Judging a Mile Race by the first Hundred Yards | Eastern North Carolina Now

    My high school athletic career was cut short when my old man advised (????) that I get a job to help out with the family finances. I played sports in grammar school up until the 10th grade in High School. As I remember it now, dad never saw a game or pitched a ball in the yard with me. Sports were never a part of his sphere until many years later (85 years old) when he would watch the Atlanta Braves. He really did not have an interest sports then, but I suspect it was a way to pass the time after dinner.

    I played in Gray Y football, baseball and soccer while in grammar school. I played football and ran track in my 10th grade year. In order to be classified as an expert witness you have to present your resume and qualifications to the court. I am not submitting myself as an expert in the track and field events. But, I felt obligated to indicate that I did at least participate in some events to give the following article some sense of credibility.

    Atlanta in the 1950s only had two stadiums.   Henry Grady Stadium   and   Herndon Stadium.   Both were built in 1948. Grady was for Whites and Herndon was for Negroes. Most games and track meets were played on various fields around Atlanta but the finals of both sports were played at Grady Stadium. At this point I need to admit that I had to do some factual research to be sure the following paragraphs were truthful.

   Here is a little history of the two stadiums. "For the fall of 2009, Grady stadium was closed due to renovation. The renovation was completed during Summer of 2010." The stadium is still a state of the art field used for numerous sporting events. (Henry Grady Stadium)    "Herndon Stadium as of October 2015, is in an extreme state of disrepair, having been heavily damaged by looters". (Alonzo Herndon Stadium) I should point out that Grady is a part of the Atlanta Public School system while Herndon Stadium is a private stadium operated by Morris Brown College. "In August 2012, Morris Brown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an attempt to prevent foreclosure and sale of the school at auction. In October 2015, the campus was still open, but dependent upon volunteer faculty and staff."   Morris Brown College

    Grady Stadium had a track that surrounded the football field. Each lap was 1/4 miles long. Four laps constituted a Mile. We also ran the 100 yard dash on that track. My memory is somewhat sketchy but I do not remember too much about metric events. Most of our events were measured in yards: "Sprints were contested over 100, 220 and 440 yards and the longer races were run over 880 yards, mile and 2 mile." (Yard to Metric transition)
    The one thing I am almost 99% positive of though, is that the winner of each race was not determined until the end of the race. As an example, the 100 yard dash ended after 100 yards. The mile run (4 complete laps of the track) was not over until the runner completed the entire four laps. To be sure, the coaches would measure the intervals with a stopwatch. I think that is to evaluate the progress toward a world record or help in training for longer distance events.

   Now we measure every step in a race and even measure the stride between step. But the one constant that remains is the winner is not declared until the end of the race regardless of the distance of the race. We have also changed the distance from yards to meters. The current record for the 100-Meter dash is (9.58 Seconds). I think we can safely say that the Trump administration has not broken that record. By my measurement, they are just over the sprint record at 9.63 seconds. To be fair though, they thought they were running a dash but instead they were running the 100 Hurdles. It remains to be seen if the entire mile is a hurdle race also.

    Don't you wish Politics were judged the same way? You know, 4 years (laps) in the race. Then a rematch which just by coincidence last 4 years (laps). I guess it is conceivable that we could start a mile race and then declare the winner after 100 yards (meters, days, inches, steps, seconds or commercials).

    We are right on the first leg of a mile   race having only completed the first 100 yards (meters,days), so it may be a bit premature to declare a winner or loser. Yes, I know this comparison was a bit of a stretch but no more so than the media trying to declare a loser so soon also. But what do I know, I had to quit sports and go to work and they may have altered the course length since 1960.

UPDATE:
   This article was written before I saw the article recently posted by Diane Rufino. Here is a link to that post which states the case better than I have in this article. Give Trump A Chance.
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Comments

( April 26th, 2017 @ 12:02 pm )
 
That reminds me of the story about the boy crossing the pasture when the bull saw him. The bull started chasing him and he knew he could not outrun the bull. Then he saw a tree and decided to try to jump up to a limb, but he realized that the limb was way too high for him to reach it. He had no choice so he made his best effort.

Later he was telling his friend about the incident and his friend asked him," Well did you reach the Limb?" His reply "No….

-----BUT I CAUGHT IT ON THE WAY DOWN."

Now that is "wide open, with no governors."
( April 26th, 2017 @ 11:55 am )
 
And even then, it did not always work out. Kind of like now.
( April 26th, 2017 @ 11:10 am )
 
Stan,
Why does that not surprise me?
( April 26th, 2017 @ 11:08 am )
 
I was a sprinter in high school. My pace was always wide open, with no governors.
( April 26th, 2017 @ 8:48 am )
 
Never let someone else set your pace. I ran the mile in high school.



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