C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Hardcover)

~ Geoff Williams (Author)
Key Phrases: amazing foot race, transcontinental foot race, luxury camper, Bunion Derby, Von Flue, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pyle, a sports agent and promoter, came up with the idea of a footrace (mockingly known as the Bunion Derby) from Los Angeles to New York that promised $48,500 in cash, including $25,000 to the first-place winner. For a $125 entry fee, male participants got the chance for a nice payday while subjecting themselves to harsh weather, primitive housing and Pyle's ego and shady business practices. They also had to run 3,500 miles over 84 days (the equivalent of 40 miles a day) long before comfortable running shoes and sophisticated sports nutrition. Williams, a contributor to Entrepreneur magazine, has evocatively recreated a long-forgotten sports event, mixing colorful anecdotes from the race with vivid portraits of the runners. There's Brother John, a bearded zealot who raced in a sackcloth, and 20-year-old Andy Payne, a part-Cherokee Oklahoman who competed to pay off his family's farm and to win the attention of the girl he loved. What could have been one long injury report or a sappy piece of nostalgic nuttiness is a breezy, entertaining read that properly balances the runners' integrity with the comedy of errors that was Pyle's grand experiment and his life. Photos. (July)
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From Booklist

On March 4, 1928, 199 men set off from Los Angeles on foot. Their destination: New York City. It was the Bunion Derby, perhaps the most grueling contest in the golden age of endurance competitions, an era when dancing, flagpole sitting, eating, and even coffee drinking turned into tests of will. The race was the brainchild of huckster C. C. Pyle, who shares the focus of this fascinating account with some of the racers (especially young Andy Payne, who entered the derby in the name of true love). In a broader sense, though, author Williams tells the story of pre-Depression America, when the world seemed an exciting place, and when the horizon was bright. The race was an exhausting, punishing event (amazingly, more than 50 racers finished it), and Williams recounts the story with gusto, giving us a real sense of the physical and mental toll the competition took on its participants. Pyle comes off as a likable rogue, a classic Roaring Twenties, get-rich-quick kind of guy. The book is like a time capsule—and an extremely entertaining one at that. Pitt, David

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; illustrated edition edition (July 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594863199
• ISBN-13: 978-1594863196
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #486,929 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, fantastic book, August 9, 2007

By	Twin Mama (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This was a wonderful journey---as a reader, if not for all the runners who entered this coast-to-coast run.

In the midst of so many people, and so much information, I appreciate the pacing of the story---how Geoff Williams introduced the many subplots and the many characters involved in those subplots, and then returned back to them throughout the book. Williams has a flair for building suspense, with bits of foreshadowing, so that you feel as if you are traveling along with this wildly diverse band of people.

The book has some truly playful, humorous moments---barely a page goes by without a creative turn of phrase or a well-placed jab at someone or something. At times, I found myself laughing out loud at various images that Williams brought forth. I don't think it's spoiling the plot to reveal that one image that stands out is of the runner who was so famished that he ate a candy bar, wrapper in all, on one especially grueling day.

It was also intriguing to see the backdrop of what was happening in the United States at the time---all of the endurance contests, as the Great Depression loomed on the horizon.

This isn't a book solely for sports fans, though they will certainly appreciate the grit required of the runners and the close involvement of no less a legendary character than Red Grange, "The Galloping Ghost."

More than that, it's a book for anyone interested in learning about this slice of American history, as well as some of those who helped embody this time in our nation's development.

It's best personified in the book's central character: Grange's agent and business partner, C.C. Pyle. Williams rightfully details some of the more dubious aspects of Pyle's background and character, but the author shows fair restraint in portraying the promoter so that he comes across in a balanced, maybe even sympathetic, light.

This is one of those books that you want to savor...as entertaining and intriguing as it was to read, I found myself slowing near the end, not quite ready for it to come to a close. I can only hope that it catches the attention of a movie studio and is converted to the silver screen. The idea isn't far-fetched. C.C. Pyle is a key figure in an upcoming George Clooney movie, Leatherheads, and Williams' treatment of the material certainly lends itself to a movie.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Incredible, May 13, 2009

By	Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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If this didn't really happen, I would never believe this story. People running marathon (or two) races - 25 to 50 miles - every day for months in horrible weather and terrain? It could only happen in the wild days of The Roaring Twenties in which people were obsessed with setting records.

Today, the conditions under which this incredible event took place, would never happen....for humane reasons, alone. Race organizer/director C.C. Pyle would be vilified and probably arrested!

Anyway, if you want to read a fascinating account of the capabilities of the human body and will to endure, this book will keep you riveted to your seat. I still can't believe this race actually happened!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The ORIGINAL "Survivor" tale, December 27, 2007

By	Christopher Barat (Owings Mills, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Everything old really IS new again. The "reality series" of today have nothing on the bizarre endurance contests of the 1920s and early 1930s, which frequently provoked massive media coverage. This book describes one of the unjustly forgotten peaks of this esoteric genre: the International Transcontinental Foot Race of 1928, popularly known as the "Bunion Derby." 199 runners started from California with the goal of reaching Yankee Stadium (later, Madison Square Garden) in New York. Only 50 or so ultimately got there. The event, somewhat haphazardly organized by sports promoter C.C. Pyle, best known as Red Grange's manager, attracted plenty of flakes but also featured some seriously committed long-distance runners. Williams' narrative lays the whole story out for you in gory, blistered, benumbed detail. I could have asked for slightly better writing in a technical sense, but the tale is quite fascinating and will keep your attention till the end.