Mike McNamara was born in c.1891 and emigrated to New York sometime before 1928.
As a young man in central Queensland, he competed in races from 440 yards to 10 miles.
In 1928, along with 200 other Americans, he contested the Great American Transcontinental Footrace (Bunion Derby) run across America from Los Angeles to New York, via Chicago, to promote the opening of Route 66.
The race started
at Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles and finished in Madison Square Garden in New
York City. 199 runners left Los Angeles, California on March 4th, 1928 at 3:30
p.m. 55 runners finished on May 26th, 1928. Only men were allowed to enter the
race. The race took 84 days to run from coast to coast. The Bunion Derby
followed Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago. From Chicago to New York City
the race ran wherever the promoter, C.C. Pyle, could get the town to pay a fee.
Dr. K.H. Begg, a prominent medical expert, predicted that the race would take
five to ten years off the runners’ lives. The runners ran an average of 40
miles a day, nearly the equivalent of two marathons. The shortest distance they
ran was the first day, 17 miles from Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles to Puente,
California. The longest distance was 74.6 miles from Waverly, New York to
Deposit, New York, the 79th day. The race ran from California through Arizona,
New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
Pennyslvania, New Jersey and New York. The race covered a total of 3,422.3
miles (5505 kms).
A training camp
was set up at the Ascot Speedway on the eastern edge of Los Angeles,
California. Runners were required to report to camp by February 12th, 1928 “for
final conditioning for the race.” It was reported that there were over 400
initial entrants. Fewer than 200 reported at Ascot. When the Official Program
was printed there were 249 entrants listed. On March 4, 1928, when the bomb
went off, there were 199 runners who actually crossed the starting line. The
runners were subjected to a strict training schedule that started at 6 a.m.
After breakfast they ran 25 to 50 miles to prepare for the promised 40 to 75
miles a day. Lunch was served at noon and the afternoon was also devoted to
more training. Dinner was served at 6 p.m. and the runners were allowed to
relax and have their injuries treated before lights out at 9 p.m. The official
program called the arrangements for feeding the runners a “traveling cafeteria
deluxe." They were promised eggs, cereal, toast and fruit for breakfast
and “soup, salad, roast or boiled meat, several vegetables, both cooked and
raw, a dessert and all the milk, tea and coffee desired” for dinner. Harry
Sheare #123, told the newspaper: “Pyle pulled the best one three weeks before
we started. He notified all runners that they must assemble in Ascot Park, Los
Angeles, to train and then for three weeks charged each man 50 cents per night
for bed and 50 cents for each meal.”
During the race
itself, the runners’ time were clocked daily. All runners started at the same
time and they had to reach a designated checkpoint. As each runner crossed the
checkpoint, his time was logged. Each day’s time was added to the last. The
fastest cumulative time would win the race.
Runners who failed
to reach the checkpoint by midnight were disqualified.
In the 1920’s amateur
athletes represented the purity of the sport, and the Olympic games exemplified
this spirit.
The runners who
entered the Transcontinental Foot Race had little concern for their amateur
standing, considering the chance to win $25,000 well worth the loss. To put
things in perspective, the Ford Motor Company was paying factory workers $1,200
per year at the time. The winner’s prize thus represented 20 year’s wages.
The runners ranged
in age from 16 to 63 and came from all over the world. Some of the runners left
jobs to run the race; others ran just to be able to say they did, but for the
most part the runners were men who had nothing to lose.
McNamara ran until
March 15 when he withdrew at Williams, Arizona
“unable to continue”. Interestingly, on March 15 the leg from Kingman to
Peach Springs AZ included a rise in elevation of 2,000 feet. Many runners
withdrew at that point, reducing the field to one half the original numbers.
In the 1929 Transcontinental Foot Race he finished 7th and in the money, with an elapsed time of 627:45:28.
McNamara had met the great South African runner Arthur Newton in the inaugural Trans Continental race. Newton had led the race until March 18 but was forced to withdraw because of a strained ankle and achilles tendonitis.
Newton was a 5 times winner of the Comrades
marathon in South Africa from 1922 to 1927 and was the holder of every amateur running
record from 29 to 100 miles. He was 44 years of age at the time of the first
Trans America Race and was passed up for the previous two Olympic games because
the 26 mile marathon was too short for him.
Newton organised
an indoor track race in Hamilton Ontario Canada in April 1931. In that race, Newton set a new world best for 24 hours of 152 miles
540 yards (245.113 kms).
In the same race, McNamara ran 3:13:29.0 for a new 30 miles and 4:31:31.0 for a new 40 miles world records.