Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Ultrarunning History
Episode: 99: Six-Day Race Part 7: Weston Invades England (1876)
Description: By Davy Crockett
You can read, listen, or watch
The six-day challenge (running as far as you could in six days) originally started in England during the late 1700s. Fifty years later, in the 1820s, a six-day frenzy occurred as many British athletes sought to reach 400 or more miles in six days (see episode 91). But then, six-day attempts were essentially lost for the next 50 years. Surprisingly, it was the Americans who resurrected these events in the early 1870s and brought them indoors for all to witness.
The Brits believed they owned the running sport and surely their athletes were superior...