Six-day races have been run since the very earliest days of professional running. In 1879, the first two six-day running race was held at Gilmore’s Garden (the precursor to Madison Square Garden) in New York. The concept was borrowed from six-day bicycle races, which were in vogue then. These races are endurance races, where the runners are running on a track and may run or rest as they please throughout the entire 6-day period. Thus, the object is to see how far a runner can go in 6 days of continuous running and resting.

As early as 1881, just two years after the first six-day race, a runner covered 142 miles in a six-day period, but this record was quickly surpassed. By 1888, an Englishman named Charles Rowell had established the world record at 150 miles (and 1/3 mile). In 1889, the record was extended to 150 miles and 1.5 miles by E. Payson Jackson of the United States.

But, the record rose steeply from that early date and, by 1882, an American runner named John Stetson had set the record at 152 miles and 1 mile, and, shortly thereafter in 1883, a Danish-American runner named Oscar Dahlinger had extended it to 152 miles and 3 miles. In 1884, another champion of six-day racing, an Englishman named John Rooney, raised it to 152 miles and 4 miles. In 1885, the record went to 152 miles and 5 miles, and finally, in 1886, an Englishman named George Littlewood set the six-day record at an impressive 623 miles and 1 yard (approximately 623 miles and 3 feet), a record that stood for more than 100 years. Littlewood ran on indoor grass.

Littlewood’s record remained the bar until the 1989 Sixth Continental Race in Tricity, Poland, when the record fell to the Frenchman Yiannis Kouros who covered 635.664 miles. Kouros is the only runner to have put together the most incredible ultradistance running records. His ultra-running career will be discussed further in this issue.

Meanwhile, in 1888, Rowell challenged another Englishman, O’Leary, in a head-to-head match which was held at Gilmore’s Garden in New York. This was one of the most famous of all six-day races. O’Leary was ahead when Rowell tried to run him down. In Rowell’s desperation, he claimed that O’Leary had run twenty miles short, but Rowell’s claim was not upheld. In disgust, Rowell left for England and beat him but he had no money. O’Leary replied sarcastically, “T’ll build you a bridge.” This so nettled Hughes that whenever he talked of O’Leary after this he would always say bitterly, “the rapscallion told me he’d build me a bridge!”

As soon as word arrived of O’Leary’s winning performance in England, Hughes eagerly sought someone to back an attempt to surpass O’ Leary’s sixday effort in the Astl Bellevue Indoor in New York. O’Leary rose to the occasion and once again came out on top. After all the glory, O’ Leary seemed to degenerate from a great runner to a barkeeper, and Rowell seemed to get better his last few years of life, regaining his prestige. In any case, the life of the six-day runner in those bygone years was one of hardship and struggle.

Ed Dodd is a researcher of running history and co-author of Run for the Hills. He has authored numerous articles on the history of running and racing for Marathon & Beyond and other publications. He has run 38 marathons, and presently resides in Longmont, Colorado.