Davy Crockett
Description
The sport of six-day pedestrianism, running laps in huge arenas for six days, continued to be a major spectator sport in 1881. This book will continue
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to tell the amazing story of these 19th century ultrarunners. During the seven years covered in this part (1881-1887), at least 163 six-day races were held, involving at least 1,300 starters.
As this book begins, there were 25 different runners who had reached 500 miles or more in a six-day race. The world record was 566 miles, held by Charles Rowell (1852-1909) of England. By 1881, the elite ultrarunners were convinced that reaching 600 miles was possible, and they all wanted to be the first to accomplish it.
There was skepticism about these records. “When athletics become a show, and it is to the interest of the managers to exalt the performance of the athletes in order to draw large crowds, the ‘records’ of such performances can never be wholly free from suspicion.” (Harrisburg Daily Independent, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, February 1, 1881.) Yet, the records were accurate and were continuously surpassed.
In this book, the story is told how the 600-mile barrier was finally broken, in front of thousands of spectators, by three runners who are on the cover of this book. This was an achievement that was thought to be impossible and achieved in our modern era by only a few ultrarunners. Ultrarunning historian, Davy Crockett scoured thousands of 19th century newspaper articles and compiled this history that has never been fully told.
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