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Podcast: Ultrarunning History
Episode: 101: Six Day Race Part 8: First Women's Race (1876)
Description: By Davy Crockett
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In early 1876 while Edward Payson Weston was taking on England in storm, embarrassing the British long-distance walkers and runners in the first six-day race in that country (see episode 99), the six-day race continued to be of growing interest in America, this time among women! Some in the press called these female wonders, “Pedestriennes.”
Was America truly ready to accept that idea that women could walk or run for days, for hundreds of miles? Obviously, there were strong cultural beliefs during the era that it was improper for women to participate in dist...