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Frank Hart: The First Black Ultrarunning Star – NEW BOOK

New Book!  I’ve started to compile some of my research and stories in books. The first is about Frank Hart (1856-1908) from Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1879, just twelve years after the Civil War ended, Frank Hart of Boston, Massachusetts, became the first black running superstar in history, and the most famous black athlete in America. In a sense, he was the Jackie Robinson of the sport of ultrarunning in the 19th century, overcoming racial barriers to compete at the highest level in the world, in the extremely popular spectator sport of ultrarunning/pedestrianism.

Frank Hart’s full story has never been told before. It is an important story to understand, both for the amazing early inclusiveness of the sport, and to understand the cruel racist challenges he faced as he tried to compete with his feet and sometimes with his fists. He was the first black pedestrian to compete against whites in high-profile, mega-mile races in front of tens of thousands of people.

This biography also presents twenty-three years (1879-1902) of the amazing pedestrian era history as experienced by Hart when ultradistance running was the most popular spectator sport in the country. He competed in at least 110 ultras, including eleven in Madison Square Garden, where he set a world record, running 565 miles in six days in front of tens of thousands of spectators and wagerers.  During his running career, he won the equivalent of $3.5 million in today’s value and lost it all.

Get it on Amazon. Paperback 128 pp. or Kindle version. Loaded with historic pictures.

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My Path to Ultrarunning

The journey to becoming an ultrarunner has many varied paths. I personally never dreamed to be a runner of any kind and in fact most of my life, pretty much despised running. But along these unexpected paths, running somehow evolved. This story is mostly for me, to look back and understand where I came from, but it also may be of interest to others as they too become an ultrarunner.  Perhaps this is my runner memoirs.  It is an attempt to bring together many of my experiences and lessons learned over the years. In 2018 I finished my 100th 100-miler.

Full book, download PDF here: My Path to Ultrarunning  to read off-line. 276 pages, 19 meg. 25,000+ downloads to date.  

To be continued…

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The Maze – Canyonlands – 37 miles

When my backpacking buddies started to discuss a destination for our annual trip, I suggested “The Maze District” of Canyonlands National Park. I knew very little about it, but did know it was very remote and we love hiking in remote areas. The Maze is one of the most remote areas in the United States and among visitors of Canyonlands, only about one percent of the visitors go there and I would bet less than that.

Last week, one of my buddies who is very experienced with off-roading went to investigate and came back with a great report. However accessing The Maze would require hours of very rugged 4wd driving or getting dropped off by boat on the Colorado River. I found a report from some ultrarunners who had run a multi-day 100+ miles there in 2013 so I believed I could access the area by running, without hours of rugged driving on longer routes.

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Zion 100

It has been a long time since I posted a race report on my blog. It’s about time! I recently finished Zion 100 held near Zion National Park. I had finished nine different 100-mile races in Utah but had never run Zion because of conflicts each year.  This year I could finally make it and signed up with a few days to spare.

At the end of 2018, I managed to finish my 100th 100-miler at Across the Years on their flat course in Arizona. But I still was battling a bone injury in my left knee that wouldn’t let me run very long on trails. I could run on the treadmill or on the flats. In February, I attempted running 100 miles at the Grand Master Ultra in Arizona on flat sandy trails but stopped at 75 miles because of crippling knee pain.

I went back to the doctor and had another MRI. He told me he could do another procedure with long healing but either way he said, “you have run your last 100-miler.”  I chose to be patient and hope for further healing. This was the same doctor who in 2003 told me to stop running because of my other knee. That was before I had attempted my first 100-miler, so it has been tough to take his advice.

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Kansas Rail-To-Trails 100

I was privileged to run the Kansas Rails-To-Trails 100 held in eastern Kansas, part of the Kansas Rails-to-Trails Fall Ultra Extravaganza. I ran this race back in 2017, enjoyed the long flat course and was eager to return. It runs on a former rail bed, the 51-mile Prairie Spirit Trail.

But the background story was a long and frustrating one. In February at about mile 65 of Rocky Raccoon 100 in Texas, I felt some unusual sharp injury pain in my left knee and knew that I needed to stop, so I wisely did. After doctors’ visits, the knee was scoped, cleaned out, with no significant problem other than a lot of wear. Five weeks later I started running again but after one long run I came up very lame. I stopped running altogether for months after a second MRI and other treatments. To try to stay in some sort of shape, I started swimming again, which I disliked, and then did a few 80-mile bike rides on a mountain bike which I enjoyed. But it still wasn’t running.

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Additional Site and Podcast

I’ve created a second website: UltraRunningHistory.com to do a podcast and to collect my history-related posts together on one site. I’m enjoying uncovering more untold stories about ultrarunning history and wanted to preserve those separate from my blog, and hopefully gather history items from others.

UltraRunningHistory.com will be the home of my new podcast where I will tell more stories about ultrarunning history and interview some of the amazing legends of the past. The podcast can also be found in iTunes and is called “Ultrarunning History.”  Check it out, I’m trying to make it fun and not just telling facts.

In my introductory podcast episode, “What’s Up With This” I answer questions about my name, Davy Crockett.  What has life been like growing up with a name like Davy Crockett?  I also explain how I got into researching and writing about ultrarunning history and what the podcast will be like.

My personal blog (here) will continue to contain my personal running experiences. My running posts haven’t existed for the past five months because of an injury and surgery on my left knee. The doctor indicated that the surgery was mostly cleanup and smoothing, but after a setback I have not been about to train for about three month. Healing is very slow. There is probably something else going on such as a stress fracture which I know takes a very long time to heal on an old guy like me. I’m trying to be very patient and took up some long biking to help my sanity.  I’m still stuck on 97 100-mile finishes and hope to reach 100 some day.

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Cheating in Ultrarunning

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With recent public cases of ultrarunners being disqualified for cutting courses, there has been many shocked and angry discussions on social media about the topic. I’ve had deep feelings and thoughts on this topic, as I was directly impacted by one of these cases for nearly three years. I’m ready to share some of these thoughts. First, you must understand that cheating in our sport has been happening for decades. Many of us have just ignored it. Some race directors have very quietly disqualified runners caught cutting courses, letting them continue their practices at other races. A few courageous runners and race directors have refused to let these cheaters corrupt ultrarunning competition and have taken the hard road to confront the problem head on.

Cheating in the 1980s

cpCheating reared its ugly head in ultrarunning in the early 1980s. In 1980 an elite 100-mile runner was disqualified for cutting the Metropolitan 50 course in Central Park, in New York City. Allegations were raised by witnesses seeing him cut courses at other races. It was suspected that he had been cheating races for years by cutting courses, skipping loops at night but still getting them recorded, and by other means. This runner’s cheating ways were made public and three years later he took revenge on his primary accuser by assaulting him during another 50-mile race in Central Park. The enraged person came onto the course around mile 9, chased the runner, screaming verbal abuse, and tried to trip the runner multiple times. When that didn’t work he socked the runner hard in the collar bone. The runner went on to finish in 6:14.

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Passing of ultrarunning legend Ken Young

ken3I’m very sad to hear that Ken Young passed away on Saturday.  I wrote the following summary of his running accomplishments in my online book Swift Endurance Legends.

Ken Young, of Petrolia California, was an accomplished runner. But he impacted running in America far more by collecting running results and creating running statistics. He grew up in Pasadena, California and attended high school in Phoenix, Arizona. As a youth he loved running and math. He ran a 10:10 two-mile in high school. In college he quit the cross-country team after one year because of his heavy course load. But in the late 1960s after reading an article about the benefits of running on health, complete with numbers and statistics, it struck a chord with him and he started to run while attending Arizona State University.

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Nick Marshall – 2017 American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame Inductee

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It was just announced that Nick Marshall is the 2017 inductee to the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.  He was one of the elite 100-mile runners in the late 1970s and early 80s. Here is a chapter about Nick from my free online book, Swift Endurance Legends. Nick helped me extensively with this book to help preserve the history of 100-mile ultrarunning.

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Nick at Washington Monument, 3 minutes before his first ultra
Nick at Washington Monument, 3 minutes before his first ultra

Nick Marshall, of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania has finished 100-milers across a span of more than 38 years. In addition to his running achievements, he left a huge mark on early ultrarunning through his efforts as a historian and record keeper.

Nick started running marathons in 1973. He realized that the longer the race, the better he could compete. He said, “I was motivated by a simple curiosity over a basic question: How far can you go?” He set his marathon PR of 2:41:15 in 1975 at the Harrisburg Marathon.

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Running end-to-end-and-back on Union Pacific Rail Trail

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The Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail is an amazing 27-mile smooth trail that starts near Echo Reservoir Dam and travels to downtown Park City, Utah. It is maintained as a state park and is 22 miles of smooth dirt and about 5 miles asphalt pavement.

In 1849, coal was discovered in Chalk Canyon, a community was established, and it eventually was named Coalville. In 1873 a rail line spur was completed from Coalville to Echo to transport coal to the transcontinental rail line. In the mid-1860s, silver was discovered in the canyons near Park City (known then as Parley’s Park City.) The first silver ore was shipped by wagon to Echo in 1871 and then taken by rail to Salt Lake City for smelting.

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Park City Union Pacific Depot

In 1880 the rail line spur was extended to Park City and used to transport silver ore from the mines to the rail line in Echo. In 1927 as construction began on the Echo Reservoir and Dam the rail line needed to be relocated higher. In the early 1960s, skiing took hold in Park City and in 1965 the rail line was used for “Ski Trains” that came from Salt Lake City, to Ogden, to Echo, and then to Park City. The final Ski Train ran in 1971.

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Train on the rails near Echo Dam in 1985. I parked my car exactly here,

In 1989 the rail line was abandoned. The rails and ties were removed and the bed deeded to the State of Utah Division of Parks and Recreation.

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100 miles on a treadmill

 

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The treadmill. Love it or hate it? They were invented back in 1818 to help prisoners cure their idleness. In those early years they were used for punishment and certainly in modern times they are still viewed by many as a way to punish yourself. In the late 1960s, my dad built a treadmill (without a motor) to exercise on. It was an amazing difficult machine to get moving and made no sense to me. Most trail ultrarunners despise the treadmill and consider using them as wimpy when you could be running outside. However many years ago I discovered the value of doing workouts on the treadmill to improve my footspeed and increase my mental strength. I’ve shared my views and experiences in a chapter of my running book at: http://www.crockettclan.org/ultras/treadmill.pdf

The furthest I had previously run on a treadmill in one session was 34 miles in 2013. On that day I hit the 50K mark at 4:31. That run included steep inclines, climbing about 5,000 feet along the way. I knew that some serious ultra long-distance speed was possible on the treadmill but I never was motivated to try running 100 miles on the crazy machine. But in my quest to reach one hundred 100-mile finishes, I discovered a virtual race being organized, the Dreadmill 48. This event allowed the runner to choose any day in December and seek to run 100 miles or more in a 48-hour period. I thought it was a great idea, a way for me to get another 100-mile finish without leaving home. If sucessful, it would be my 96th 100-mile finish.

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Kansas Rails-to-Trail 100

 

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I ran a relatively new 100-miler, the Kansas Rails-To-Trails 100 held in eastern Kansas, part of the Kansas Rails-to-Trails Fall Ultra Extravaganza. The course really intrigued me, running on a former rail bed, the 51-mile Prairie Spirit Trail. There is also a spring edition of this race.

Railroad Depot in Garnett
Railroad Depot in Garnett

In 1867 construction began of a 143-mile rail line running north/south through eastern Kansas and was completed in 1871 connecting a number of small towns. During the 1880s, passengers rode on the train at speeds up to 35 m.p.h. The rail line was active until 1990 when it was abandoned after being sold. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks was granted title in 1992 for a recreational trail. By 2008, a 51-mile stretch of the trail had been developed and named the Prairie Spirit Trail.

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