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Show CLARENCE DeMAR i When a man thirty-nine years old wins a Marathon rave over more than one hundred and fifty competi- j tors, and under a broiling sun, and when the victory is his fifth, he becomes be-comes an object of'interest not only to other athletes and to coaches but to physiologists and even to psychologists. psycholo-gists. People want to know how he did it, what he eats, how he lives. Clarence MeMar's personal appearance appear-ance would not attract attention anywhere. any-where. 1 He is of medium height, perhaps a little above the average, ; spare, thin-faced. His color is healthy , but not high or deeply tanned. His ; chest is not noticeably larger than that of most men, nor does he appear to be unusually muscular; but he does look physically hard and fit. His life is and always has been remarkably simple. He did not begin to run until he was twenty-one years old, and he has always been his own trainer and dietitarian. For a time, he lived wholly on a vegetarian diet, and gave it up, not because he found it inadequate to his needs, but merely because it was inconvenient as a matter mat-ter of domestic economy. Now he takes a mixed diet of meat, fish, bread, potatoes, with plenty of fruit and vegetables, but with a preponderance preponder-ance of what Tie calls "those sawdust umbbtop a things," meaning thereby chiefly cereals cer-eals made from whole grains. In other words, he eats a little of everything, every-thing, but he lays great stress on eating slowly and thinking as little as possible about what his food is going go-ing to do to him. That same lack of self -consciousness characterizes his attitude toward life in general. He doesn't worry, doesn't allow himself to become nervous. ner-vous. Such training as he takes is general rather than particular. Instead In-stead of walking the half-mile from his home to the railway station where he takes the 7.18 train for his work in a printing office, he usually runs, at an easy jog-trot. Sometimes he runs three or four miles to Maiden, the next town, and takes the train there. When he reaches the city he usually runs the mile or so to his place of business, but always at a comfortable pace. Thus he does not have to train for a special race. He is always in training. DeMar has never used either tobacco to-bacco or liquor in any form. He has long given generously of his time to pubic service as a scout master and as a teacher of a boys' class in Sunday school. He discourages boys from attempting long-distance running runn-ing until they are fully grown, and he sets an example for them in modesty, in a just attitude toward the place of atheltics in the more important im-portant affairs of life and in his rigid refusal to allow offers of money to change that attitude or to tempt him into the ranks of professionalism. No one can know him, as the writer of this knows him, without feeling that his mental poise and balance have had much to do with his victor-, victor-, ies. |