In 1867 a man named Edward Payson Weston made a bet of $10,000 that he could walk from Portland, Maine, to Chicago, Illinois. According to the rules of the bet, he had to cover the 1,326 miles in 26 days. He was followed by judges riding in horse-drawn carriages. Weston won the bet by taking 25 days and 22 hours, thus barely beating the deadline.
In 1909 Weston declared that he would walk from New York to California, a distance of 3,895 miles. He did it in 104 days. And then he beat his own record by walking back from California in only 77 days.
When he made his double cross-country hike, Weston was 70 years old.
From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Payson_Weston
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