Super pedestrian.

t’s called multiday racing today. However, 150

years ago it was called long-distance pedestrianism,

and the man who inspired the blue-ribbon event in

the sport, the six-day race, was the then-incredibly

famous American “walkist” from Providence, Rhode Island, Edward Payson Weston.

The world-famous sporting superstar was just

40 years old in 1879 when, for the first time in his

professional career, he actually ran to claim a world

record of 550 miles in six days around an eight-lap-to-the mile sawdust track at the Agricultural Hall, London, to win the Astley Belt.

By December 1, 1888, that world record had been broken many times.

“Blower” Brown, of Fulham, England, added three miles in 1880. Frank Hart, aka “Black Dan’ of Boston, Massachusetts, upped the tally to 565 soon after. Then Charlie Rowell, the Englishman, who had made $50,000 by winning two races at Madison Square Garden, New York, in 1879, banked even more money when he added a mile to Hart’s score later that year. The “Cambridge Wonder” (Rowell) wasn’t in the race when John “The Lepper’ Hughes made it 568 in 1881, nor when the “Brooklyn Cobbler,” Robert Vint, ran 10 more miles to make 578 in the same year. The Irishman, Patrick Fitzgerald, would add his name into the record books with 582 before George Hazael, an Englishman, became the first person to break the 600-miles-in-six-days barrier. That was achieved at Madison Square Garden in 1882. Fitzgerald would reclaim the honor with a staggering 610

Philadelphia made mincemeat of that score with a staggering 621 3/4 miles. His name was Jimmy Albert.

But could it be beaten? Well, yes, it could!

The man who would eventually accomplish the feat was George Littlewood, and this is the story of how the “Sheffield Flyer” managed to add two more miles to that total and keep the world record for almost 100 years!

George was born on March 20, 1859, in Rawmarsh, Yorkshire, England. He moved to Attercliffe, a suburb of Sheffield, seven miles away, when he was 2 years old, where his father, Fred, a useful runner in the local pedestrian events, took his son to the well-attended races where the runners were handicapped according to previous performances. Betting was common and the thousands that turned up to watch them perform would wager on their fancied athletes who battled it out for cups, medals, ornamental belts, and prize money. Fred was a short-distance runner, and George probably was excited at watching his dad winning a race and even more excited when he was hoisted above the crowd that was cheering his victory.

Like father, like son

Dads, being dads, will always urge their kids to perform well in sports that they are good at themselves. Fred was no exception. He wanted George to be better than he was, so he pushed him from an early age to succeed in a professional sport in which, if you were really good, you would be handsomely rewarded.

As a schoolboy, George excelled in other sports, including boxing, cricket, and wrestling, but it was in the field of athletics that he showed the most aptitude, especially running and fast walking.

Sheffield is surrounded by beautiful countryside and, in particular, moorland, where, at the age of 8, the young lad was encouraged to run alongside the hounds in local hunts by his father, who would watch from a distance as his son, possibly wearing breeches, a white collarless shirt, and jockey cap, pursued a fox with other boys, men, and riders on horses.

George’s training regimen was meticulously planned by Fred. It was both daunting and vigorous. Attercliffe was an industrial area where steelworks were in abundance. A canal runs through its heartland, and the towpath adjacent to it would have been the perfect place to put the budding champion through his paces.