Running Notes

Born to Run,

From our spring-loaded ligaments to our muscular behinds to our ability to sweat, the human body took the ideal shape of a long-distance runner starting some 2 million years ago, the researchers say. The long, lean build helped us scavenge widely scattered kills and could also have been an advantage when hunting down prey over long distances.

A running legend dies,

Arthur Lydiard, 87, a top New Zealand track coach in the 1950s and '60s whose methods revolutionized training for distance runners and helped fuel the worldwide boom in jogging, died Dec. 11 in Houston of an apparent heart attack.