Although many us of fail to appreciate the finer points walking, it has a
long and honored tradition in T&F. Walking events were common at both
British and American track meets throughout the 19th century. Walking was
as controversial in those days as it is today. Charles Westhall, a fine
athlete who ran 150 yards in 15.0 in 1851 and a year later became the
first runner to break 4:30 for the mile on a track was also a champion
walker covering 7 miles in 52min 43sec . Westhall wrote a little book
"Hints Upon Training" in about 1860. Here's what he had to say about
judging walking matches and his enthusiasm for the sport:
"It [walking] is the most useful and at the same time most abused branch of
the athletic sports of Old England; not so much from the fault of the
pedestrians as from the inability or want of courage of the judge or
referee to stop the man - who in his eagerness for fame or determination to
gain money anyhow, may trespass upon fair walking, and run. Walking is a
succession of steps, not leaps, and with one foot always on the ground. The
term "fair toe and heel' was meant to infer that as the foot of the back
leg left the ground, and before the toes had been lifted, that the heel of
the foremost foot should be on the ground. Even this apparently simple rule
is broken almost daily, in consequence of the pedestrian performing with a
bent and loose knee, in which case the swing of his whole frame when going
at any pace will invariably bring both feet off the ground at the same
time; and although he is going heel and toe, He is not taking the required
succession of steps, but is infringing the great and principal one, of one
foot being continually on the ground. The same fault will be brought on by
the pedestrian leaning forward with his body, and thereby leaning his
weight on the front foot, which, when any great pace is intended, or the
performer begins to be fatigued, first merges into a very short stride and
then into a most undignified trot.. There may be a few professional
pedestrians - happily, only a few - who care not how they may come in first
in a match, and get the money; but they are now fast dying out, not from
age, but from being stopped at their little game by an honest and resolute
referee, and by the loud expressions of public opinion, which invariably
has taken the part of the fair walker. There is no finer sight among the
long catalogue of British sports, more exhilarating and amusing to the true
sportsman, than to see a walking match carried out to the strict letter of
the meaning, each moving with the grandest action of which the human frame
is capable, at a pace which the feeble frame and mind is totally unable to
comprehend, and must be witnessed to be believed."
Ed Sears
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