I\u2019m head track coach at a major university and have trained some of the finest young athletes in the world.\u00a0 I don\u2019t recruit anyone lacking potential to place high and score points in important meets.\u00a0 That I explained to members of a literary society when they presented physical data about Edgar Allan Poe.\u00a0 He was a commendable athlete in a distant time, especially for one who didn\u2019t have a training regimen, but I can\u2019t guarantee he would\u2019ve been robust enough to excel on my team.\u00a0 The Friends of Poe still requested I train him, theoretically, and maximize his talent then tell them what he could\u2019ve done.\u00a0 I accepted this intriguing project.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Poe stood five-foot-eight and weighed about a hundred fifty pounds.\u00a0 His fellows in the late 1820\u2019s described him as \u201cgraceful, sinewy, and lithe,\u201d and one overwhelmed lad designated him the \u201cbest, the most daring, and most enduring swimmer I ever saw in the water.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps Poe should\u2019ve had a swimming coach.\u00a0 At age sixteen he dived off a wharf into the James River near Richmond and, escorted by several friends in a rowboat, began smooth strokes and soft kicks, easing downriver one mile, two miles, stroking for an hour now, then three miles, and four, two hours out, breathing hot now and losing his form.\u00a0 Want us to pull you out?\u00a0 Poe aimed a wicked eye and struck the water.\u00a0 After five miles he was dizzy and disoriented and at times strayed from the boat until told to straighten his course.\u00a0 I know he was in the zone where you don\u2019t want to quit but crave the moment you can.\u00a0 After three hours he staggered ashore at his destination, Warwick Bar, six miles from the wharf.\u00a0 Blisters burned his arms, shoulders, back, neck, and face, and for three unpleasant nights he tried to sleep on his stomach. \u00a0Thereafter he frequently boasted that crossing the English Channel would be a casual dip.\u00a0 I like athletes who\u2019ve excelled at other sports and think they\u2019re special.\u00a0 They have to believe or they won\u2019t survive my workouts.<\/p>\n I am now obliged to tell Poe in what event he shall compete.\u00a0 Generally, track athletes his delicate size have to be distance runners and train about a hundred miles a week.\u00a0 Given Poe\u2019s tenacity and ability to endure pain while plowing down the James River, I believe he\u2019s most suited for the five-thousand and ten-thousand meter events.\u00a0 In short races he dashed away from schoolyard opponents but definitely could not be a sprinter today nor could he have competed with top sprinters two centuries ago.<\/p>\n I know many considered Poe an excellent long jumper.\u00a0 At the University of Virginia in 1826 three of his friends ran down a \u201cslight slope\u201d and leapt nineteen feet.\u00a0 The seventeen-year old poet followed and sailed a foot beyond.\u00a0 In 1837 Poe asserted he had jumped twenty feet six inches.\u00a0\u00a0 By 1842, in saloons and an autobiographical piece for a magazine, he boasted of having flown twenty-one feet six inches after a mere twenty-yard approach.\u00a0 Aging men often get better the more distant their athletic deeds.\u00a0 Poe probably prevaricated about this as he too often did regarding alcohol, literature, and money.\u00a0 Only the former concerns me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t allow drinking on my track team.\u00a0 Do it once, you\u2019re suspended for a month.\u00a0 After the second offense I personally pack your gear and point you out of town.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s assume the young Poe could stay sober on my team.\u00a0 I sense he\u2019d then lobby to be a long jumper but be forced to defer to African American teammates sailing twenty-five feet and more.\u00a0 Even with weight training enhanced by anabolic steroids \u2013 which I don\u2019t tolerate; I\u2019m just speaking hypothetically \u2013 Poe couldn\u2019t jump more than twenty-three feet, even from fast synthetic runways.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible, given reasonable speed afoot, that he could be a middle distance runner, competing in the eight hundred and fifteen hundred.\u00a0 Again, however, Poe\u2019s slight frame indicates slow-twitch muscle structure suited for long distance.\u00a0 I also think long daily runs would improve Poe\u2019s moods.\u00a0 With teammates he could run early mornings before school, study and write during the day, train with the team in the afternoon, and do homework and more writing at night.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if Poe\u2019s brain would withstand this regimen but his body could, and guided by my firm hand and loud voice he\u2019d earn a Division I track scholarship, place in league meets (though not beyond that), and live less stressfully in early adulthood.<\/p>\n Sources \u2013 \u201cScholar, Athlete and Artist, Edgar Allan Poe at University of Virginia\u201d by Scott D. Peterson; Edgar A. Poe, Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance<\/em> by Kenneth A. Silverman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m head track coach at a major university and have trained some of the finest young athletes in the world.\u00a0 I don\u2019t recruit anyone lacking potential to place high and score points in important meets.\u00a0 That I explained to members of a literary society when they presented physical data about Edgar Allan Poe.\u00a0 He was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,181,216,128,129],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n