One of my all-time favorite little-known runners is Mensen Ernst. Ernst lived from 1795–1843 and was one of the first professional runners. His income usually came from him placing bets on whether he could run a certain distance within a period of time.
One of the most interesting Ernst stories is his run from Paris to Moscow in 1832. This run was the result of Ernst’s 100,000 francs bet that he could run from Paris to Moscow in 15 days, a distance of 1,660-miles. In order to win the bet, Ernst would have to run over 110 miles per day.
Ernst’s run was legendary and is full of many incredible stories as described in an excellent 1980 Sports Illustrated article. Perhaps my favorite story occurred towards the end of Ernst’s run when he stopped into a tavern for a drink. The tavern patrons took one look at this crazy running man, thought he was the devil, and locked him in the tavern so he would not be able to harm them. Desperate to continue his run and win the bet, Ernst escaped through the chimney and escaped from the village.
Ernst would soon arrive in Moscow with 1 day to spare. Over the course of his 14 day run, he had covered nearly 120 miles, about 4.5 marathons, per day!
