Here’s a little background to the Trans USA record. If anyone can fill in any gaps or make any corrections, then please do.
The first Trans Continental races were held in 1928 and 1929 between New York and Los Angeles. They were contested over 84 and 79 days respectively.
In 1960, Patrick Moloney and Mervyn Evans walked from San Francisco to New York in 66 days. That same year, Barbara Moore made the first Female Crossing in 85 days.
Don Shepherd ran 73 days in 1964.
In April 1969, a 32 year old Brit called Bruce Tulloh set off from Los Angeles with the aim of beating Shepherd’s time. His running cv included a 4 minute mile and a Gold Medal in the 1962 European 5000 metres, but no ultra distance races. He suffered a tonne of injuries, but overcame them to cover the 2876 miles to New York in 64 days. He wrote a book about the run called ‘4 million footsteps’
In August 1971, Marvin Swigart set off from San Francisco, covering 3290 miles to New York in 62 days. Originally from Iowa, he moved to live in Colorado after the run. He died in 2016 at the age of 76.
In April 1972, John Lees, an accomplished race walker from Hove in England, set off from Los Angeles and walked to New York in 53 days. This is apparently still the record for walking the whole distance.
In August 1977 Tom Mc Grath, an Irishman who had emigrated to the USA, claimed a solo unsupported run of 53 days from New York to San Francisco. He apparently still runs the Black Sheep Bar on 3rd Ave, New York.
Stan Cottrell claimed a 48 day run from New York to San Francisco in June-July 1980. He kept a logbook and took photos but his run wasn’t widely accepted in the ultrarunning community because of doubts over his ability and some claimed race results which turned out to be fake. Guinness believed him though and gave him the record
Jay Birmingham ran LA-NY unsupported in 71 days in 1980. Either this run or Tom Mc Grath’s must be the unsupported record.
Frank Giannino ran 46 days from San Francisco to New York starting September 1980. He kept logbooks, took photos and his family were his support team. Frank’s claim was generally accepted by ultrarunners although some did question it. He had a 1:12 half and a 2:35 marathon to his name but no ultra racing experience except for a claimed 60 day crossing the year before.
Interestingly, Frank finished his run at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge rather than going North to cross at Fort Lee and finishing at the City Hall. Guinness accepted his claim and gave him the record, despite their own City Hall to City Hall rule. (or maybe they hadn’t brought that in yet?)
The Guinness definition of the record is bizarre to say the least.
Any route on roads that can legally be run on joining New York City Hall and the City Hall of a City on the West Coast. The run can be in either direction but the total distance must be at least equal to the distance from Los Angeles to New York (City Hall to City Hall)
So two obvious choices are: SF to NY (3067 miles) or LA to NY (2850 miles and less climbing). The SF-NY route has arguably become the standard at least for the men (Frank, Marshall and Pete) whereas the LA-NY route is where the current Guinness accepted female record was set. (Guinness say 68 days by Mavis Hutchinson in 1978, even though Lorna Michael did 63.5 days in a documented race! (1993 Trans-Continental).
Marshall Ulrich ran as close as possible to Frank’s route (3067 miles from San Francisco to New York City Hall) in 2008 and holds the Vet 50 Male record. He carried a SPOT Tracker.
Pete Kostelnick as we all know, ran 42 days in 2016 to take the Male Record. He carried a tracker and a GPS watch whose data was uploaded at the end of each day. The tracker gave real-time positioning and the GPS watch with its cadence and heart rate data provided an additional level of proof. Pete’s method has become the current ‘gold standard’ of record keeping.
If anyone can add anything to the above (eg any information on Helmut Schieke’s supposed 59 day crossing in 1971, or Gordon Brooks’ 53 day run in 1974) then that would be great.
I can’t say how many of the above crossings are genuine as this event has always been controversial. Tom Bassano claimed a 48 day run in 2008, which was not widely accepted. Reza Baluchi claimed a 43 day run in 2009 which wasn’t either. (He was later arrested by the coastguard whilst off the coast of Florida in a giant plastic bubble, I kid you not). Let’s not even mention Rob Young...