Pedestrianism was a 19th-century form of competitive walking, often professional and funded by wagering, from which the modern sport of racewalking developed.

18th- and early 19th-century Britain

During the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, pedestrianism, like running

Running

Running is a means of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. It is simply defined in athletics terms as a gait in which at regular points during the running cycle both feet are off the ground...

 or horse racing (equestrianism) was a popular spectator sport in the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

. Pedestrianism became a fixture at fairs – much like horse racing – developing from wagers on footraces, rambling, and 17th century footman

Footman

A footman is a male servant, notably as domestic staff.-Word history:The name derives from the attendants who ran beside or behind the carriages of aristocrats, many of whom were chosen for their physical attributes. They ran alongside the coach to make sure it was not overturned by such obstacles...

 wagering. Sources from the late 17th and early 18th century in England write of aristocrats pitting their carriage footmen, constrained to walk by the speed of their masters' carriages, against one another. By the end of the 18th century, and especially with the growth of the popular press, feats of foot travel over great distances (similar to a modern Ultramarathon

Ultramarathon

An ultramarathon is any sporting event involving running longer than the traditional marathon length of .There are two types of ultramarathon events: those that cover a specified distance, and events that take place during specified time...

) gained attention, and were labeled "pedestrianism".

Distance feats and wagering

One of the most famous pedestrians of the day was Captain Robert Barclay Allardice

Robert Barclay Allardice

Robert Barclay Allardice , the 6th Laird of Ury, generally known as Captain Barclay, was a notable Scottish walker of the early 19th century, known as the celebrated pedestrian. His most famous feat was the walking of in 1000 hours for 1000 guineas in 1809...

, called "The Celebrated Pedestrian", of Stonehaven

Stonehaven

Stonehaven is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 9,577 in 2001 census.Stonehaven, county town of Kincardineshire, grew around an Iron Age fishing village, now the "Auld Toon" , and expanded inland from the seaside...

. His most impressive feat was to walk 1 mile every hour for 1000 hours, which he achieved between the 1 June and the 12 July 1809. This feat captured the imagination of the public, and around 10,000 people came to watch over the course of the event. During the nineteenth century, attempts to repeat this particular athletic challenge were made by many pedestrians including the renowned Ada Anderson who developed it further and walked a quarter-mile in each quarter-hour over the 1,000 hours. Another popular goal was for competitors in long distance walks to walk 100 miles in less than 24 hours, from which they earned the nickname "Centurians

Centurion (racewalking)

The Brotherhood of Centurions is a club for which racewalkers are eligible who have completed a distance of 100 miles in Britain within 24 hours...

". Enormous cash prizes were offered for these races and they were a popular activity for the press, crowds of working class spectators, and the betting public until the 1880s.

Growth and controversy

Interest in the sport, and the wagering which accompanied it, spread to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, Pedestrianism was largely displaced by the rise in modern spectator sport

Spectator sport

A spectator sport is a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its matches. For instance, Tennis, Rugby, F-1, baseball, basketball, cricket, football , and ice hockey are spectator sports, while hunting or underwater hockey typically are not...

s and by controversy involving rules, which limited its appeal as a source of wagering and led to its inclusion in the amateur athletics movement—and eventually the creation of racewalking.

Heel-to-toe rule

Pedestrianism was first codified in the last half of the 19th century, evolving into what would become racewalking, while diverging from the long distance cross country fell running

Fell running

Fell running, also known as mountain running and hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty...

, other track and field athletics, and recreational hiking

Hiking

Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...

 or hillwalking

Hillwalking

In the British Isles, the terms hillwalking or fellwalking are commonly used to describe the recreational outdoor activity of walking on hills and mountains, often with the intention of visiting their summits...

. By the mid 19th century, competitors were often expected to extend their legs straight at least once in their stride, and obey what was called the "fair heel and toe" rule. This rule, the source of modern racewalking, was a vague commandment that the toe of one foot could not leave the ground before the heel of the next foot touched down. This said, rules were customary and changed with competition. Racers were usually allowed to jog in order to fend off cramps, and it was distance, not code, which determined gait for longer races. Newspaper reports suggest that "trotting" was common in events.

Heyday

This longer form of "ultra marathon" walking was especially featured in the popular press, and in the decade after the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 in the United States was a source of fascination. Edward Payson Weston

Edward Payson Weston

Edward Payson Weston was a notable pedestrian, who was largely responsible for the rise in popularity of the sport in the 1860s and 1870s.-Biography:...

, a reporter for the New York Herald

New York Herald

The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...

 won a $10,000 prize by walking 1,136 miles from Portland, Maine, to Chicago in thirty days in 1867. In the United States a series of Women's competitions were staged, special indoor tracks were built in some towns, and intra-community long distance Pedestrianism came into vogue. Along with sensational feats of distance, gambling was a central attraction for the large, mostly working-class crowds which came to Pedestrian events.

In the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, member of Parliament Sir John Astley founded a "Long Distance Championship of the World" in 1878, run over six days, which became known as the "Astley Belt Races". While marking a peak in press coverage of such races, the Astley Belt Races also allowed a wide interpretation of rules, with trotting, jogging, and even some running allowed. In part, this competition was inspired by a desire to clean up the perception of the sport as corrupted by gambling interests, and this led to a push amongst some to codify Pedestrianism as an amateur sport. This was the same process happening to British track and field athletics which eventually gave rise to the Modern Olympic Movement.

Amateur sport and racewalking

Walkers organised the first English amateur walking championship in 1866, which was won by John Chambers, and judged by the "fair heel and toe" rule. This rather vague code was the basis for the rules codified at the first Championships Meeting in 1880 of the Amateur Athletics Association in England, the birth of modern athletics. With football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

, cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 and other sports codified in the 19th century, the transition from professional pedestrianism to amateur codified racewalking was, while relatively late, part of a process of regularisation occurring in most modern sports at this time.

This codified racewalk was included when the International Olympic Committee

International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...

 formed in 1893. In the 1904 Olympic Games the "all-rounder" event, father of the decathlon

Decathlon

The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin . Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not...

, included an "800-yard walk". It was only in the unofficial "Interim Olympic Games" of 1906 that racewalking became a separate event and since the 1908 Olympic Games in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, it has been an official event in every summer games.

Foot racing

Foot racing was a form of competitive running and walking of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Usually it involved feats of endurance which would now be classified as ultramarathon

Ultramarathon

An ultramarathon is any sporting event involving running longer than the traditional marathon length of .There are two types of ultramarathon events: those that cover a specified distance, and events that take place during specified time...

. It evolved into pedestrianism.