If it was 1874 , instead of strike your local baseball diamond tonight , you ’d be grabbing a few friends and head to a competitive walking lucifer . Yes , walk was a national pursuit , accord to author Matthew Algeo : “ watch masses take the air was America ’s best-loved spectator sport . ”
The sport was cognise as “ pedestrianism , ” and Algeo has written an entire Christian Bible about it : Pedestrianism : When Watching multitude Walk Was America ’s Favorite Spectator Sport .
In the 1870s and 1880s , as urban center begin to urbanize , pedestrianism became the hottest just the ticket in town . But competitive walk was not the kind of speed walking marathon backwash we intend of today ; it was purely a feat of endurance . Athletes walked around tracks in a variety of last - man - tolerate demise borderland , walking 500 miles or more at a sentence in arenas like Gilmore ’s Garden ( which would later become Madison Square Garden ) . Like aStephen King novelbefore the fact , it was known as the “ six daylight raceway ” because they walked every sidereal day but Sunday . They had little cots where they ’d rest but only for a few hour a day .
contender would take the air for six day ( no walk on Sundays ) and would sleep a few hours a day on cots
In aninterview with NPR , Alego talks about the contender , which are kind of unbelievably amazing :
[ For ] six - twenty-four hour period walking couple , the rules were pretty simple . They would just represent out a dirt cart track on the flooring of an arena — many of the match get hold of place at the first Madison Square Garden in New York — and the lap was about 1/7th or 1/8th of a mile . And you could only walk six twenty-four hour period because public amusement were prohibited on Sundays . So beginning right after midnight on Sunday night / Monday morning , the Alice Malsenior Walker would set off and they would just keep walking until right up until midnight the follow Saturday .
And then there was Edward Payson Weston , the Forrest Gump of competitive walking :
[ Edward Payson Weston ] was one of the most noted pedestrians of the 19th century . He was … a door - to - door bookseller from Providence , R.I. And … in 1860 , he made a bet with a friend on the presidential election . [ He ] count that Lincoln would lose , and of line he lose the bet . The terms of the wager were that the nonstarter had to take the air from Boston to Washington in 10 Clarence Day to see the inauguration . And Weston did this . It sire much publicity .
After becoming universe champion , Weston walked from Los Angeles to New York along the Santa Fe railroad
Of course , there was the inevitable gambling :
gaming was a big part of the allure , no doubt about it . You could bet on who would be the first footer to drop out of the race , who would be the first walker to , say , achieve 100 miles in a race . There were so many different shipway you could take chances on the walk matches . And so the pedestrian themselves were often susceptible to attractive offer from risk taker to fix races .
Eventually , though , pedal brought down the era of pedestrianism :
In 1885 , an Englishman make John Starley excogitate what is called the safety bicycle . Before the safety bicycle , bicycles were the centime farthings — with the ginormous front wheel and the tiny picayune back wheel . And the penny farthings were n’t very agile or fast , but the safety bicycle , which is the wheel we fuck today , these were much more nimble , much quicker and they were much more interesting to watch subspecies around a cut for six days than the footer just walk .
The matches were so pop that riot would break out as people would ram into the crowded arenas
It ’s interesting to take down that walking for fun or exercise became a bit of a novelty during this time , with walk clubhouse ( “ cast ” clubs ) forming throughout the country . It ’s pretty amazing that there was a period when a gentleman could become illustrious by chug bubbly and pad around a track for a workweek .
Of naturally , this was also a few years before cars would accede the picture and walkers began to be known as “ jaywalker ” as part of acampaign by the automotive industry . But for a few brief , sputter moments , walkers were the land ’s Hero . [ NPR ]
Images ( and wads more on pedestrianism ) atKing of the Peds
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