By Davy Crockett 
Both a podcast episode and a full article

There is a special breed of ultrarunner that historian Jim Shapiro in 1980 called the “solo artist.” These runners usually had solid ultrarunning abilities, but instead of regularly completing in races, they used their abilities to accomplish stunts. This was done to garner attention from spectators and fans and to gain income and sponsorships. Solo artists would always invent and claim “world records.” They had creative nicknames and their marketing people would prop them up as being the “world's greatest runner.” Solo artists have always existed in ultrarunning and still exist today.

In the 1920s and 1930s as professional running races were drying up, many of the ultrarunners of that time used their creativity to become a solo artist. They did various stunts and accomplished numerous point-to-point "journey runs” to claim “world records” or what today we call a “fastest known times” for a runs between cities. Some of the solo artists fabricated their accomplishments to bolster their running resume. Reporters at the time just believed and published what the runner or their manager would say about them without any verification. Fabrication of accomplishments even happens today.

Many of these solo artists were fascinating charismatic characters who had impressive running abilities and accomplished many outlandish stunts. One of these amazing characters was “The Flying Yank,” John J. Seiler (1903-1983) of Brooklyn, New York. He would leave a lasting impression on tens of thousands of fans and young high school students by putting on entertaining running stunts, organizing city hikes, and giving interesting lectures on fitness and health. 

Young Runner Emerges

John Seiler said that as early as sixteen years old, he started to do long journey walks. He came out of nowhere and said he was a "champion pedestrian." He claimed that in 1919 at the age of 16 he had walked from New York to Los Angeles, 3,500 miles on the Lincoln Highway, in three months, twenty days, beating Edward Payson Weston’s mark by 13 days. He also claimed that he had walked from Boston to Jacksonville, Florida in 24 days, slicing seven days off the “record.” He said he had run from New York to Philadelphia, a distance of 106 miles in 24 hours.

Were all these accomplishment true at such a young age? We will never know for sure. In 1921 at the age of 18 he claimed to have walked from Brooklyn, New York to Houston, Texas, taking a round-about route for a distance of about 2,500 miles. Newspapers found him in various cities along the way. By stitching those stories together, he traveled at a believable rate of about 28 miles per day. But in later years he claimed that he covered the entire distance in only 44 days which was an impossibility at that pace. This was the first clue that perhaps some of Seiler's claims were grossly exaggerated.

The Flying Yank of Tampa, Florida

In 1921 at the age of 18, Seiler claimed that he walked from Brooklyn, New York to Tampa, Florida, starting with only $10 in his pocket. He wanted to go to Tampa to put on running exhibitions. In Tampa, he started going by “The Flying Yank,” and had a vision of touring the country performing running stunts. He wisely sought to hire a manager and eventually did.

 

In November, 1921, Seiler put on a creative walking exhibition around a half-mile track at a baseball game in Hillsborough, Florida. He didn't just walk, he had a fascinating gimmick. A reporter wrote, “Seiler flew, turning around as he went and pacing backwards just for the fun of it, changing his stride and otherwise giving the fans in the grandstand some new wrinkles in what our heels and toes are for.” He made it around each lap in 4:30. He claimed that he was the amateur champion of the United States in heel and toe walking, but he wasn’t. He said that he could walk backward from second base to home plate in a “record” 13 seconds.