VETERAN MILER.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 352, 5 February 1937, Page 2

VETERAN MILER.

DRANK AND SMOKED On Morning Before Setting New Record. Fifty years ago W. G. George, of Mitcham., watched by 20,00’0 spectators at West Brompton, run a mile’in 4.12 g, a new record which was unequalled for 20 years. He said that he drank beer and smoked a cigar on the day of that race, and before the content! He expressed the opinion that the mile would be run in four minutes by the end of next year. He asked how much longer this record smashing would last, and the< reason for this- great improvement. He is probably the greatest at all distances runner England has produced. Better Training., Seventy-eight, George has still a slim, almost athletic figure. He believes that the new records have not been created by better training methods or by superior running tracks, but by the much greater in : tensive world competition.

“There were no Olympic Games in my day,” he said. “Great nations were not devoting special attention (o training hundreds of their athletes to beat those of other nations, ‘ r The more competition there is the more records 1 will be broken, although I suppose a limit must be reached one day.

“In 1882, when I went alone to America to beat the famous Myers, the Americans told me that they would never have any distance ronners because of their climate. I told them to get an English trainer, and they did so with admirable results. Actually I was always in training, and I drank a good deal of beer then and all my life, and smoked cigars because they suited me. I gave up beer eight years ago oh. medical advice. I have always been able to go without anything that did not suit me. “I was always a small .and ate anything I fancied. Finding out what suits each individual man is the secret of training. I also wen. on the scales every day. "If a pound overweight I did extra work; it under weight I had a rest. I Strongly recommend this method to present-day runners. Frothed at Mouth. Before a race I invariably felt ill, due to a weak stomach, and during the race I frothed at the mouth like a horse, but I never dropped at the finish, and was able to get to the dressing room before falling insensible. “If I had been doing too much running, I would go ‘on the bust’ one day m the care of a friend, but I- do not advise anybody to follow that example. Personally I felt the better for it. “I trained m’Jself to run a given distance exactly to the time fixed, and without wearing a watch. I j n . vented the 100-up exercise-station-aij lunning, a wonderful way of krepmg lit which all should practise

I also made a great study, of ' >ro » e >’ in running, and I have Old the New Zealander, Lovelock M he bends his arms- too much .' us causing a tension, other runners do this because the great Nurmi d.d it,„but they are, in my opinion,