Ultrarunning History
Podcast about the history of ultrarunning. An ultramarathon is a running race of 50K (31 miles) or more, up to 3,100 miles. This extreme running sport came into existence during the late 1800s.
Episodes
April 17, 2024 • 19 mins
By Davy Crockett
During April 1879, the same month that the new American Championship Belt race was held in New York City, the second English Astley Belt race, for the “Championship of England,” was put on April 21-26, 1879, at the Agricultural Hall in Islington, London, England. While the Americans were putting up mediocre times and distances, still focusing mostly on walking during their six-day races, the Brits would run fast...
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March 31, 2024 • 22 mins
By Davy Crockett
New book on Barkley history
The Barkley Marathons course (thought to be roughly 130 miles and about 63,000 feet of elevation gain) at Frozen Head State Park was the brain child of Gary Cantrell (Lazarus Lake) and Karl Henn (Rawdawg). The idea for the race was inspired upon hearing about the 1977 escape of James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., from nearby Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary.
The ...
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March 18, 2024 • 26 mins
By Davy Crockett
From 1875 to 1879, at least 130 six-day races were held, mostly in America and Great Britain. In 1879, the foot races became the #1 spectator sport in America. During that single year, at least 88 six-day races were held worldwide, with about 900 starters and witnessed by nearly one million spectators. Women played a significant role in these early six-day races, a century before they could take part in marathons....
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March 2, 2024 • 40 mins
By Davy Crockett
This is the story of the ultramarathon that was the most impactful of all races in the history of the sport. This race was witnessed by tens of thousands of people in Madison Square Garden and followed by millions in long daily newspaper story updates. It received so much attention that it sparked an ultrarunning frenzy on multiple continents and captured the imagination of millions of people who came to realize th...
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February 17, 2024 • 31 mins
Listen to the audio version. I included my interview on the very good Trail Runner Nation podcast. I recently went on it to talk to the guys about my new book, Classic Ultramarathon Beginnings. We discussed several of the very early ultras in our history.
Classic ultramarathons (races longer than 26.2 miles) include the oldest races, the most prestigious, the largest, the toughest, and the races that have captured the imagination ...
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February 4, 2024 • 27 mins
By Davy Crockett
The “around the world on foot” craze of the 1890s was first dominated by Americans, but eventually spread to Europeans. Some very interesting individuals, mostly from Germany and France, appeared in New York City claiming to be making a global journey on foot. Most were usually highly educated and impressive. Why would someone leave their well-respected careers and endure the hardship of being on the road for mont...
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January 20, 2024 • 27 mins
By Davy Crockett
My new book, Around the World on Foot: The Early Globetrotters is available on Amazon. After an introduction to help you understand what in the world was going on, I will share a chapter about the strange tradition of starting in a paper suit.
I am pretty proud of this book. I wanted to share some details about what my research found. Years ago, as I was doing some research into transcontinental walks and runs,...
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December 31, 2023 • 29 mins
By Davy Crockett
This is an encore episode with additions in the article.
The Across the Years race, established in 1983, is one of the oldest fixed-time races in the world that is still held annually. The race is always held at the end of the year, crossing over to the new year with a grand celebration. Through the years, it has attracted many of the greatest fixed-time ultrarunners in the world and still today is the premier a...
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December 20, 2023 • 25 mins
By Davy Crockett
New Book, containing the early history of The Barkley Marathons
Watching sports on Christmas Day is enjoyed by millions of sporting fans. But it also is probably despised by even more of those sporting fans’ families who have other priorities on that special day. While today the events watched are primarily basketball and football, back 144 years ago in 1879, the most popular sport taking place in America on Ch...
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December 11, 2023 • 29 mins
By Davy Crockett
New Book, containing the early history of The Barkley. Get it in your country's Amazon site
Gary Cantrell (a.k.a. Lazarus Lake), of Tennessee, was recently inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. Most people recognize him for creating the legendary Barkley Marathons, arguably the toughest trail race in the world. But few understand that he once was a talented runner during the 1970s and early 1980s...
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November 30, 2023 • 32 mins
By Davy Crockett
Get this history in my new book
Trail 100-milers started to be held in Great Britain in 1973, four years before the Western States 100 was established in America. This piece of ultrarunning history is largely unknown to Americans who have been told for decades that trail 100-milers began first in the U.S. In reality, trail 100s were also known to be held in Mexico among the Tarahumara as early as 1867. Thus, re...
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November 13, 2023 • 26 mins
By Davy Crockett
Get this history in my new book
The first certified 100 km race in America was held at Lake Waramaug, Connecticut, in 1974. Today it remains as the oldest 100 km race in the country and the second oldest American ultra still held. For many years in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, it was the unofficial national championship for the 100 km distance and the best ultrarunners in the U.S. made their pilgrim...
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October 29, 2023 • 26 mins
By Davy Crockett
This part will cover additional stories found through deeper research, adding to the history shared in found in the new book, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History. Grand Canyon rim to rim hikes and runs become very popular as thousands descend into the Canyon each year. Fastest known times for R2R and R2R2R runs are broken.
In 1991, Jerry Chavez, a Vietnam veteran of Leadville, Colorado, worked for the NPS. He oper...
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October 9, 2023 • 27 mins
By Davy Crockett
This part will cover additional stories found through deeper research, adding to the history shared in found in the new book, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History.
Overcrowding Concerns
In 1971, because of overcrowding in the inner Canyon, the Park Service started to implement a reservation system for camping. They shared a situation on the Easter weekend when 800 people tried to camp at Phantom Ranch, which only ha...
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September 26, 2023 • 29 mins
By Davy Crockett
This is an encore episode. Spartathlon, an ultra of 246 km (153 miles), takes place each September in Greece, running from Athens to Sparta and with its 36-hour cutoff. It is one of the toughest ultramarathons to finish.
In Part 1 of this series, episode 88, the story was told how Spartathlon was born in 1982, the brainchild of an officer in the Royal Air Force, John Foden. Three servicemen successfully covered ...
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September 11, 2023 • 24 mins
By Davy Crockett. Read, listen, or watch
This part will cover additional stories found through deeper research, adding to the history shared in found in the new book, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History.
Rim To Rim in the 1950s
In 1950, two 15-year-old boys from Los Angeles discovered that hiking rim-to-rim was a lot harder than they thought. While resting down at Phantom Ranch, they ran up an $8 unpaid bill and then decided that t...
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August 28, 2023 • 32 mins
Recently I went on the "Ultra Running Guys Podcast" with Jeremy Reynolds and Jeff Winchester. This will be a slimmed-down version of their interview with me. Their excellent podcast has also been doing a series interviewing race directors of some of the classic ultras.
The Ultra Running Guys said, "Not only was Davy Crockett the 15th person to complete 100-hundred-mile races, but as the Director of the American Ultrarunning Hall o...
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August 14, 2023 • 27 mins
By Davy Crockett. Read, listen, or watch
This part will cover additional stories found through deeper research, adding to the history shared in Part 2 of this Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim History. These stories can also be found in the new book, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History. By 1927, Phantom Ranch was well-established at the bottom of the Canyon. The new South Kaibab trail was complete, and the Black Bridge was nearing completion. ...
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July 30, 2023 • 25 mins
By Davy Crockett. You can read, listen, or watch
In 1906, David Dexter Rust (1874-1963) established a permanent camp near the confluence of Bright Angel Creek and the Colorado River that they name Rust Camp. They dug irrigation ditches and planted cottonwood trees by transplanting branches cut from trees found in nearby Phantom Creek. The camp was visited mostly by hunters going to and from the North Rim. Theodore Roosevelt (1858...
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July 16, 2023 • 27 mins
You can read, listen, or watch
No Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History can be complete without mentioning the Kolb brothers, who maintained a photo gallery on the South Rim for decades. The two were among the very first to accomplish double crossings of the Canyon and did more exploring up Bright Angel Canyon and its side canyons than anyone of their era. They were early guides for those who wanted to cross and, knowing the canyon wel...
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