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Podcast: Ultrarunning History
Episode: 60: The 100-miler: Part 7 (1930-1950) Wartime 100-Milers
Description: By Davy CrockettÂ
After decades of 100-mile races, matches and successful finishes in less than 24 hours before 1930, the Great Depression turned ultrarunnersâ attention to more important matters â surviving. Opportunities to earn a living as a professional runner dried up as public interest waned. Memories of past accomplishments and records faded. Occasionally the newspapers would pull out of their dusty archives a story about Edward Payson Westonâs walking wonders which was treated as âbelieve it or notâ oddities, rather than something that others could accomplish.
But the spark of running or walking 100 miles on foot still smoldered during the next two decades...