I’ve been posting a little on the history of the 1000 mile race during the Athens World Cup – the earlier posts are here :

1. 1000 Mile Race – a little bit of history…
2. 1000 mile race – a bit more history
3. 1000 mile race history (part 3)
4. 1000 mile history – part 4

I put together a lot of this information from various notes some time ago, adding comments with regard to the current race when posting. I don’t have details of the original sources but I’m fairly sure much of this comes from the work of Andy Milroy.

Last time I closed by mentioning Edward Weston’s 1877 record for the 1000 miles of  16 days 15 hours and 41 minutes.

This record stood (probably unchallenged) for 98 years until it came under fire in 1975 when a road race of 1000 miles too place between two men – the New Zealander, Siegfried  Bauer and the  South African, John Ball.

While the 1000 mile “event” dates back far further, the 1975 clash between Bauer and Ball would appear to be the first recorded 1000 mile “race” in which athletes went head-to-head to try to be the first to finish – the previous records were all set as solo challenges.

Ball and Bauer’s 1000 mile race took place in South Africa with the competitors running between Pretoria and Cape Town.  Ball lead at the end of the 5-day point, but by the 7th day the Bauer had taken the lead and kept it with a finishing time for the 1000 miles of  12 days, 21 hours, 46 minutes, 30 seconds – three hours less than Edward Weston’s time from 1877.

More on the history of the 1000 mile race soon