Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:35 — 41.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | JioSaavn | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More
By Davy Crockett
The 100-miler! Running or walking 100 miles in one-go is an amazing accomplishment. Unfortunately, some people of today still mistakenly believe that the 100-miler was invented in 1974 when a man without his horse ran 100 miles. Contrary to the cunning marketing hype that has been spread for decades, the history of the 100-miler ultra on all surfaces started long before that year. The sub-24-hour 100-miler was accomplished by hundreds of people before that famed journey in the California Sierra in 1974. In April 2020, Runner’s World magazine erroneously called that run “The First 100-mile Ultra.”
The “mile” measurement has roots back to Roman times. The statute mile, a British incarnation in 1593, became adopted in the United Kingdom and later also by the United States. It should not be too surprising that walking and running, specifically the round number of 100 miles came out of Great Britain and America.
The concept of walking or running extreme distances has taken place for thousands of years in many cultures, motivated mostly to relay swift communication between settlements or armies. Historic stories have been found regarding distances that were further than 100 miles such as Pheidippides’ run from Athens to Sparta in 490 B.C., a distance of about 153 miles.
In more recent centuries, “running footmen” were used by aristocrats to deliver letters. In 1728 it was reported that Owen M’Mahon, an Irish running footman covered 112 mile in 21 hours running from Trllick to Dublin. Attempts to walk 1,000 in competition started as early as 1759 in England.
But what about achieving the round-number distance of 100 miles? When did the 100-mile quest begin and how did it evolve?
Marcy Schwam, from Massachusetts, was an ultrarunning pioneer in the 1970s and early 1980s, during an era when some people still believed long-distance running was harmful to women. She won about 30 ultramarathons and set at least six world records at all ultra-distances from 50 km to six-days. At one point she ran 100 miles faster than any woman had ever run that far.
Charlie Trayer, of Reading, Pennsylvania, was one of the greatest “short-range” American ultrarunners of the 1980s. During his ultrarunning career, he accumulated at least fifteen ultra wins from 1981-1990, including several national championships. He was known for bolting out into the lead like a “wild banshee” at the start of a race with a “kamikaze attitude” no matter what the distance. It was a winning strategy that he used very effectively.
Park Barner of Pennsylvania was one of the greatest American ultrarunners of the 1970s. He was the first competitive American ultrarunner to become broadly known outside the ultrarunning community. He was shy, disarmingly humble and a man of few words. He avoided the spotlight, never was a self-promoter, and was known for his relentless metronome pace rather than speed.
Believe it or not, races across the Grand Canyon used to be conducted for hikers and runners. Early on, they occurred with the approval of the National Park, but in later years they were held contrary to rules set forth by the park. Eventually underground races or large commercial rim-to-rim hikes became a point of controversy and outsiders commented that rim-to-rim hikers and runners were turning the Grand Canyon into their own private sports arena for a day.
For veteran rim-to-rim hikers and runners, they still call this place fondly, “The Aiken Home.” Yes, a couple lived there and raised three children in the depth of the canyon for more than three decades. The Aiken family made a deep impact on rim-to-rim history by helping, greeting, and even feeding thousands of visitors over the years. Bruce Aiken managed the crucial water system at nearby Roaring Springs completed in 1971, and Mary Aiken taught and raised their children and assisted hikers.
Who were the Aikens? How did they come to live in the Canyon? What was it like for three energetic children to spend their childhood in the Canyon away from many modern conveniences and “normal” entertainment and childhood friends? What was life like for them? Their tale is now almost forgotten, and evidence that they lived there has been replaced by a rest area and ranger station. But when I visit that amazing spot (nearly 40 times), I always think about the Aiken family and visualize the unique family that lived there for so many years.
As the Grand Canyon entered the 1940s, the corridor trails were in place along with the Black Bridge across the Colorado River, making rim-to-rim travel on foot possible. By the early 1960s, a few daring athletes were hiking or running rim to rim in a day and even a few completing double crossings in a day. Credit goes to Pete Cowgill (1925-2019) and his Southern Arizona Hiking Club from Tucson, Arizona, who demonstrated to all that crossing the Canyon on foot in a day was not only possible but was an amazing adventure.
This is the second part of the Rim-to Rim story. 
Phantom Ranch was established in the early 1900s. The same tourist continued, “It is beautiful down here now in the dusk with the towering cliffs above and a mountain brook singing along in front of my cabin, and the weather at least 20 degrees warmer than up on the rim, where the ground is covered with snow. After a hearty, well-cooked beefsteak dinner, I am settled in a one-room, stone walled, cement floored cabin, with a roaring fire in a cute corner open fireplace.”