| Some of the earliest records of running events are those of men who ran against each other at the first Olympic Games. The Olympic Games festivals which had their beginnings in 776 B.C. continued until on early Christian Roaman Emperor named Theodosus stopped them around 400 AD. They had become cruel. Running was perhaps the simplest of the sports but it too became debased as prizes and the entertainment value become more important than training. The sprint race was the length of the stadi urn and the stones which marked the start allowed for twenty runners in a heat. There was a lapse of about Olympic and we hear nothing of athletics really taking a grip until 1834 when organizations began to make rules so something must have been going on before that time. |