Ultrarunning History

Connie Gardner, from Akron Ohio, is the 25th person inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame, joining the Hall in 2024. From 2002 to 2012, she was a national champion twelve times at 50 miles, 100 kilometers, 100 miles, and 24 hours. She has finished at least 180 ultras, with more than 80% of them on trails, with nearly 100 wins, including three wins at the prestigious JFK 50 in Maryland. During her ultra career, she established 37 course or event records. She was a member of the U.S. National 100K Team and the U.S. National 24-Hour Team for many years, competing in many World Championships. With a busy family life and children, she didn't start running ultras until her late 30s, but dominated into her 50s. She was named the USA Track and Field (USATF) Ultrarunner of the Year in 2003 and 2012, and the USATF Masters Ultrarunner of the year in 2011.

Learn about the rich and long history of ultrarunning. There are now eleven books available in the Ultrarunning History series on Amazon, compiling podcast content and much more. Learn More. If you would like to order multiple books with a 30% discount, send me a message here.

Constance “Connie” Margaret (John) Gardner (1963-), of Akron, Ohio, was born in Washington D.C. to Dr. James Edward A John (1933-2010) and Constance Brandon (Maxwell) John (1932-1999). Her father was an electrical engineer and president of Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. He worked with the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. where Connie went to elementary school. Her ancestry on her father's side was from Cornwall, England, by way of Belgium and Canada. Her ancestry on her mother's side was Irish.

Even as a child, she was always competitive, trying to reach for lofty goals. She explained, “My brothers and I were always trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records, flying a kite, for three days, playing War for as many days as we could.” Each year, a field day was scheduled at her school. “I was terrible. They wouldn’t put me in anything because I wasn’t very fast. If you weren’t good at anything else, they threw you into the distance run because nobody wanted to do it. So the first year I failed and then I started to train for it. I wanted to do it. I’ve always wanted to see that I could do.” She believed she was a good kid, but got in trouble often with her teachers and sometimes experienced the paddle. She would often run before school to help her focus. “All I needed to do was to run down to the river, watch the sun come up, run home, and go to school.”

High School and College Years

In high school, Connie competed on the girls’ cross-country and track teams at Olentangy High School, in Lewis Center, Ohio. She won all-conference honors, running on the 4X800-meter relay. Her team finished runner-up at the state finals in 1980 and 1981. She said, "I was so focused on running, that my crowd in high school was just my cross country team, so I didn't get in any trouble.  I made sure we wouldn't botch up our chance to win state. At a young age, that kept me on a nice path."

Connie attended Ohio State University and then The University of Massachusetts where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in sports management. While a freshman at age 17, she ran her first marathon at the 1981 Columbus Marathon and finished in 4:11:00. At UMass, she was on the eight-person rowing team for three years but continued running. She would run six miles to and from the boathouse. She ran a lot of 5Ks and 10Ks during the 1980s and a marathon in the fall and in the spring. In 1987, she married Robert Charles Gardner in Massachusetts. They would have two daughters, Abby and Gwen.

Busy Life as a Mom

Connie moved to Portland, Oregon, to attend graduate school. To earn money, she became a bicycle messenger. That unique job helped get her into top physical shape, and she started to run with running groups. As the groups noticed that she would not get t...

By Davy Crockett

Stu Mittleman was the sixth person to be inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. During the 1980s, while a college professor from New York, he became the greatest multi-day runner in the country who won national championships running 100 miles, but ran much further than that in other races. During that period, no other American ultrarunner, male for female, exhibited national class excellence at such a wide range of ultra racing distances. He brought ultrarunning into the national spotlight as he appeared on national television shows and became the national spokesman for Gatorade.

Learn about the rich and long history of ultrarunning. There are now eleven books available in the Ultrarunning History series on Amazon, compiling podcast content and much more. Learn More. If you would like to order multiple books with a 30% discount, send me a message here.

Stuart “Stu” M Mittleman was born in New York City in 1951 to Irving Jacob Mittleman (1924-2009) and Selma R (Mitzner) Mittleman (1929-2023). His Mittleman grandparents were Jewish Russian immigrants who came to America in 1913.

When he was in high school in Dumont, New Jersey in the late 1960s, he was on the track team and ran the mile in 4:39 mile, the half mile in 2:01. He was better at wrestling in which he lettered and was a district champion. At the University of Connecticut, he continued wrestling for one season but switched to long-distance swimming and weightlifting. At Colgate University, he was on the dean’s list and earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts. He earned his master's degree at the University of Connecticut. He was a heavy smoker during school, going through two packs of cigarettes per day.

During the early ‘70s, he became disillusioned with the state of the country during the Vietnam War era and spent time on the West Coast, where he took up running again “for his head.” But while skiing in 1975, he had a terrible fall, tore his ACL and damaged cartilage. He had knee surgery and could not run for five months. When he could run again, he did it for relaxation and to find a quiet time for himself.

Becomes a Marathon Runner

In 1977, he ran up Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder, Colorado and fell in love with running. He went into a running store and asked how he could sign up for the Boston Marathon, three months away. They told him he needed to qualify, so he ran Mission Bay Marathon in San Diego with a qualifying time of 2:46. Early into his dream race at Boston, he was running in a drainage ditch in efforts to pass runners and twisted his ankle terribly. Disappointed, but determined, he tied ice around his swollen ankle and vowed not to drop out of the race. He finished in 4:03. He returned to Boston the next year and finished in 2:31:11. After finishing the New York City marathon six months later in 2:33:00, he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t run any faster, even though he was never tired at the end of his races. “I just started thinking, why did I have to stop? I wondered how much longer I could have run." This thought made him turn to “the longer stuff.

First Ultramarathon

Mittleman was 5’ 8” and about 140 pounds. As a graduate student in sports psychology at Columbia University, Mittleman ran his first ultra in 1978, running 6:11 in the Metropolitan 50 in Central Park, New York. That year the race was poorly organized, and the front-runner went off course, but he placed 8th with 6:13. “I ended up sprinting the last 10 miles and I was hooked.” He liked ultras better than marathons because they were less competitive and they had a friendlier atmosphere.

The 1979 Unisphere 100

With that elite performance, he qualified to enter the 1979 Unisphere 100, held at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York, on a 2.27-mile loop road course around Meadow Lake. This 100-miler was first held in 1978, won by Park Barner in 13:57:36. In 1979,

By Davy Crockett 

During the first half of the 1980s, Bernd Heinrich, of Vermont, was the fastest ultrarunner in America. In 2007, he was the fifth person to be inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. Today, few know of him and his amazing running records and accomplishments. He was unique from most other ultrarunners of his time in that rather than competing in many races, he was very selective in his race choices. When he ran, he had specific goals to win or set records, with laser focused training for these few specific events. Using this approach, he was able to win and set several American records.

Heinrich appeared suddenly on the ultrarunning scene, setting a record in his very first ultra, and he quickly rose to the top of the sport. He was named “Ultrarunner of the Year” three of the first four years of Ultrarunning Magazine's existence. He had a quiet nature and never sought for the running spotlight, but eventually was one of the few to be inducted in the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.

As a boy, Heinrich grew up living deep in a forest in war-torn Germany. In his life priorities, running was secondary to his true love, observing, researching, teaching and writing about nature. During his intense running years, he was able to find a balance to become a world-renowned expert in his professional naturalist career, studying birds, bees, and other animals and insects. Ultrarunning historian, Nick Marshall wrote about Heinrich in 1984, “Often runners don’t know much about the backgrounds of individuals whose athletic accomplishments may be very familiar to them, so it is quite nice to see one of our sport’s star gain recognition as a successful pioneer in a totally unrelated field.”

Learn about the rich and long history of ultrarunning. There are now eleven books available in the Ultrarunning History series on Amazon, compiling podcast content and much more. Learn More. If you would like to order multiple books with a 30% discount, send me a message here.

Childhood in Germany

Forest in The Hahnheide

Bernd Heinrich was born in Bad Polzin, Poland in 1940 to Gerd Heinrich (1898-1984) and Hildegarde Maria (Burovna) Heinrich (1917-2012). His father became an internationally known research biologist and a German pilot during World War I. Near the end of World War II, he and his family fled their large farm near Gdansk to escape advancing Russian troops in 1944 and crossed what would be the future border for East Germany. Henrich recalled, “The times were not easy. The biggest problem was filling our bellies. Papa decided that the best chance of finding food would be in the forest. We came across a large reserve called “the Hahnheide,” and within it a small empty hut used before the war by a nature club from Hamburg. The forester in charge gave us permission to move in. We lived deep in the forest for five years. We had no work and hardly ever any money.” They survived by foraging for nuts, berries, mushrooms, and hunting small rodents and ducks. This experience began his love for nature and was “a rare mix of survival and enchantment.”

Mushrooms in The Hahnheide

Heinrich recalled, “We were totally immersed in nature. Like most animals, our major concern was finding food. I didn’t like picking berries because I had to move so slowly, from bush to bush. I much preferred picking mushrooms when I could run at will through the damp forest, feeling the soft green moss under my bare feet.” Young Heinrich collected beetles and birds’ eggs for his family’s food supply. He became obsessed with the creatures around him. “I had no playmates and never owned a toy. Yet I didn’t feel deprived. Who needs toys after having seen caterpillars from up close and knowing they can turn into moths?”

Heinrich became fascinated with bugs and insects. When he was nine, he drew a birthday card for his father and on the back; he wrote that he had collected 447 beetles of 135 species.

By Davy Crockett

Sue Ellen Trapp was one of the elite women pioneer ultrarunners who burst into the sport in the 1970s. She was the fourth person to be inducted into The American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. She quickly achieved world and American records and showed how fast and how far women could run. With a busy life including her dental practice and family, she rose to the top of the sport twice, after an eight-year ultrarunning retirement, setting world and American records in her 40s and 50s.

Learn about the rich and long history of ultrarunning. There are now eleven books available in the Ultrarunning History series on Amazon, compiling podcast content and much more. Learn More. If you would like to order multiple books with a 30% discount, send me a message here.

Sue Ellen (Hamilton) Trapp (1946-), of Fort Myers, Florida was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were Robert Roy Hamilton (1908-1971), a tool and die maker, and Marie Blanche (Festner) Hamilton (1910-1999). She had a brother, Ross Hamilton (1942-2014) of Chicago. Her ancestors were from Pennsylvania, Germany, Austria, and Denmark.

Sue Ellen and Kristina

In the late 1960s, Sue Ellen went to dental school and married Ronald Edward Trapp (1943-), of Minnesota, who was also a dentist and entered the navy in 1969. He had been a cross-country runner in college. In 1971, Ron was stationed in San Francisco, California, as Sue Ellen was finishing dental school at the University of Illinois Dental School in Chicago. She gave birth to her daughter Kristina Trapp (1971-)  in April while in California, and then graduated from dental school in June.

Ron and Sue Ellen training in 1975

Trapp said that she thought the baby weight would melt off, but it never did, so she took up competitive tennis and swimming, with some running to help her get into shape. Her first road race came in 1971, San Francisco’s 12 km Bay to Breakers. She said, “I thought I’d just try it, and it was awful.” Later that year, the family moved to Lehigh Acres, Florida, a suburb of Fort Myers. She and Ron set up a dental practice together and Ron took up running and tennis, too. Results of her tennis tournaments would appear in the paper and starting in 1975, she was doing well in running races, too. In 1975, Sue Ellen ran her first marathon at Gainesville, Florida, with 4:04, but gained speed quickly. She placed second in the 1976 AAU Marathon Championships in Crowley, Louisiana, with 3:10:32. The two of them won husband/wife division of that championship. That marathon finish qualified her to run the Boston Marathon by 20 minutes.

Trapp won the 1975 and 1976 Melbourne Marathon, in a course record with 3:40:18 and 3:09:46. In 1976, the Trapps started the Rotary 5-miler for Lehigh Acres runners before there was even the Fort Myers Track Club. That race became a 5K and lasted for more than 40 years.

Trapp was one of the very early women to run the Boston Marathon. She finished in 1977 with 3:52:33. She would run that prestigious marathon for several years and brought her time down to 3:00:42 in 1979.

First Ultra

Florida Space Coast 50 km

After stacking up many wins during 1978 of distances from 5 miles to the half marathon, it was time for Trapp to try an ultramarathon. Her first ultra, held on December 30, 1978, was an unusual one. She ran with a field of 54 runners in the Florida Space Coast 50 km, thought to be the world’s longest beach run. At age 32, she was the first woman finisher and the tenth overall, with a time of 4:09:42. That impressive time on such a rough surface, ranked her 5th in the world for the 50 km distance.

1979-1981 – World and American Records

Lydi Pallares running the 100K

In February 1979, Trapp went to run a road 100K in Miami, Florida, with a massive field of 88 runners. It was also the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) National Championship. They ran a 3.3-mile loop in a park 19 times. She was paced by two male members of the Fort My...

By Davy Crockett 

Marcy Schwam (1953-) from Massachusetts, was an ultrarunning pioneer in the 1970s and early 1980s, during an era when some people still believed long-distance running was harmful to women. She won about 30 ultramarathons and set at least six world records at all ultra-distances from 50 km to six-days. She was the third person inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.

She was bold, brazen, with an impressive “get-out-of-my-way” attitude and racing style. She would take command of a race and preferred to lead rather than follow. This courageous attitude also helped to break through the stigma held against women runners of the time. She dared to be the only woman in a race. She inspired many other women to get into the sport and reach high.

Schwam trained hard and raced hard. She always knew what she was doing. Ultrarunning historian, Nick Marshall, observed, “She set lofty goals for herself and she was gutsy enough to go after them with wild abandon. She might soar, or she might crash, but either way it was going to be a maximum effort.”  She thoroughly enjoyed competitive racing, where limits were explored and tested often.

Bronx, New York

Marcy Schwam was born in 1953, in New York City. Her parents, Stanley Schwam (1924-) and Irma (Weisberg) Schwam (1928), were both long-time residents of the City. Stanley worked in the women’s undergarment industry for 57 years. During the 1950s, the family lived in the Bronx but later moved to Valhalla in the suburbs.

Schwam's ancestry was Polish. Her grandparents and her father were Jewish immigrants who came to the United States from Poland during the early 1900s before World War II. They worked hard and successfully supported and raised their families in the big city.

Early Years

At the early age of five, Schwam started to take up tennis and dreamed of becoming a professional tennis player. Her father commented, “Marcy never walked anywhere. She was in constant motion all the time. She was also very competitive. If she lost at Monopoly as a kid, she wouldn’t talk to you for a week.”

In high school, she was very athletic and played basketball, softball, volleyball, field hockey and even lacrosse. She did some running, but it was just a way to stay fit for tennis. To her, there was nothing else in the world that counted except playing tennis.

From 1971 to 1975, Schwam attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) where she eventually received a bachelor's degree in Health and Physical Education. (Later she also worked on a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology at Adelphi University and San Francisco State).  At IUP, She became a member of the tennis team, excelled, and became ranked number one in the state.

First Running Races

Schwam started running some races in 1972 at the age of 21. She explained, “As a sophomore in college in 1972, I ran a 3-mile race in Pittsburgh. I was on the tennis team and a friend on the cross-country team talked me into it. I was running to and from tennis practice and someone dared me to run the Boston Marathon.”

Start of 1973 Boston Marathon

In 1972, the Boston Marathon opened their race to women for the first time. Schwam entered the next year in 1973, a true pioneer women’s distance runner. The Boston Athletic Association sent entrants blue or pink entrant postcards depending on their gender and sent her a blue card with the name Marc. Apparently, they just couldn’t get used to the fact that women were running marathons. It took effort getting that corrected at check-in. She was one of only 12 women to run, finished in 4:50, and said, “I really wanted to prove that women could do these types of things. There was such a stigma about women and long-distance running that needed to be proven false and I took that upon myself to do.”

Competitive Tennis

1973 Tennis Team. Marcy Schwam center kneeling

But tennis was still Schwam's main sport. In college,

By Davy Crockett

Sandra "Sandy" Jean (Mackey) Kiddy (1936-2018) of Rancho Mirage, California was the first woman to be inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. She paved the way for women in ultrarunning setting many of the early world and American ultrarunning records. She was born in Grand Rapids Michigan to Robert B. Mackey (1909-1983) and Marjorie Rosita Montez (1911-1993), Her father's ancestry was from Ireland, and her mother's ancestry was from Mexico.

Sandy and went to Ottawa Hills High School, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she was a member of the Girls' Athletic Association. She had never been very athletic in her youth. She then went to Valparaiso University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Zoology.

In 1962, she married Frederick "Fred" Kiddy, born in Sheffield, England, who became a bank manager. They married in Las Vegas, Nevada, while driving across the country to California. Once in Los Angeles, Sandy worked first at Caltech and then for Microbics at Beckman Instruments, where she patented a number of reagent laboratory tests.

Learn about the rich and long history of ultrarunning. There are now eleven books available in the Ultrarunning History series on Amazon Learn More

Early Running

In 1970, Kiddy at age 30, and Fred, age 34, started to jog to lose weight, running about two miles a day. Fred used to run in his young days while in the service in Germany. After moving to Palm Springs in 1974, she started running with a more serious group of runners who ran 15 mile-runs. She recalled, "I don't remember how long it took us, but we were very excited to have done it. We just sat on the sofa looking at each other, because we were too stiff and sore to move. From that point on, we knew that, that was what we wanted to do."

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 where she broke course records. She next tackled the marathon because the shorter races seemed like a sprint. In her race registrations, she went by "Sandra" because people kept mistaking her name, "Sandy" as belonging to a man. "Three months after that first long run, I tried a marathon. I broke 3:30, which was quite thrilling. I found I didn't like the shorter races much, too much like a sprint, so we stuck primarily to the marathons, doing five or six a year."

Kiddy almost always won among the runners age 40 and over, even including the men. In March 1978, she and Fred wrote into their local newspaper about a 10K with 700 runners that ran down Main Street in Palm Springs. "That your paper gave this event no coverage whatsoever is unforgivable and prompts the question as to what you consider newsworthy. May the curse of Pheidippides be on your circulation."

Marathon Domination

Fred Kiddy, in 1978

Kiddy started running multiple marathons a year. Her first of many wins came in 1978 at Lompro Record-Valley of Flowers Marathon with 3:02:36, running with Fred.  She and Fred trained together and frequently ran together in the races. In 1978, she won the National Masters Marathon with 2:56:45. Fred finished in 2:47. In 1979, she won the Orange County Marathon in 2:58, a new course record. She said, "The course went along a bike path along the Santa Ana River. There were 20-plus bridges you had to go up and under. I was in pretty good shape, but the bridges took their toll." In June 1979, Sandy got her picture in Sports Illustrated, in Faces in the Crowd.

Not only was she winning marathons, but her competitive nature was also in the cards. Her name was in the newspaper many times doing well in Bridge tournaments.

First Ultra

Sandy Kiddy in 1979, after winning a 10.4 mile race in 1:06:03.

Kiddy at age 42, burst on the scene of ultras when she ran in the Southern Pacific AAU 50K at Camarillo, California in 1979. She won and set a world record of 3:37:08,

By Davy Crockett 

50 years ago, on August 3-4, 1974, Gordy Ainsleigh accomplished his legendary run on the Western States Trail in the California Sierra. It became the most famous run in modern ultrarunning history. Initially, it went unnoticed in the sport until several years later, when, with some genius marketing, it became the icon for running 100 miles in the mountains, the symbol for Western States 100, founded in 1977 by Wendell Robie. With Ainsleigh as the icon, Western States inspired thousands to also try running 100 miles in the mountains on trails. Let's celebrate this historic run's 50th anniversary.

History Note: You were probably told Ainsleigh was the first to do this, but he was actually the 8th to cover the Western States Trail on foot during the Tevis Cup horse ride. Others were awarded the "first finishers on foot trophy" two years earlier, in 1972. Also, the sport of trail ultrarunning was not invented in 1974. It had existed for more than 100 years. There were at least eight trail ultras held worldwide in 1974, including a trail 100-miler in England. Previous to 1974, more than 1,200 people had run 100 miles in under 24 hours in races on roads, tracks, and trails, including some women.

Learn about the rich and long history of the 100-miler. There are now three books that cover this history through 1979. Learn More

The Early Years

Harry Gordon Ainsleigh, from Meadow Vista, California, was born in Auburn, California in 1947. He grew up going by the name of Harry. He was the son of Frank Leroy Ainsleigh (1926-2007) who served in the Korea and Vietnam wars, in the Air Force. Frank and Bertha Gunhild (Areson) Ainsleigh (1918-2004) married while Frank was very young. The marriage didn’t work out, and they filed for divorce one month before Gordy was born. He was then raised by his mother (a nurse) and his Norwegian-born grandmother, Bertha Fidjeland Areson (1894-1984), who was also divorced.

Frank Ainsleigh left the home, quickly remarried, and eventually settled in Florida where he raced stock cars and worked in a Sheriff’s office as maintenance supervisor over patrol cars. Bertha Ainsleigh remarried in 1952, when Gordy was five, to Walter Scheffel of Weimar, California. He was employed at a sanatorium. But Gordy’s family life continued to be in an uproar. They divorced less than a year later.

Nevada City

Gordy Ainsleigh spent his childhood years in Nevada City, California, about 30 miles north of Auburn. (This is the same town that seven decades earlier put on a 27-hour race in December 1882, won by Charles Harriman (1853-1919) with 117 miles.) Ainsleigh recalled his first long run as a child. "One day when I was in second grade. I came out on the playground with a bag lunch that Grandma had packed for me, and I just couldn't see anybody who would have lunch with me. I panicked. And I just felt like I couldn't breathe. And I just dropped my lunch, and I ran home for lunch." On another day, he missed the bus for school and didn't want to admit to his mother that he again missed it, so he just ran several miles to the school. He explained, "I came in a little late. The teacher knew where I lived. She asked, 'Why are you late?" I said, 'I missed the bus, so I ran to school." She was so impressed that she didn't punish him.

By the age of fourteen, Ainsleigh started to get into trouble with the law, so his mother decided it was time to move out of town, back to the country. They moved back closer to Auburn, to a small farm near the hilly rural community of Meadow Vista. In junior high school, his gym teacher treated P.E. like a military boot camp with lots of pushups. He recalled, "I'd goof off and he'd make me run. I made sure I wore a real pained expression whenever he could see me. Actually, I was having a good time."  Living on a farm, he grew up among livestock animals, and in 1964 was given an award at a country fair for a sheep.

High School, College,

By Davy Crockett

For most elite ultrarunners, as they reach their mid-40s, their competitive years are mostly behind them. But for Ted Corbitt, his best years were still ahead of him, as he would become a national champion and set multiple American ultrarunning records. Read/Listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of Corbitt's amazing history as he became "The Father of American Ultrarunning."

Perhaps Corbitt's most notable achievements in the sport of long-distance running was his groundbreaking work in course measurements. He said, “My initiating the accurate course measurement program in the USA is easily the most important thing that I did in the long-distance running scene.” He understood that “for the sport long-distance running to gain legitimacy, a system was needed to verify performances, records, and ensure that courses were consistently measured in the correct manner.”

Learn about the rich and long history of ultrarunning. There are now ten books available in the Ultrarunning History series on Amazon Learn More

Course Measurement Standards

Obtaining accurate measurements for courses had been important for over 150 years. During the 19th century pedestrian era of ultrarunning, indoor tracks varied in length depending on the size of the arena. Professional surveyors and engineers were employed to measure the tracks down to the inch. This was important in six-day races as runners would circle the tracks thousands of times and massive wagers were made on how far runners would go.

Mistakes were made at times. In October 1879, a couple weeks after the Fifth Astley Belt race held in Madison Square Garden, won by Charles Rowell (1852-1909) of England with 530 miles, the track was remeasured for another race and was discovered to be several feet short per lap which meant that Rowell actually instead covered 524 miles. The controversy resulted in a lawsuit because the error affected the distribution of enormous winnings earned by the runners. After that debacle, race managers were much more careful about certifying their tracks.

In the 20th century, ultrarunning returned to road courses. With the introduction of the automobile, odometers were typically used. But those devices were rarely calibrated accurately as auto manufacturers liked to have them register more miles than actually traveled. Off-road course measurement was even more difficult. In 1959, a five-mile cross country course was used in the Bronx, New York. A careful remeasurement after the race discovered that the course was short by 490 yards.

Another important example: As the famed Western States Trail was used by the horse endurance race, The Tevis Cup, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and for the early years of the Western States 100 foot race, it later was discovered in the 1980s the course was not even close to 100 miles, it was no more than 89 miles, more than 10% short. It wasn’t initially a 100-mile race.

John Jewell

As Corbitt went to England in the early 1960s to compete in London to Brighton, he became acquainted with John Jewell (1912-2001), a founding member of the Road Runners Club in England. In 1961, Jewell wrote a paper describing the process of road race course measurement in England. He refined a method of using calibrated bicycle wheels for measurement. Jewell measured the London to Brighton course that Corbitt competed on.

Corbitt was convinced that a method of accurate course measurement was needed for America’s long-distance races. He pointed out, “The U.S. has sent marathoners and walkers to the Olympic Games who thought they were in a certain time range, but who in reality were several minutes slower on full length courses. This is unnecessary since it is possible to measure courses accurately." He exported many of Jewell’s ideas, did his own research, and published a historic 29-page booklet in 1964, “Measuring Road Running Courses.” He evaluated all the typical methods of measuring courses and concluded ...

By Davy Crockett

After Ted Corbitt's disappointing 1952 Olympic marathon, he was determined to continue running. (Read Part One). His key takeaway was that he had to elevate his performance by running more often and covering greater distances. But as he continued to push his training, he experienced a series of chronic muscle strains for the next year.

Corbitt was focused on the marathon distance and continued to finish high each year at Boston. He believed that success would require training every day, reaching at least 100 miles per week. His perseverance finally paid off in January 1954, when he emerged victorious in a marathon held in Philadelphia, completing it in 2:36:08. He won again, at the 1954 Yonkers Marathon, considered the national championship, with a time of 2:46:13. He had proven that his 1952 Olympic selection was justified. In 1955, he made the team for the Pan American team in Mexico City but was cut from the team became of lack of funds. It bothered him that some newspapers listed him as a non-finisher in the race. He never started it. Throughout his long running career, he never had a "did not finish (DNF)."

Learn about the rich and long history of ultrarunning. There are now ten books available in the Ultrarunning History series on Amazon Learn More

The 1956 Olympics were to be held in Melbourne, Australia, during the month of December, which caused alterations to everyone’s training calendars. With the goal of making the Olympic team again, he surpassed 5,000 miles in 1956. If the Olympics had been held during the northern hemisphere summer, he would have made the team. But after a six-place finish at the Yonkers Marathon, held during the fall, he fell to the alternate place for the team. Corbitt was obviously very disappointed that he missed being on the ’56 team by just one man. He recalled, “It was like being in mourning.” Still, he never contemplated quitting running. In May 1956, he set the American record for a marathon on the track with 2:42:25 in Philadelphia, and became the U.S. National Champion at 30 kilometers, competed on a one-mile bicycle loop in Cincinnati. He repeated in 1957. Corbitt's future involvement in ultrarunning would take root with the London to Brighton race held in England.

London To Brighton

Ultra-distance races essentially disappeared during the World War II era. In the late 1950s, the modern era of American ultrarunning gave birth. This was largely because of the efforts of the Road Runner Club of America (RRCA) established in 1958, and also because of the efforts of Corbitt.

England took the lead in the 1950s to reestablish ultras, and specifically the 50-miler. The London to Brighton 52-miler began as an official running race in 1951 with 47 starters. It had been a standard point-to-point challenge for both walkers and runners since the first running race held in 1897. Heel and Toe walking races were held for many years on the route during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1951, the London to Brighton running race was established by Ernest Herbert Neville (1883-1972) and the Surbiton Town Sports Club. It would eventually be considered the de facto world championship 50-mile race for several decades.

The Road Runners Club (RRC)

In England, the Road Runners Club (RRC) was founded in 1952 by Neville to help promote London to Brighton and to encourage more long-distance running. “The aim of the RRC is to bring together all those interested in long distance running, to stimulate interest in our great sport, to serve as a forum for all enthusiasts, and to further the interests of road runners everywhere.”

By 1953, London to Brighton got the attention of leading long distances runners from other areas of the world, especially among ultrarunners in South Africa who had been running the Comrades Marathon (54 miles). London to Brighton became the race that the best ultrarunners in the world wanted to compete in.

By Davy Crockett

Ted Corbitt, known as "The Father of American Ultrarunning," was from South Carolina, Cincinnati, Ohio, and New York City. Ultrarunning has existed for more the 200 years, but with the Great Depression and World War II, it went on a long hiatus in America. Because of Corbitt’s efforts, running past the marathon distance took root in the New York City area, starting in the late 1950s.

Not only was he a world-class runner, but he became a talented administrator, and race organizer that made huge contributions toward innovations to the sport, such as course measurements, that we take for granted today. All ultrarunners need to take time to learn who this man was and not let the memory of him fade. He was the first person to be inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. Because of his significance to the sport, this will be a multi-part article/episode. Visit TedCorbitt.com to learn far more about this amazing athlete and man. Also, you can read his official biography by John Chodes: Corbitt: The Story of Ted Corbitt, Long Distance Runner.

Theodore “Ted” Corbitt (1919-2007) was born in Dunbarton, Barnwell, South Carolina, to John Henry Corbitt (1894-1974) and Alma Bing (1895-2003). Dunbarton was a railroad stop town with agriculture as the main focus. His father, John, was a cotton and corn farmer and part-time preacher.

Corbitt’s ancestors from the Corbitt and Bing lines were enslaved in South Carolina for many generations.

Ted's Grandfather, Ezekiel Bing

His grandfather, Deacon Zeek Bing (1855-1938) was born into slavery, also in Barnwell County. In 1860, there were at least 17,000 slaves in the county. Most of them had ancestry from Angola, Africa. Children on the cotton plantations started to work by about the age of five and by 10-12 years old did hard adult work. When freedom came after the Civil War, the hard work as freedmen to survive in South Carolina did not go away.

Ted Corbitt was the oldest child in his family. He later had two sisters, Bernice (Corbitt) Buggs (1926-2006) and Louise Estelle (Corbitt) Fairbanks (1927-2022) and two brothers, Elijah Corbitt (1928-1999), and Henry Corbitt (1924-1925) who died as an infant.

As a youth, Corbitt worked hard on the family farm, which eventually grew to 160 acres. At times, he would pick more than 100 pounds of cotton in a day. He had to walk a total of four miles each day to get to and from his school, using the narrow, dusty roads and trails. His grandfather, Henry Corbitt (1873-) lived nearby. Grandpa Corbitt had good running and jumping abilities as a youth, and he inspired Corbitt with stories of his athletic adventures. The Bings, who were his mother's relatives, enjoyed greater financial success, and his mother's ambition encouraged him to succeed academically and attend college.

In 1929, Corbitt's family relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, when he was about ten years old, due to the challenges of farming in South Carolina. During the Great Depression, they lived in the West End, which was the center of Cincinnati’s black community. The neighborhood had a high concentration of inexpensive housing covering a 35-block area. It was the home to 70% of the city’s black community. Times were very hard. His father worked as a pick and shovel laborer. They lived at 1027 Richmond Street, which is now a freeway (I-75).

Corbitt encountered athletics after arriving in Cincinnati. In junior high, he entered a 60-yard dash and won. As he got bigger and stronger, he became faster. At Woodward High School, he joined the track team. Compared to other high schools in Cincinnati, the school on Sycamore Street had the most inadequate facilities, including the absence of a sports field. It was not until his final year of high school that he really excelled in the 880-yard run. He finished fourth in the city championship.

Tarzan Brown

During his high school years, he saw a newsreel about the native American,