How Did Distance Runner Have Changed Throughout History

The Olympic Games have entertained people all around the world for hundreds of years. The world’s top athletes compete against each other in sporting events ranging from swimming to sprints. The Olympics also consist of many running events. The distance runners who compete in the events must train for years to be able to compete in the Olympic Games. Throughout history, many changes have been made to the way distance runners train and compete. Olympic distance runners were affected throughout history by the evolution of nutrition, equipment, training programs, and the distance of the marathon race in the Olympics.
Changes and discoveries in nutrition have greatly impacted distance runners. The first athletic nutrition studies were done
In the 1800s, distance runners trained by going for a long walk, with a half mile, fast paced exertion, twice a day (Magness). In the 1910-1930s the development of low interval training was introduced. This mixed steady running with faster running. In 1930, a complete shift to interval training occurred. Also during this time, Woldemar Gerschler created a training program that stressed a runner’s heart to 180 bpm during the interval, and then allowed it to drop to 120 bpm during a recovery period. Interval training came to America in the 1940s and 50s when Hungarian coach, Mihaly Igloi, brought it over. During the 1960s and 70s, steady, long distance running replaced the daily interval training. Percy Cerutty, Arthur Lydiard, and Ernst Van were responsible for its return. German coach, Bertl Sumner started to emphasize the importance of starting intervals at a slow pace and then progressing to a faster pace. Bill Bowerman took this idea and designed a method to help runners work toward their goal pace. Middle distance training became popular in the 1980s and 90s when Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, and Sebastian Coe took over the training for it. Coe was a former runner who trained with lower volume high intensity training. Ovett, also a former runner, trained with two to three intense workouts a week. Starting in the 2000’s, coaches in America started to train distance runners using intervals
In the Ancient Olympics, beginning in 776 B.C., the greatest race was the twenty-four lap race around the Olympic stadium. This distance equaled about three miles. The marathon race became a very important part of the Olympics when Michel Breal proposed that a long distance foot race should be added to the Olympics as the final event. He was inspired by the story of Pheidippides and the messenger. Pheidippides was sent to Sparta to ask for the Spartans help in battle against the Persian army in 490 B.C. He covered 150 miles in a two day time period. When the Greeks won the battle, a messenger was sent the Athens, about 25 miles from Marathon to spread the news of victory (Lovett). This story inspired the idea of the marathon race. After seeing the race in 1896, the United States team from Boston decided to establish the Boston Marathon, which has been run every year since 1897. However, the marathon race was not always the same distance. The original distance was 25 miles. At the 1908 London Olympics, the distance had to be changed to 26.2 miles so the race course could start at Windsor Castle, and end at the newly built stadium in White City. The 26.2 mile distance was officially adopted as the new distance for the marathon race in 1924 at the Paris Olympics (Trew 9). Half marathons, which are 13.1 miles long, soon became popular because they act as a transition race from a 10k, 6.2