North American Ultrarunning: A History explores the rich heritage of ultradistance running stretching back thousands of years; the Americas were originally peopled by nomads on foot.

The book documents ultradistance feats by Native Americans, the earliest European explorers and settlers, before recording the growing development of the professional sport in North America in the nineteenth century. This fascinating story continues onwards into the twentieth century to the Pyle Trans-America races and beyond into the more recognisable post-war ultra scene, whilst featuring the ultra exploits of such famous marathon runners as Clarence DeMar, Gerard Cote and Alberto Salazar.

It records the development of an American sport with deep historical roots, basic to human development, enabling runners to experience to some degree the lives of those who lived decades, centuries even thousands of years ago.

About the Author

Andy Milroy is a world authority on Ultra Marathon running. He.has been a long distance running global statistician, historian and writer, for over forty years. He is the British Road Runners Club statistician, he was also a founder of the International Association of Ultrarunners and later Technical Director, overseeing international championships, record keeping and statistics. For over a quarter of a century he has provided a yearly ultra summary and world statistics for the authoritative global athletics annual produced by the Association of Track and Field Statisticians. He has a long standing interest in ultras in North America, writing a monthly column for the US publication, UltraRunning Magazine, for many years. As IAU Technical Director he was involved in the organisation of the World 100km Championship held in Duluth in 1990. Author of “The Long Distance Record Book”, tracing progressive records for events from 10 miles upwards, he also edited ultradistance training books, and was primary originator of the “Ultra Marathon Race Handbook,” the accepted rule book for the sport. Subsequently a founder and Co-ordinator of the global Association of Road Racing Statisticians, he has also led the development of the Annual Marathon Rankings project, producing deep annual rankings for the years 1912-2012 to be extended back to 1900 and beyond. His most recent articles include “The Origins of the Marathon” and “The Universal Ultra” – a history of the 100km event. He is currently working on an updated and consolidated version of his ultradistance training books.

Available HERE for only £2.46