Our own Harriman did 160 miles with only 17 minutes rest in New York, May 10, 1878.
Howes leads the record for one-day walks with 127 miles, and O'Leary tops all the rest up to six days.
Perkins leads the records for one, two and three hours.
Since these records, the "go-as-you-please" race has been introduced, where walking and running are used ad libitum, and the distances gone in given times has steadily risen. George Hazael leads the record with 133 miles in 24 hours, not likely ever to be beaten, and Frank Hart has passed them all, by running 565 miles in six days.
The general excellence of records in these matches steadily improves, and where there were only two men in the first match who made 500 miles or over—Vaughan and O'Leary—we have lately seen no less than eight men beat 500 miles out of a field of sixty starters, and nine men beat 450 miles in the same time.
The total distance made by O'Leary when he won the first match of this sort was 520 miles and a fraction, most of it walked, but since then the runners have passed him beginning with Corkey, who made a fraction of a mile more in less time. Then Blower Brown did 542 miles, and people called him a marvel, till a few weeks later Weston ran 550 miles in the same time. Since that, the limit has been passed by Brown, in the last English match, where he made 553 miles, and by Hart as above. Rowell, the luckiest of lucky pedestrians, who has made an independent fortune out of his two muscular legs, has not had to make any very remarkable records to win the $40,000 that he carried away from Madison Square Garden. He won his first race by 500 miles and his second by a nominal 530, which proved to be only 523 on account of a short track. An overrated man; his successes have arisen from the fact that he has always taken better men than himself at a disadvantage in point of condition, and so has won an easy victory. Before he can be rated as the foremost pedestrian, he will have to beat Hart's best record.
This brief sketch of the records of pedestrianism is given to furnish our readers with a standard of comparison by which to estimate the value of their own performances, and a short abstract of the shorter distances will be found convenient for use.
ABSTRACT.
Ten yards per second has been done by sprinters up to 220 yards.
A mile has been run in 4m. 17s.