Last time I posted on the history of the 1000 mile race, I briefly discussed the first recorded race.

We’ll pick up the story after this point…

In the dim and distant past, no one talked about “Ultra-runners” or “long distance race walkers” and so on – these terms are relatively new.

Back in the “golden age” of the sport, what we would now call “Ultra-Distance” was referred to as “Pedestrianism”

I don’t think anyone is going to revive the term “Pedestrianism” in the near future, as these days being “pedestrian” is something of a term of abuse, with the implication of being “slow” and “boring” (especially when compared to something “non-pedestrian” like a fast car). Possibly even less appealing to the average ultra-runner is the abbreviation of the term “pedestrian” to “ped”. In say the Victorian period, being a “ped” wouldn’t have had any negative context. These days, some people unfortunately can’t tell the difference between the abbreviations  “ped” and  “pedo”…

“Pedestrianism” reached its peak during and after the time of the Napoleonic Wars. During this portion of “Pedestrian / Ultra-distance” history, 1000 mile events (mainly 1000 mile walks) became relatively common.

At this time one of the aims and feats of the thousand-milers was to cover the distance in 20 days. This became the speciality of the big Pedestrian “names” of the day – such as Crisp, Wilson, Eaton, Stokes and Jones.  George Wilson  and Daniel Crisp particularly increased the daily average covered per day up to 50 miles – a figure that probably seemed nearly unbelievable at the time and yet which we  now see reappearing as the daily minimum allowed in the Athens 1000 mile race.

This does however need a little context. The competitors at this point in the history of the 1000 mile race were mainly walking (not running) the distance.

Even so, it says a lot about the development of the sport during the last 250 years that the “gold standard” of the past has now become the baseline for the 1000 mile event…

More on the history of the 1000 mile event coming up a little later…

All the best,

Shaun