Ultrarunning History

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 millio...

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 t...

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 hard...

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 t...

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...

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 spor...

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...

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 Tarahu...

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...

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, Colorad...

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...

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...

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 unpa...

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 o...

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 Blac...

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 No...

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...

You can read, listen, or watch “Prof” Thomas Henry Cureton (1875-1957) of Williams, Arizona, was a significant Grand Canyon rim-to-rim contributor. Through his selfless service in the 1920s, he passed on the love of the inner Grand Canyon to a generation of youth who lived at the doorstep of the Canyon. Over several years, he guided about 50 youth across the Canyon and back, teaching them minimali...

By Davy Crockett You can read, listen, or watch Running the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim and back is one of the ultimate experiences for ultrarunners. Before the Grand Canyon National Park was established in 1919, there were several individuals who helped to bring attention to the wonder of the world and set the stage for rim-to-rim travel in the future. In 1913, getting to the North Rim from Utah was...

By Davy Crockett You can read, listen, or watch Read the full story of Frank Hart in my new book: Frank Hart: The First Black Ultrarunning Star By late 1892, many of the original six-day professional pedestrians had left the sport, using their winnings to establish other careers, some of them pursuing illegal activities. Frank Hart had another terrible health scare during a six-day race in Wiscons...

By Davy Crockett You can read, listen, or watch Read the full story of Frank Hart in my new book: Frank Hart: The First Black Ultrarunning Star By 1888, Hart had competed in about 30 six-day races in nine years. He had reached 100 miles or more in about 40 races and had so far won at least 30 ultras. Perhaps because of his color, he had not been given enough credit as being a dominant champion dur...

By Davy Crockett You can read, listen, or watch Read the full story of Frank Hart in my new book: Frank Hart: The First Black Ultrarunning Star Frank Hart’s life in 1883 was at a low point. He had squandered his riches and damaged his reputation as a professional pedestrian. He was viewed as being hot-headed, undisciplined, and a womanizer. His wife and children were no longer being mentioned as b...

By Davy Crockett Thomas Joseph Osler (1940-2023) of Camden, New Jersey, was a mathematician, former national champion distance runner, and author. His published running training theories have made a deep impact on distance running for multiple generations. His book, Serious Runner’s Handbook became a classic book on running. He was the first to verbalize in a way that was really understandable to...

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 in Tennessee was conquered for the first time in six years. Laz (Gary Cantrell) blew the conch shortly before 9 a.m., on March 14, 2023, signaling to the competitors that they had one hour to prepare for the start. At 9:54 a.m...

By Davy Crockett  Both a podcast episode and a full article Get my new best-selling book about the history of crossing the Grand Canyon This is an encore episode. The 2023 Barkley Marathons is underway. The Barkley Marathons, with its historic low finish rate (only 15 runners in 30 years), is perhaps the most difficult ultramarathon trail race in the world. It is held in and near Frozen Head State...