The
Events and Performances that have shaped Ultrarunning
Ultrarunning has been shaped by a whole series
of events and performances over the
years, some of which when they were run did
not seem that significant
or important. With the benefit of hindsight
such marks can be seen to
have
pioneered new areas of the sport, or
to have delineated how the
sport was viewed by outsiders, or to have
determined how it was to
develop
subsequently.
The earliest beginnings of the sport are not
clear. The transitional
period between covering great distances on
foot as a normal part of
everyday life, and the challenge of covering a
specific distance in a
specific time
was long and blurred.
THE FIRST 100 MILES IN 24 HOURS
The first time that 100 miles/160km was
covered in 24 hours in
competition seems to have been in 1762 when Briton John Hague did so
in 23 hours 15 minutes, although obviously
other individuals
achieved
such a feat in undertaking the delivery of messages and the
like earlier.
FOSTER POWELL - THE FIRST ULTRA STAR
However, the first of the ultra stars was the
Briton Foster Powell . He
gained fame when he walked from London to York
and back in 1773, some
396 miles/637km in 6 days.
This feat was undertaken for a wager of one
hundred guineas. He had great success as a professional ultra
performer or pedestrian, improving on the
London to York feat on a
number of occasions, as well as tackling point
to point challenges of 100
miles or more. Although Powell was primarily a
walker, it was allowed in
those days to run to ease stiffness etc so his
progress can best be
described as go-as-you-please.
THE INFLUENCE OF CAPTAIN BARCLAY
The next significant performance was Captain Robert Barclay Allardice's
1000 miles in 1000 hours (a single mile
completed in each of 1000 consecutive
hours) in 1808 at Newmarket in England. This
performance was to make a
profound impact on the sport, and
variations on the "Barclay
Match" were to
be attempted throughout the
century, one of the greatest exponents
being William
Gale in 1880. It was attempting variations on Barclay’s feat that brought Ada
Anderson, one of the great women pedestrians of the late
nineteenth century, to the public’s
attention.
Barclay had a profound impact
on athletics generally and his
training methods, involving purging and
sweating, and the eating of
meat, were widely used throughout much of the
century.
EDWARD PAYSON WESTON OPENS THE DOOR TO THE 6
DAY CRAZE
The sport was to be re-invented by the next
feat to capture the public
attention. American Edward Payson Weston succeeded in
covering 500
miles in 6 days in 1874, an accomplishment
which had previously eluded
the great ultra performers of the nineteenth
century. Weston’s
competitions with Daniel O’Leary to cover 500 miles or better in 6
days
were to develop into the era of professional pedestrianism across the
English speaking world and beyond, with
serious international
competition for substantial prize money
attracting top athletes into
the sport.
Amateurs were also inspired to set up their own ultra
competitions, though these only went as far as
24 hours.
CHARLIE ROWELL AND THE 24 HOURS
One of the great figures to emerge in this 6 day era was the Briton,
Charlie Rowell. Rowell
would run hard for the first three days of such
an event and thus dominate the race from thereon. In February 1882 he
set out to produce the definitive 6 day performance. He went through
100 miles in 13:26, covered 150 miles/241km in
24 hours, and 258 miles/
415km in 48 hours. In the coming years of the
new century, it was his
performances
at 100 miles and 24 hours which were to be targeted,
though both marks were to last close to fifty
years.
THE FIRST AMATEUR LONDON TO BRIGHTON RUNNING
RACE
Frank Randall’s win in the first London to
Brighton running race in 1899
provided a vital link between the
pedestrianism of the Victorian Era and
the developments that were to come in the
1920s. It was his performance in that race,
and that of Len Hurst’s run of 1904 that was
to be later targeted by
Arthur Newton and subsequently Hardy
Ballington.
THE
COMRADES AND ARTHUR NEWTON
The 6 day craze did not last long and by the early years of the
twentieth century the event had ceased to exist.
The sport was to
re-invent itself, as it had before. Memories
of covering great
distances on foot once more inspired
competition. South African Vic
Clapham recalled the forced marches of the First World War and
thought
it feasible that runners could cover the 50
mile plus distance from
Pietermaritzburg to Durban. In 1921 the first
Comrades Marathon race was
held, but it was to be the second race, held
the following year, that was
to have a real impact. Arthur Newton came onto the scene and won the
race
by over twenty minutes.
It has been said that the Comrades made
Newton, and Newton made
the Comrades. His commonsense training,
compelling motivation and
the fact he took time to specialise in
Ultrarunning meant that he
swiftly became regarded as "the athletic wonder of his
age". His
success in setting world road bests at 50 and
100 miles in Africa, led
to his travelling to Britain to set new marks
there. His success, and
his subsequent professional career resulting
from the American
Transcontinental races, gave
him the authority to ensure the wide
dissemination of his ideas
on covering great distances on foot.
Subsequently, after the Second World War he
was to be one of the major
driving forces behind the birth of the Road
Runners Club in Britain,
which did much to develop the sport,
particularly through the
organisation of the London to Brighton from
1952 onwards.
THE IMPACT OF THE “TRANS-AMERICA” RACE VETERANS
1928 saw the first professional Trans-America
race organised by C.C.
Pyle. This event and the subsequent race in
1929 created a nucleus of
highly trained ultrarunners who, despite the
fact that their own impact
on the sport was to be dissipated by the
Depression , were to inspire and
coach the leading endurance runners in the
middle years of the 20th century.
THE PIONEERS OF MODERN WOMEN’S ULTRARUNNING
It is hard to pin down the next crucial
performance. Over the years from
1912 to 1934 there were a whole series of
ultra performances by women
which probably
inspired one another. In 1912 Eleanora Sears covered
110 miles in 39 hours in California. Sears
came from an affluent family,
and was a great sporting pioneer across a
whole range of sports, from
tennis to horse riding. In
1920 a British woman, Miss W. Green,
complete with coat and cloche hat, walked the
50 miles of the Manchester
to Blackpool event in Britain. In 1923 a South
African typist, Frances
Hayward, ran the Comrades in 11:35. In 1926
Eleanora Sears walked from
Providence to
Boston in just over eleven hours, a feat she was to
improve on several times. In 1928 she walked
the 74 miles from Newport
to Boston
in 17:15. In 1932 and 1933 Geraldine Watson ran the Comrades,
and in 1934 she covered 100 miles in 22:22.
These early performances
were well reported in the newspapers of the
time, and almost certainly
Sears and Hayward were the inspiration behind
Watson’s feats.
These pioneering performances made it clear
that the ultras were an area
of human activity which women could successfully
contest. This was in
contrast to
track and field competition, where the longest women’s
running event was the 100 metres until 1948.
It was not until 1960 that
the 800 metres was open to women in the Olympics, the 1500 metres
had to wait until 1972, and the women’s
marathon appeared only as recently as 1984.
THE FIRST ULTRA OF THE MODERN ERA
After the Second World War, in September 1946,
Canadian Norman Dack
won a 50 mile race in Finchley, North London,
England. This race was
significant in that it was the beginning
of a whole series of British
ultra races over the next thirty years, usually held in London, which
were to revolutionise the sport. Many amateur
track marks, dating back to the
heighday of the 6 day races in the nineteenth
century, were modernised.
The Finchley race was also significant in that it was held on a
loop
course. This was a major change from the earlier point to point events,
and was an indicator of the future development
of the sport.
THE IMPACT OF THE FIRST MODERN LONDON TO
BRIGHTON RACE
The next significant performance was the win
by Lewis Piper of Britain
in the 1951 London to Brighton. Intrinsically
Piper’s performance was
not noteworthy, but by establishing that
British runners could
successfully contest the Brighton distance,
his win ensured the race
would be put on again the following year. To
do that, the Road Runners
Club [RRC] was formed, and a great force for
the future development of
Ultrarunning was created.
THE FIRST MODERN 24 HOUR RACE
In 1953 Wally Hayward, the great South African
ultrarunner, came over to
Britain. His main aim was to break the London
to Brighton record, which
he did. After breaking the Bath Road 100 mile
best, he was then
persuaded to stay on to
contest the Motspur Park 24 Hours. The
previous
24 hour race of note had
been held indoors in Hamilton, Canada in 1931
to enable
Arthur Newton to surpass Charlie Rowell’s 150 miles of 1882.
Thus it can be seen
that the 24 hours had a very brief
history. Despite
inexperience in the event,Hayward managed to
grind out 159 miles/
256km. His mark was to be the start of the 24
hour event in its modern
form.
THE BIRTH OF EUROPEAN 100KM RUNNING
100km walking races had been held for many
years, and the
inaugural Biel 100km race in 1959 in
Switzerland was just another such
race. However in 1960 it was changed to a go
as you please race, and the
first of the European 100km running races came
into being. These races
were to develop the 100km as an event, though
it was not until the mid
1980s that accurate measurement of such course
became the norm. From
these events the World 100km Challenge was to
emerge. The fact that such
races often had generous time limits, some as
great as 24 hours, opened
up the sport to a much wider spectrum of
competitors.
WOMEN CAN RACE ULTRAS!
American Natalie Cullimore’s 50 mile run in a
world best time in California in
October 1970 did much to change the
perceptions of both men and women as
to the capabilities of latter in ultradistance
events. This was
reinforced the following year when Cullimore
ran a world best 16:11 for 100 miles at
the same venue.
THE BEGINNING OF THE WESTERN STATES AND
TRAILRUNNING
In 1974 Gordie Ainsleigh found himself without
a steed in the annual
horse race from Lake Tahoe to Auburn in
California so he decided to run the
course on foot. From this run developed the Western States
trail 100
miler, which has done much to develop to the
sport of Trailrunning in
the United States, which in turn has created
interest in the trail
events elsewhere in the world.
MODERN MULTIDAY BEGINS
In April 1975 Siegfried Bauer of New Zealand
and John Ball of South
Africa took
part in a 1000 mile race from
Pretoria to Cape Town. Bauer
won a close race in 12d21:46:30 and thus began
the history of standard multiday
races in the twentieth
century.
WOODWARD & RITCHIE: THE
100KM BECOMES A MAJOR EVENT
The 100km track record was 6:59, the actual
distance covered in the
European 100km races was unknown. At Tipton, England in 1975 in a track
100 mile race
Cavin Woodward went through 50 miles in 4:58:53, becoming
the first person to break 5 hours for the
distance. He then clocked
6:25:28 for 100km, taking half an hour off the
previous best. He then
`hung on’ for a further 38 miles to set a new 100 mile best of
11:38:54. With this single, dazzling
performance, he opened up a whole new
way
of looking at the longer
ultras, and he also revolutionised the status of the 100km.
It was now a serious
footrace. This fact was underlined three years later when Don
Ritchie broke Woodward’s
record with 6:10:20. That mark still stands as
the absolute best for the event.
- AND
FOR WOMEN TOO!
In 1976 Christa Vahlensieck of Germany, former
holder of the fastest
time for the marathon, ran 7:50 for 100km. In
the early ‘80s another
former marathon record holder, Chantal
Langlace of France, ran under
7:30 twice on uncertified courses. These
performances by world-renowned marathon
runners
again added to the stature of the 100km as an
event for both men and women.
MASS PARTICIPATION IN ULTRAS
The growth of distance running in the 1970s
was to be echoed in the
ultras. In 1976 the JFK 50 mile, with over
1,700 entrants, had a larger field
than any American
marathon. In 1978 the Comrades had over
2000 runners for the first time
[2,721 finishers], however
such mass participation was to develop slowly
elsewhere in the world.
THE REVIVAL OF THE 48 HOURS AND 6 DAYS
Chinese-American Don Choi's pioneering work in
multiday races in 1979
and 1980 in California opened up a whole new
branch of the sport.
Without his organisational and athletic
efforts, there would probably be no present day
48 hour or 6 Day races. He was also to win the first
1000 mile road race on a loop
course held later that
decade.
THE 24 HOURS COMES OF AGE
The 24 hours came of age as a competitive
event in 1981. Perhaps the
event which crystallised this was the international track race held
at
Lausanne in Switzerland where Jean Gilles Boussiquet of France
covered 169 miles/272km to set a new world
best, becoming the first human
to sustain a consistent running pace
through the entire 24 hours.
THE MODERNISATION OF THE 48 HOUR AND 6 DAY
The former glories of the 6 day event began to
emerge when Briton Mike
Newton became the first man to cover 500 miles
/800km in a modern 6
day race at Nottingham in November 1981. Five
months later he took the
modern 48 hour race best to 227 miles/365km.
This marked the start of
rapid development in the `new’ events - the
following year Tom O’Reilly
took the 6 day total to 576 miles/927km, and
Jean Gilles Boussiquet the
48 hour to 235 miles/379km.
MAJOR PRIZE MONEY ENTERS THE MODERN SPORT
1983 saw a major injection of prize money into the
sport when the first
Sydney to Melbourne race took place. The race
saw an unexpected win for
61 year potato farmer, Cliff
Young, with a 58 year in second place, George
Perdon. The performances of
Young and Perdon showed that older runners
could be very effective in
multiday races.
THE SPARTATHLON AND YIANNIS
KOUROS
Also in 1983 the first
Spartathlon from Athens to Sparta in Greece
was held. The
experienced
ultrarunners agreed to allow the
entry of a late entrant, a local
Greek.
He won the race so
decisively that questions were raised as to the legitimacy of his
run. These questions were later
answered emphatically. The runner’s name was
Yiannis Kouros.
THE 19TH CENTURY PEDESTRIAN
RECORDS ARE SURPASSED AT LAST
1984 saw
Charlie Rowell’s 48 hour mark
surpassed after 102 years by
Ramon Zabalo of France,[260 miles/420km] and
then George Littlewood’s 6
day mark was finally beaten by Yiannis
Kouros.[635 mile/1022km]
THE BIRTH OF THE WORLD 100KM CHAMPIONSHIPS
In 1987 the first World 100km was won by
Domingo Catalan of Spain. The
venue was one of the major European 100km,
Torhout in Belgium. From this
beginning, year upon year would develop the
World 100km Challenge, around
which the world ultra calendar is now built.
THE START OF INTERNATIONAL 24 HOUR
CHAMPIONSHIPS
1n 1990 the first 24 hour international
championships was held at Milton
Keynes, in Britain, thus establishing the
global championship status of the
second of the two standard ultra events.
THE WORLD 100KM COMES TO NORTH AMERICA
In 1990 the World 100km left Europe for the
first time and came to North
America. The race was held in Duluth, at the
Edmund Fitzgerald 100km, and was
to mark the first national
team competition in the World 100km.
AGE IS NO BARRIER
In 1993
51 year old Sigrid Lomsky of
Germany ran 151 miles/243km to
set a new absolute world record in
winning the European 24 Hour Challenge.
Her performance had a huge impact
on older runners. It changed the way that
people approaching the age
of 50 viewed their potential. American
Sue Ellen Trapp,
already a world-record
setter in her prime, was inspired to set
new world bests at 48
hours while over the age of
50, and Frenchman Roland Vuillmenot ran 6:43
for 100km as a 50-year old.
Briton Stephen Moore's performances have
subsequently shown
that ultrarunners could produce international class performances
consistently when over 50.
A WOMAN CLOSES IN ON SEVEN
HOURS FOR THE 100KM
Later that year American Ann Trason set a new
world 100km best of
7:09:44, ushering in the possibility of a
woman running under seven
hours for the event. She came very close to
making this a reality two
years later at Winschoten when she recorded
7:00:48 in winning the World
100km Challenge by over a half hour.
WORLD 100KM TRAVELS TO ASIA
1994 saw the World 100km event travel to Asia
for the first time when
the race was held at Lake Saroma in Hokkaido,
Japan. Almost overnight,
Japan blossomed as a new force in the sport.
KOUROS EXTENDS THE LIMITS OF HUMAN ENDURANCE
1997
saw the culmination of a series of successful attempts by
Yiannis Kouros to extend the
limits of human endurance at 24 and 48 hours. He
ran an inconceivable 188 miles 1038 yards/ 303.506km more than 7
consecutive
marathons at an average pace
of 3:21 per marathon. A year earlier he
had set the
current 48 hour best of
473.797km/294.4 miles.
