Most of the early races were competed indoors on small tracks by professional pedestrian walkers who also competed in six-day events. They were conducted in various circumstances, indoors, outdoors, tracks, roads, in loops, and point-to-point. But it wasn’t until around 1870 that 50-mile races started to be held regularly. Worldwide, competing for 50 miles on foot had been around, as far back as the 1820s. Also around that time it was said that Foster Powell, from England ran 50 miles in seven hours. In 1787, Reed, of Hampshire, England, walked 50-miles on the sands of Weymouth in a little more than nine hours. It was won in twelve hours by a runner from what now is southern Netherlands.

“Anciently” in 1592 a footrace of just over 50 miles was held in northern France. But just as 100-mile races in America did not originate with Western States in the 1970s, the 50-miler did not originate with the JFK 50 in 1963. When did the 50-mile race begin? Early classic American 50-milers include: the JFK 50 starting in 1963 in Maryland, the Metropolitan 50 starting in 1971 in Central Park, New York City, the Lake Waramaug 50 starting in 1974 in Connecticut, and the American River 50 started in 1980 in California. Ultrarunning legend, David Horton once wrote, “Most ultra-runners, me included, consider that real ultras are 50 miles or longer.” Since the 1960s, the shorter distances (50K, etc.) were typically used by aspiring ultrarunners to train for completing at the 50-mile distance. At nearly twice the distance of a marathon, it truly involves a different approach than running a marathon both mentally and physically. In 2017 there were about 300 50-mile races held in America with about 16,000 unique finishers.

The fifty-mile race is a distance most of today’s ultrarunners eventually run. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | JioSaavn | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More By Davy Crockett Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:07 - 20.2MB)

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