By Davy Crockett
I was sad to read today that ultrarunning pioneer Sandra Kiddy passed away on September 16, 2018 at the age of 81.
When Sandra Kiddy of California was in her 30’s, in 1970, she and her husband, Fred, started to jog to lose weight, running about two miles a day. She had never been very athletic in her youth. After moving to Palm Springs in 1974 she started running with a more serious group of runners. Eventually her group got her interested in road racing. Her first race was in 1976 at the age of 40. She ran a couple short races, but quickly tackled the marathon because the shorter races seemed like a sprint.
Sandra (called Sandy by her friends) started running multiple marathons a year. Her first win came in 1977 when she won the Orange County Marathon in 2:58, a new course record. Not only was she winning marathons, but her competitive nature was also in the cards. Her name was in the paper multiple times doing well in Bridge tournaments.
Sandra at age 42 burst on the scene of ultras when she ran in the Southern Pacific AAU 50K at Camarillo, California in 1979. She did well, very well, in fact fantastic! She won and set an American Record of 3:37, beating the current record by three minutes.
Throughout her ultra career, Sandra continued to race marathons. She said, “After I began running farther than the marathon, I would use races for speed work. I have done speed work on the track, but I preferred races where refreshments were available and the excitement of the race made me work harder.”
You might ask, what does the history of endurance riding have to do with ultrarunning? There are many close parallels between these two endurance sports. Ultrarunners should feel indebted to those of the endurance riding sport who had the vision to establish some early trail 100-milers for runners. The trail 100-miler inherited many of the same procedures of aid stations, course markings, trail work, crews, medical checks, cut-off times, and of course the belt buckle award. 
Endurance riding is the equestrian sport that includes controlled long-distance riding/racing. The sport has existed for more than a century in various forms. 100-mile trail ultramarathons, especially the Western States Endurance Run, Old Dominion 100, and Vermont 100 can trace their roots to endurance riding. Other trail 100s that emerged in the 1980s were also influenced by endurance riding practices.
There is a special breed of ultrarunner that historian Jim Shapiro in 1980 called the “solo artist.” These runners usually had solid ultrarunning abilities, but instead of regularly completing in races, they used their abilities to accomplish stunts. This was done to garner attention from spectators and fans and to gain income and sponsorships. Solo artists would always invent and claim “world records.” They had creative nicknames and their marketing people would prop them up as being the “world’s greatest runner.” Solo artists have always existed in ultrarunning and still exist today.
During the World War II period in 1940s, ultradistance races in America totally disappeared. Many of the talented runners turned in their leather running shoes for leather boots and served their country in war. But as servicemen, there were many endurance activities that took place both on the bases and on the battle field.
Read the article here.
The fifty-mile race is a distance most of today’s ultrarunners eventually run. In 2017 there were about 300 50-mile races held in America with about 16,000 unique finishers. At nearly twice the distance of a marathon, it truly involves a different approach than running a marathon both mentally and physically. 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.