... even when not being chased by the police or an irate "insignificant other"
[LINK] An Essay on Human Evolution, by Clyde M. Davenport
Have you ever wondered why we, today, seem to obsessively insist upon exercising our running abilities?
Do you think it is a simple happenstance that the Olympic running events begin with 100, 200, and 400-meter sprints?
The linked (rather long) essay (also in the continuation) offers at least a plausible explanation, well worth pondering.
The Dumpster Dash is 200 yards, which was the length of the original and most prestigious race in the ancient Olympic games.
The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook from the nearby city of Elis, won the stadion race, a foot race 600 feet (200 yds) long.
The stadion (or stade) was an ancient foot race, part of the Olympic Games.
The stadion was named after the building in which it took place, also called the stadion. This word became stadium in Latin.
There were other types of foot races, but the stadion was the most prestigious; the winner was often considered to be the winner of an entire Games.At the Olympic Games, the stadion (the actual building) was big enough for twenty competitors, and the race was a 200-yard (about 180-meter) sprint. The race began with a trumpet blow, but there were officials (agonothetes) at the starting blocks to make sure there were no false starts. There were also officials at the end to decide on a winner and to make sure no one had cheated (if the officials decided there was a tie, the race would be re-run). Runners started the race from a standing position, probably with their arms stretched out in front of them, instead of starting in a crouch like modern runners.
[source]
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