Running reps on the track

Each year when it is dry enough a group of us use the local school grass running track to do repetition sessions, things like 300s and 400s to get our legs and hearts working faster. These always take it out of me so I must be working hard. But this week someone asked if we could run round the track clockwise rather than the normal anti-clockwise.  That got us talking about why we and everyone else  runs anti-clockwise round a running track.  One suggestion was that it might be that most people right footed and therefore with a stronger right leg it is easier to run round a left hand bend.  There are a lot of theories however, some a bit cranky and others that make more sense.  See here if interested. So we ran a few laps clockwise and all agreed that it felt a bit odd but might be good for us to even out the stresses on our bodies.  Until 1948 Oxford University ran clockwise round their famous Iffley Road track ( now renames as the Sir Roger Bannister track) so it might not be that mad. Mind you at that time the track was one third of a mile too so a bit unconventional.  As I was in Oxford I thought I would visit the track at lunchtime.  Note the runners in the second photo going clockwise!  there were a few doing it.