The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-17
NURM ARUNNER
 SINCE CHILDHOOD
Conditions In Finland Favorable For Distance
 Champions

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 PARIS, Aug 18.Paayo Nurmi, winner of the ten-kilometre cross. country, the most killing race of the Olympic games, is an athletic monk. The race track is his monkish cell. His life is concentrated there. He is ascetic, disinterested in worldly things.
 Someone looking around for phrase named him '.the running robot" " likening him to the mechanical men of the play. True he has a nachinelike precision in his movements, but precise like watch, not like a machine. He is no robot.
 Nurmi's, blond hair grows back from the forehead, and his blue eyes look up with attentive distraction If talked to he Is soon lost in an athletic introspection.
 Does Not Eat Fruit
 The Finn athletes were all at dinner when correspondent of The World had a chance to. talk with Nurmi. He began with potato soup, ate some beans and carrots, drank milk and finished with sour milk. The others ate much the same. Fruit was put on the table at the end, and while the others ate cherries, raspberries and apricots, Nur- mi did not touch them. Do not agree with me-" he explained.
 .sWe have taken all the distance events" he said, because we have trained for them. Conditions of life in Finland are also favorable. Fin land is country of scattered habita- tions, half the year covered with snoY. Every boy has skis, not for sport but to get around. To go all day on skis, travel thirty -forty-fifty miles, is done by everybody. That means every man in Finland has good, legs and good wind.
 Add to that an interest in running. Several years ago everyone in Fin land began to run. Ours is simple country with good country rOads, and the boys ran up and down these roads. was one of those boys, farmer boys, as most of us are. 1shappened to have more speed than the others, but we all could run, only I could run faster. sss
 You will notice we go in mostly for the distances. That is because we have not developed the track teams, and sprinting is developed art. Dis tance runs can be learned over country roads, and javelins and discusses can be thrown in fields.
 Running Many Years
 ,"Of course, I set about developing myself when I discovered could run faster than my friends. If can run ten kilometres now in the broiling sun and finish in good shape, it is be- cause I have worked at 1t steadily all summer for years running an hour or half an hour every day without fail, and in winter I sKied as always"
 "I went at it methodically, I did not train in the ordinary sense of the word, but I kept constantly fit. I de- cided not to drink anything alcoholic, to eat just what my body demanded, to go regularly to bed early, to, get up early, and never to dissipate in any way. You might say have always been in training, though not trained fine Before q meet as now train finer, that is to say, I go into as severe training as American sprinters, and. I run great deal more every day.
 ssIf you ask me the secret of my success, and the success of the other Films, I would say: long tradition of hardy 1ifes with long winters on skis, as basis. Then an active interest in athletic sports in recent years. We have good material to draw from, and it