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By Davy Crockett
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Perhaps this is the tabloid episode of 19th century pedestrianism. In the late 1800s, ultrarunners (called pedestrians back then), both male and female spent a prolonged time away from their homes and families as they traveled to compete in races across American and in England. As with other professional athletes and celebrities, even in our day, love scandals would at times emerge that made for popular gossipy news stories. Many of these ultrarunners/pedestrians became instantly wealthy and had numerous adoring fans and friends who wished to be part of this new wild free-spending lifestyle. Some of these love scandals were covered in newspapers all over the country.
| Get Davy Crockett’s new book, Frank Hart: The First Black Ultrarunning Star. In 1879, Hart broke the ultrarunning color barrier and then broke the world six-day record with 565 miles, fighting racism with his feet and his fists. |
On April 24, 1897, ultrarunning/pedestrian champion Alice Robison was running in second place on the last day of a three-day race held at the Fifth Street Rink in East Liverpool, Ohio, with five runners. She was very intent on catching her long-time friend who was a few laps ahead of her. Needing a rest, she retired to her room provided at the Hotel Grand next door.
By 1906, when the pedestrian era was over, most of the elite pedestrians turned to legitimate professions to support their families. 
Today’s ultras usually have few disruptions from outsiders or spectators. The most serious disturbances are typically from people who take down course flagging which can cause runners to go off course, potentially putting them in serious danger. But during the era of ultrarunning more than 120 years ago, with thousands of spectators watching exhausted runners go in circles for six days, strange disruptions were commonplace. During high profile races, squads of policemen were required to keep the order. This is the fourth part of the Ultrarunning Stranger Things series. See 
Sadly, some professional walkers and runners from the “pedestrian” era, more than 120 years ago, became afflicted by mental and physical illness during and after six-day runs, likely caused by the powerful drugs and stimulants that were used at the time, and also due to mental stress breakdowns. Enormous pressure was put on them by their financial backers to be successful. Their “trainers” or crew would at times resort to measures that would have long-term effects on the health of their runners to get a short-term financial windfall. Not only would they load their runners full of stimulants, but would use cruel methods to keep them awake, including sticking needles in their skin, whipping them, and waking them up with very loud horns.
The sport of ultrarunning during the 19th century was truly filled with tales of strange things that are unthinkable and shocking to us today. This series of episodes presents a collection of the most bizarre, shocking, funny, and head-scratching events that took place in ultrarunning during a 25-year period that began about 150 years ago.
On March 3, 1879, at the Fifth Regiment Armory in New York City, during Peter Van Ness’ attempt to walk 2,000 half-miles in 2,000 consecutive half-hours, one of the most shocking events in ultrarunning history took place. Van Ness, sleep deprived, drunk, and in intense pain, got hold of a gun and shot his trainer, Joseph Burgoine, in the arm, next took a shot at his manager, Simon Levy, grazing his silk hat. Panic resulted among the spectators. It could have resulted in mass murder. How could this be?