C. C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race cover art

C. C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race

The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America

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C. C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race

By: Geoff Williams
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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About this listen

Audie Award Finalist, History, 2014

Among the runners of C. C. Pyle's First Annual International Transcontinental Foot Race were an assortment of underdogs, including 20-year-old Oklahoman and part Cherokee Andy Payne, who wanted to win over the girl of his dreams and pay off the mortgage on his family's farm; Paul "Hardrock" Simpson, who was in over his head but couldn't let down his North Carolina hometown; Mike Kelly, a luckless boxer from Indiana; Seattle's Ed Gardner, one of four black runners who encountered bigotry; Charles Hart, a 63-year-old Englishman hoping his best days weren't behind him; and Frank Johnson, a middle-aged husband, father, and steelworker from St. Louis who broke away from his humdrum life and dared to do something different.

Newspaper and magazine journalist Geoff Williams details this historic event and the colorful cast of characters involved, based on firsthand accounts of those who were there and interviews from many living descendants. C. C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race is a classic American story so astonishing and surreal that you have to hear it to believe it.

©2007, 2013 Geoff Williams (P)2013 Tantor Americas Running & Jogging Track & Field United States Walking Sports

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Critic reviews

"A breezy, entertaining read that properly balances the runners' integrity with the comedy of errors that was Pyle's grand experiment and his life." ( Publishers Weekly)
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Probably not everyone’s cup of tea but personally I enjoyed it. I liked that it was unusual and ‘quirky’.

Worth Listening To

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Really enjoyed this. A very interesting look into a race promoters life and the wins and losses that come along with it, he didn't sound that nice a guy, but the research that's been done to bring this story to life is excellent and worth a listen to, if only to understand what the runners endured

Well researched, interesting story

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