Evening star., 1932-07-13
Nurmi Considers His lO-Km. and l-Hour Run
Records Best; Expects to Set Marathon Mark
BY PAAVO NURMI.


TN 1926 I ran the--for American
conditiorfs-fairly seldom used dis
tance of; 5000 meters in 1904. !
i hold this record as one OF my very
best, and its value Is increased by
the fact that I achieved this result
in a severe duel with Wide.
The 2-mile record for open-air
tracks, which held good up to last sum-
mer, for instance, cannot even be com
pared with 1t. The 2-mle record was,
of course, lowered considerably last
Summer. Helped by pacemakers L
Just on the threshold Of old age-man-
aged to do it in $3.50. That Is not any
brilliant achievement, but 1t Is just
worth mentioning In the pink OF
condition" might have been able to
do 1t in $50 or 1852 perhaps.
In one respect I have been as care
less as all other great men in the his
tory of athletics-I have not. worried
about polishing up my records ana
bringing them as far down as possible
while there still was time and pos
sibilitieS.
THE opinion in Europe is that the
i 5,O00-meters world record, l4:28.2,
was something Of an ultra-class
kind. But that is not the case, ire
spective of the fact that only Ritola
and I have gone under 1880. we
might both have done better. Besides,
the present record came about without
my knowing it. During the actual run
ming I had no idea of my time at the
intermediary stages. If l had only
known, when running, the times for
the separate rounds, l should certainly
have forced my speed.
The present 10-kilometer record Is
more of a fluke than the result OF
purposeful run. The record was run
in our lovely town Of Kuopio. Before
the match had had bad attack OF
lumbago a week before. Ritola ana
Wide consider the result, 30;06;2. as
one of the best of my achievements,
together with the record for the hours
run.
Others have not come anywhere near
it for the simple reason that they 40
not hold out high speed for the whole
distance. 1t may be that the 1O-kllo-
meter record, together with the record
for the hours run, will keep my name
remembered for the longest time. pro-
vided 1 am not stimulated to test my
strength seriously on the marathon.
Some Is to 16 years ago I seriously
miles 1.442 yards for one hour was not
to be relied upon. I was Of the opinion
that the Frenchman had been given an
extra round gratis.
WHEN in London couple OF years
w ago I came to talk with old man
George and the former well known
miller, the sports editor Of the News
of the World, Joe Blink. They both
said that they considered my record
for the hours run as one Of the best
running results Of the world, but they
added that if I could last for the re-
manning 100 yards, or thus run the full
II miles, that record would be horS
concours In times gone by I could
have done this-perhapS still. In any
case, it is absolutely certain that II
miles will be run yet in the hour, per-
haps even yard or two more. But
before that, 10 men will have run the
mile under 4:10.
The 10-mile record (50:l5) which I
got as an intermediary step in my one
hours run in Berlin, and the 15-mile
record held by the Canadian Bricker,
are remarkable, but on the other hand,
the 20-mile record is weak. These dis
tances are run very seldom, however,
which explains the case.
One often hears it said that the
marathon is more luck than a match
Of organized work. That may have
happened to some Of the old runners
and may even happen to many run
ner again, but it must not happen with
all The marathon is a match run on
rationed power-economy. This distance
will be run well by the man who can
ration the power he spends and distri-
butte his speed correctly.
The speed In the marathon should be
as uniform as possible. The differece
in time for the two halves Of the dis
tance must not be more than min
utes. 1t is just the fact that the run