[LAYING OUT A TRACK.]
Nothing is so common a cause of spoiling a walking or running record as "a short track." This is peculiarly the case in the country, where pedestrian contests are apt to be conducted in a rough manner, unaccompanied by the guards found to be essential in the first-class matches held in large cities. Too much care cannot be exercised in measuring a track; and it is always best to secure the services of the official engineer of the county or town as a measurer to make sure of the proper length. The reason for securing an engineer rather than trusting to your own measurement is that engineers can always be depended on to use standard measures, made of metal, which do not stretch. Common measuring tapes, being made of woven materials or leather, are liable to many errors from stretching or shrinking; and though these may not amount to more than a few inches in a fifty-foot tape, they make a serious hole in a record of five hundred miles.
Sometimes these mistakes will occur in the best regulated contests, as became evident after the Astley belt match of 1879 in Gilmore's Garden. There was a great deal of litigation and dispute between the representatives of the Astley and O'Leary parties before this match came off; and the O'Leary people, who took possession of the Garden the week after the match, in their eagerness to find some fault with their predecessors, had the track remeasured. The result showed that the track used in the Astley belt match lacked several feet of being a full furlong, and the difference spoiled all the records, taking six or eight miles off Rowell's excellent performance.
The commonest cause of country records being bad is that country pedestrians too frequently use horse-racing tracks, which are measured in a peculiar manner. In a horse-race, especially in a trotting contest with wheels, the mile or half-mile line runs in the middle, or near the middle of the track, to equalize the chances of horses starting abreast. The advantage of "hugging the pole"—keeping to the inside of this line—on a circular or elliptic track, are too obvious to be enlarged upon, but the ardor of the horses seldom permits one to hold this advantage long, and the animals are continually crossing the line of distance, thereby making a serpentine course which equalizes the chances of all.
In pedestrian contests, on the other hand, each man hugs the rail as close as he can, and therefore the track must always be measured close to the inside rail.
In a hall or theater, where most walking tracks have been laid, the length must be suited to the capacity of the building; but when an open air track is available, there is no question as to the necessity of making it some simple multiple of a mile. A quarter-mile open air track would be the beau-ideal of a place for summer pedestrian contests, but if a half-mile or mile track is to be used, where one already exists for trotting contests, it will be necessary to lay out a second railing at the proper distance from the horse-rail, to enable the record to be made in the only way it can count.
Open air tracks, however, are not fit for six-day matches, on account of the liability to rain, and dew, which would spoil the track for walkers by making it muddy. Moreover, such tracks are seldom found near enough to cities to admit of the crowds that are necessary to make a foot-race pay. Horse racing is the pastime of rich people, who can afford to enjoy their amusement without regard to cost; but pedestrian matches are dependent on large crowds of spectators who must be tempted to drop in at any and all times. Therefore it is that pedestrian matches are almost always, and six-day contests invariably, held in large buildings, under cover; and the average length of track is either 110 or 220 yards, so as to make either eight or sixteen "laps" to the mile. The word "lap" has now become so familiar that few people reflect that it is merely the revival of an obsolete word meaning "to turn," and that so many "laps" mean so many "turns." If the building is large enough to hold an eight-lap track, it is to be preferred; but failing that, one must be satisfied with a ten, twelve, or sixteen lap track. For the convenience of our readers, we furnish a table of lengths of tracks, making so many laps to the mile:
| A | track | 660 | feet | long | gives | 8 | laps | to the | mile. | |
| " | " | 586 | 2-3 | " | " | " | 9 | " | " | " |
| " | " | 528 | " | " | " | 10 | " | " | " | |
| " | " | 480 | " | " | " | 11 | " | " | " | |
| " | " | 440 | " | " | " | 12 | " | " | " | |
| " | " | 406 | 2-13 | " | " | " | 13 | " | " | " |
| " | " | 377 | 1-7 | " | " | " | 14 | " | " | " |
| " | " | 352 | " | " | " | 15 | " | " | " | |
| " | " | 330 | " | " | " | 16 | " | " | " |
This table shows the kind of tracks to avoid as difficult to measure. They are the thirteen and fourteen-lap tracks, which contain fractions that involve a division of inches and are so far improper. All the others are easily measured.
Next to the length comes the question of the best shape of track and the size of the building which controls it. The greatest possible length to be secured in any given building would obviously be in a line which should run against the outer wall all round, leaving the seats for the spectators in the center. This plan is open, however, to two objections. First, the spectators could only see the men when they were on their own side of the track; and, second, the pedestrians would have to turn four sharp corners in every lap round an ordinary building. These things must be avoided somehow. The pedestrians must at all times be visible from every point of the house and the corners of their track must be rounded for them to make the going easy.