Running History Story

Before there were stopwatches, races, tracks, and shoes, men and women ran for one reason; to SURVIVE!!! An old story says that "every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest antelope, or it will starve. So it doesn't matter if you are a lion or an antelope, when the sun comes up in the morning, you'd better be running!"

Men and women had to run to hunt their food and to run from animals. From the beginning we were all made to run. There are few things more natural than running through a field or through trees either chasing or being chased. The only measure of success in running was whether the hunted reached safety before being caught by the hunter.

Running as a sport evolved from this competition to survive. The best hunter was often the fastest runner. In ancient Egypt the King had to run the same long distance every three years just as fast as he did before in order to keep his crown.

The first event on the first Olympics in Greece more than 2,700 years ago in 776 B. C. was a footrace of about 200 yards. The Greeks loved running and said in Greek - mens sana in corpore sano - a sound mind in a sound body.

Fast runners were treated like Gods. The ROMANs made it easier to race certain distances, like the mile, as they measured their roads and put in markers at each mile. A mile was the distance it took a Roman Soldier carrying full battle gear to travel 1,000 two step strides.

In the 1600's the English while travelling long distances on Roman marked roads with mile markers started having races between markers. Each city had its fastest running heros and they used to race against each other for City and National pride.

Soon other distances were used to race and it became quite common to see footraces. But it all goes back to men and women being made to run and survive!!!