- Would You Take on This Woman Multi-Event Athlete?
- "Over the sea there dwelt a queen whose like was never known, for she was of vast strength and surpassing beauty. With her
love as the prize, she vied with great warriors at throwing the javelin, and the noble lady also hurled the weight to a great
distance, and followed with a long leap; and whoever aspired to her love had, without fail, to win these three tests against
her, else, if he lost but one, he forfeited his head".
(from The Niebelunglied, dated about 1200. It is one of the texts from which Richard Wagner derived the plots of his ultra-Marathon set of operas making up The Ring Cycle)
- Crowd Trouble At Half Marathon
- "A group of gentlemen assembled at Chester in August 1661 to follow (on horseback) a foot race to Wrexham [about 13 miles. JCD]:
they included Roger Grosvenor, heir to Sir Richard Grosvenor of Eaton Hall, John Pulford of Wrexham and Hugh Roberts of Hafod-y-bwch,
near Wrexham. The two runners were Laurence, Grosvenor’s footman, and Astyn, John Pulford’s servant. Some time during the race,
an argument began when Grosvenor accused Hugh Roberts of riding in front of Laurence and stirring up dust. Grosvenor dismounted
and drew his sword and attacked Roberts, who followed suit, and during a brief sword fight, Roberts mortally wounded Grosvenor in the belly."
(from Sharon Howard, "Gentlemen and interpersonal violence in seventeenth-century Britain"; taken from website sharonhoward.org)
- The Favourite doesn't Always Win ...
- "The town talk this day is of nothing but the great foot-race run this day on Banstead Downes, between Lee, the Duke of Richmond’s
footman, and a tyler, a famous runner. And Lee hath beat him; though the King and Duke of York and all men almost did bet three or
four to one upon the tyler’s head."
(Samuel Pepys' Diary, 30th July 1663)
- The Perils of Running over Rough Ground
- "Being Tuesday in Whitsunweek a revel on Mardown [Devon, May 1801], wrestling, skittle playing, and females racing for 2 yards of
[Linen cloth], three started but unfortunately for the girl who depended on getting the prize, after running a few yards tripped on
a stone and fell with such violence that she exposed herself to vast numbers of spectators who gave such shouts at the unfortunate
young woman's accident that she got off the course and was not seen at the ground afterwards".
(Silvester Treleavan, quoted in "Eavesdropping on Jane Austen's England", Roy and Lesley Adkins).
The Post-Event Celebrations …
- ‘The Master said, “Gentlemen never compete. You will say that in archery they do so. But even then they bow and make way for one another
when they are going up to the archery-ground, when they are coming down, and at the subsequent drinking-bout. Thus even when competing,
they still remain gentlemen”.’
Confucius (6th-5th century BCE).’The Analects’, Book 3 (Translated by Arthur Waley)