Daniel O’Leary
The American pedestrianism craze attributable in no small part to the feats of Edward Weston gave the disadvantaged an opportunity to escape their lives of grim poverty. One who seized the opportunity with both feet was a thin, moustachioed Irish emigrant by the name of Daniel O’Leary.
Arriving in New York in 1866 he made his way to Chicago and inspired by the thought that anything a teetotalling Yankee could do, a hard-drinking Irishman could do better, O’Leary hired a roller rink on the West Side of Chicago and announced his intention to walk 100 miles in twenty-four hours. Fortified by iced water and brandy and enduring stifling conditions and a rickety track, he set out at 8.30pm on July 14, 1874 and completed his feat with forty-three minutes to spare. At the same rink a month later he walked 105 miles in 23 hours and 38 minutes.
Stung by Weston’s response to a challenge that he should “make a good record first and meet me after”, O’Leary broke Weston’s record of 115 miles by walking 116 miles in 23 hours, 12 minutes and 53 seconds at a rink in Philadelphia in April 1875 and knocked 2 hours, 28 minutes and 10 seconds off Weston’s cherished record of walking 500 miles in under six days at a rink in his adopted home of Chicago. Over five thousand crammed in to see the culmination of the feat, for which he was presented with a gold medal by the local Irish community.
The Philadelphia Times took note, declaring that “Weston will have to look to his laurels for all of a sudden, in the height of his fame, a competitor spring up who bids fair to throw his best feats into the shade”. O’Leary’s feats were celebrated in a popular piece of doggerel which ran “Attend, you loyal Irishmen, of every rank and station/ I pray draw near and lend an ear in a distant nation;/ with right good will I take my quill, and never shall get weary/ to sing the praise of that noble youth – brave Dan O’Leary”.
Weston had no option but to accede to O’Leary’s challenge and the two met in two competitions to walk 500 miles within six days, the first held in Chicago in 1875 and the second in London in 1877. O’Leary won them both. There was a new champion.
O’Leary won races not only in the United States but also in Canada, France, England, Australia, and Ireland and earned the Astley Belt, awarded to the “Long Distance Champion of the World”. But perhaps his most remarkable feat was achieved at the age of 63 in Norwood near Cincinnati when he attempted the Barclay Match, walking a mile an hour for 1,000 consecutive hours.
Curiously, the medical profession seemed to be unaware of previous successful attempts and part of O’Leary’s rationale for attempting the feat was to disprove the current theory that the body could not withstand such physical strain.
There was something of a carnival air when he set out on September 7, 1907 with the mayor of Norwood joining O’Leary on the first mile and a Miss Pauline Holscher completing two miles for every of his on roller skates. Unlike Barclay, he walked at the top of each hour, reducing his rest time to three-quarters of an hour, and by mile 600 he was reported to be “haggered” and “showing signs of tremendous strain on his nervous system”.
Despite doctors recommending the use of stimulants, he then suffered from a sore left foot, caught a cold, and suffered from bad nose bleeds. Nevertheless, at mile 925 the doctors proclaimed him to be in “first-class condition” considering and on his final day thousands came out to watch.
The carnival vibe was repeated with a ladies’ walking contest, a ten-mile relay walk, and a free-for-all boys’ walk. At the end he had lost 14 pounds in weight but the purse of $5,000 and his share of the “considerable” gate money would have assuaged any discomfort.
As he once said, “I never stay in one place long enough to get stale. Life is always fresh to me. That is my secret”.
