 It may be applied, for example, to a course of study or of medical treatment or to a race-course.At its simplest, the Roman race-course took the form of two posts; each called a "discrimen" or a "meta", round which the runners, whether on foot, on horses or in chariots, raced.The normal arrangement was more formalised as two straights, separated by a "spina" but very close to each other and with a very tight turn at each turning point.