6: The Last Day Run (1965-1972)

For the common man, we frequently make history without knowing it at the time. As years pass, one can look back and discover that certain events, which at the time seemed insignificant, actually played an important part of history. Such events weren’t forgotten or pushed aside, their stories just had not been told.  Such is the case with the “Last Day Run.”



Ultrarunning existing in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The participants were mostly professionals who performed for spectators. As the Great Depression hit, events for professional ultrarunners dwindled and dried up in America. But rising from the tragedy and ashes of World War II, ultrarunning events slowing appeared again, but this time for amateurs looking to test their endurance.  They were first hiking events such as the Padre Island Walkathon (110 miles) of the 1950s in Texas, and the JFK 50 starting in 1963 in Maryland. But soon running events surfaced and the term "ultramarathon" was first used around 1964.



Absent in the pages of very early American ultrarunning history is the story of the “Last Day Run.”