112: Ultrarunning Stranger Things – Part 2: Hallucinations

Ultrarunning History

By Davy Crockett You can read, listen, or watch The sport of ultrarunning during the 19th century was truly filled with tales of strange things that are unthinkable and shocking to us today. This series of episodes presents a collection of the most bizarre, shocking, funny, and head-scratching events that took place in ultrarunning during a 25-year period that began about 150 years ago. The first part covered two strange tales, one shocking and one sad. This episode will report on the “cranky or daffy runners” whose minds turned to mush after several days of running without much sleep. They started to experience hallucinations, doing crazy things, delighting the thousands of spectators who came hoping to watch a train wreck of runners. Please help the ultrarunning history effort continue by signing up to contribute a little each month through Patreon. Signup and get a bonus episode about the first major six-day race held in California. Visit https://www.patreon.com/ultrarunninghistory Cranky Runners For the "pedestrian era" of ultrarunning, more than 120 years ago, spectators hoped to watch a runner go what they called, “cranky” in this reality show. It was said that by hour 36 of a six-day race that runners could be expected to do stranger things as exhaustion and sleep deprivation caused hallucinations. It was explained, “The cranky spell is reached, and the contestants furnish no end of amusement. Their tired brains are in a whirl, and it is only to be expected that the men should act like inmates of a ‘funny house.’” For example, during a 1901 six-day race on a small track in the old city hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Martin Fahey (1857-1937), a Shenandoah miner went cranky and became violent after 150 miles. He demanded that the scorers credit him with a mile every time he completed a lap, probably 1/15th of a mile. “He claimed that the scorer and spectators had entered into a conspiracy to defraud him and was so demonstrative that his trainers found it advisable to take him out of the race.” He was soon fast asleep and put on a train for home. “As the news went out from Old City Hall that the men were going insane from the terrible strain of the race, people flocked to the place expecting to see the men do something violent. The hall was crowded to its capacity by the curious, who one minute sympathized with the men in their apparent suffering and the next minute were moved to laughter by their antics.” Tony Loeslein (1873-1939), a tailor from Erie, Pennsylvania, went cranky after 200 miles, left the track, and went into the crowd. “He asked the spectators to aid him in claiming that his trainers had stolen all his money and clothes. He tried to convince a small group of people that he was a much-abused man, and would have succeeded, had not his trainer arrived on the scene and placed him back on the track, where he continued to run, seemingly well-satisfied.” Missing Runners Runners would at times go bonkers so badly that they went missing. “One of the leaders suddenly stopped and climbed over the rail and ran into the tent of one of the other contestants. He was missed by his trainers who eventually found him and dragged him out, and in a few minutes was back on the track going around as steadily as ever." Frank Hart James Dean, of Boston, Massachusetts, one of the brave black runners of the era was a stenographer. During a race, he suddenly accused his crew of attempting to poison him and then would not accept food from them unless it was first tasted by someone to prove that it wasn’t poisoned. After he reached 412 miles on the last day of his six-day race, he was in a “daffy” condition, and he was taken to the hospital. He then escaped his attendants while in the bathroom. He went through an open window and down a fire escape. St. Francis Hospital “A search was at once instituted and kept up for several hours without finding any trace of the missing racer...