21: Mote Bergman (1887-1978)

After the golden age of Pedestrianism of the late 1800's, a new breed of ultra-distance runners emerged in the early 1900s. Events were few. The world wars and the great depression all but snuffed out their efforts to continue to go the distance, to demonstrate what was possible. It became impossible to try to make a living with their legs. In America, only the most determined runner emerged out of the strife of the 1930s and 1940s to continue their craft into the post-war modern era of ultrarunning. One of these athletes was Alvin "Mote" Bergman.



In 1896 the first marathon was competed in the inaugural Olympic Games at Athens, Greece. The idea was quickly adopted elsewhere and the Boston Marathon soon was established. Other marathons followed and competing at that distance grew in attention. But there were only a small number of runners competing at longer distances such as 50 miles and 100 miles.  The Trans-America races "Bunion Derbies" of 1928-29 did gather together talented runners, but soon America turned their attention to just surviving during the depression.



Without very many ultra-distance professional events to compete in, some of these early ultrarunners used their marketing creativity to transition to "solo artists." Mote Bergman would eventually take this road in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and would become known as "the wizard of the colossal art of walking,” and the “world champion birthday walker,” He was one of the very few American ultrarunners who kept up ultrarunning through the Great Depression, through the World War II years, and went on to span into the modern era. He was likely the first American to walk or run a sub-24-hour 100-miler in the post-war modern era of ultrarunning.