midway he'll break down.
You run at that pace until you reach
twenty-five miles. If there aren't any
kinks in you then you, can gallop the
rest of the way.
"The Marathon road went over all
sorts of ground. 1t was winding
road--part Of it fine. smooth surface