![]() Shortly after he was elected, President-elect Kennedy published an article in Sports Illustrated called, “The Soft American,” in which he wrote, “we can fully restore the physical soundness of our nation only if every American is willing to assume responsibility for his own fitness and the fitness of his children. He feared that the future generations would be spectators of sport rather than participants on the field of play because of their lack of physical fitness. Kennedy had campaigned with a goal to improve the nation’s physical health, and once in office he made that a priority. Virtually unnoticed was a small club event run/hiked by high school boys in Maryland that eventually became America’s oldest ultra, the JFK 50. Tens of thousands of people attempted to hike 50 miles, both the old and the very young. like a raging fire that dominated the newspapers for weeks. An unexpected 50-mile frenzy swept across the U.S. The door was flung open for all who wanted to challenge themselves. Kennedy unintentionally played a key role that provided the spark to ignite interest for ultrarunning in America and elsewhere. My New Book! Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History The general public never had serious thoughts that they too could run ultradistances. Prior to the 1960s, most of the ultrarunners participating in ultradistance races were professionals. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | JioSaavn | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:42 - 19.2MB) ![]()
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