From the When It Rains, It Pours Department: After years of very few volumes about the famed 1928 “Bunion Derby” footrace across America, two remarkably comprehensive books are released three months apart.
The first was “C.C. Pyle’s Amazing Foot Race” by Geoff Williams. The second is “Bunion Derby” (256 pages, University of New Mexico Press, $24.95) by Charles B. Kastner.
Williams’ book about the 3,400-mile ultramarathon from Los Angeles to New York City (much of it on Route 66) in 1928 is briskly paced and highly readable (review here). Kastner, who’s written for a number of running
magazines, has produced a book that’s not quite as entertaining, but fills in gaps about the Bunion Derby’s remarkable history.
For instance, Kastner’s volume contains the actual list of all 55 of the race’s finishers and the elapsed times of the top 10 (winner Andy Payne of Foyil, Okla., completed it in about 573 hours). There’s a list of all 199 starters, including their race numbers and hometowns. Kastner devotes several pages to the mostly forgotten 1929 footrace, which actually boasted more drama but, regrettably, no prize money. An appendix includes a short history of professional long-distance running.
With more than 40 pages of notes, Kastner’s research is admirable but occasionally proves to be his undoing. He sometimes shoehorns in facts so incongruous or trivial that they disrupt the story’s flow. And despite his obvious diligence, a few errors slip into the book. Rogers County in Oklahoma is misspelled, and few who have ever seen Tucumcari, N.M., would ever describe the flat-topped mesas surrounding the town as “jagged peaks.”
But despite those flaws and a somewhat sluggish start, the story of the “Bunion Derby” becomes far too interesting to remain boring for long. The runners faced a cross-country gantlet of exhaustion, primitive roads, injuries, racism, horrendous weather, speeding cars and organizer Pyle, who became too cash-strapped to provide even basics like sleeping arrangements and decent food. Add the drama of an unknown farm boy like Payne who becomes an unexpected contender, and you have a story that should have been made into a Hollywood film years ago.
Williams’ compelling writing in “C.C. Pyle’s Amazing Foot Race” wins the battle of the Bunion Derby books. But Kastner’s volume is more than readable, and will prove valuable to future historians.
Recommended.