Ultrarunning History
This is a podcast about the history of the sport of ultrarunning. An ultramarathon is generally a race of 50K (31 miles) or more. The sport became popular in the 1980s, but had been in existence since the late 19th century. This podcast will share history and tell stories about ultrarunning history generally before 2000.
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 28 minutes
- Episodes
- 179
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
18: 1,000 Milers – Part 2 – The Barclay Match
Can a person walk or run 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours, doing a mile in each and every hour for nearly 42 days? That was the strange question that surfaced in 1809 in England. In Part 1 of the 1000-mile…
00:32:26 |
Sat 09 Mar 2019
17: 1,000-milers – Part 1
n the 1980s running 100 miles started to become more popular for the non-professional runner to attempt. By 2017 some in the ultrarunning community viewed running 100 miles as fairly common place. In…
00:35:27 |
Thu 14 Feb 2019
16: Western States 100 Beginnings
In Part One I covered the very early history of the sport of endurance riding from 1814-1954 when forgotten individuals established the sport they called "endurance riding" and paved the future for t…
00:29:06 |
Wed 30 Jan 2019
15: Sandra Brown – 200+ 100-milers
In my last episode on 100x100 achievers, I told the story of the eleven runners who had finished 100 100-milers and expressed the likelihood that there were more because of the difficulty of identify…
00:36:34 |
Sun 20 Jan 2019
100 x 100-milers
The sport of running 100 miles competitively has existed for multiple centuries. In the 1800s, the most prolific 100-mile runner was probably George D. Cameron "Noremac" (1852-1922). It is estimated…
00:31:22 |
Fri 04 Jan 2019
13: Endurance Riding – Part 2 (1955-1970)
You might ask, what does the history of endurance riding have to do with ultrarunning? There are many close parallels between these two endurance sports. Ultrarunners should feel indebted to those of…
00:26:23 |
Wed 19 Dec 2018
12: Endurance Riding – Part 1 (1814-1954)
Endurance riding is the equestrian sport that includes controlled long-distance riding/racing. The sport has existed for more than a century in various forms. 100-mile trail ultramarathons, especiall…
00:26:54 |
Sat 08 Dec 2018
11: John Seiler – The Flying Yank (1921-1983)
There is a special breed of ultrarunner that historian Jim Shapiro in 1980 called the “solo artist.” These runners usually had solid ultrarunning abilities, but instead of regularly completing in rac…
00:21:52 |
Thu 22 Nov 2018
10: The Ultradistance Marches (1941-45)
During the World War II period in 1940s, ultradistance races in America totally disappeared. Many of the talented runners turned in their leather running shoes for leather boots and served their coun…
00:21:34 |
Tue 13 Nov 2018
9: The Walkathon of the 1930s
The orginal walkathons were not the relatively tame fundraising walks of the 1970s for causes. Instead these walkathons were brutal endurance events that had their heyday in the mid-1930s. These walk…
00:20:12 |
Sat 03 Nov 2018
8: The 50-Miler History
The fifty-mile race is a distance most of today's ultrarunners eventually run. In 2017 there were about 300 50-mile races held in America with about 16,000 unique finishers. At nearly twice the dista…
00:19:07 |
Tue 23 Oct 2018
7: The 1930 500-mile Peter Dawson Relay
As the Great Depression began raging across the world, race events for professional ultrarunners pretty much dried up in the United States. All professional sports suffered in America during that tim…
00:18:37 |
Sat 22 Sep 2018
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 play…
00:14:42 |
Sun 09 Sep 2018
5: Crossing the Grand Canyon
Crossing the Grand Canyon on foot is something many visitors of the spectacular Canyon wonder about as they gaze across its great expanse to the distant rim. It is an activity that has taken place fo…
00:23:28 |
Thu 30 Aug 2018
4: The 1963 50-Mile Frenzy
Prior to the 1960s, most of the ultrarunners participating in ultradistance races were professionals. It was a spectator sport. The general public never had serious thoughts that they too could run u…
00:16:42 |
Thu 23 Aug 2018
3: Hardrock Simpson (1904-1978)
Paul “Hardrock” Simpson, of Burlington, North Carolina, was an elite colorful, professional ultrarunner of the late 1920s who worked to continue in the sport during the Great Depression. He was one o…
00:18:39 |
Sat 11 Aug 2018
2: Man vs. Horse
For more than a century, people have debated if humans on foot could beat horses. Those on the side of humans argued that over a long enough distance, human beings could outrun horses. It has been co…
00:20:09 |
Tue 31 Jul 2018
1: Padre Island 110-miler 1953-1956
What was the first American ultradistance race in the modern era? Perhaps the answer is the Padre Island Walkathon 110-miler, a three-day stage race that was started in 1953. It may have even been th…
00:25:05 |
Sat 28 Jul 2018
0: Introduction to the Ultrarunning History Podcast
Welcome to Ultrarunning History Podcast. In this introductory episode, you will hear what the podcast will contain and I’ll reveal a little about myself. These episodes won’t be dry history lessons f…
00:12:27 |
Wed 11 Jul 2018
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