The 1910 Sack Race

In I9l0 five workers at the Warren Ranch near Wabuska, Nevada bet Harry
that he could not carry a sack of wheat (a little over 120 lb.) from the Ranch
into Yerington,  a distance of about 10 miles.  The rules were that  the   sack
could not touch the ground and the race had to be completed in four   hours
with judges watching over the proceedings.

The  road  was  dirt  and  mud,  and his brother walked ahead of Harry so he would  have  good footing.  He  took  some  rests but still held the sack on  his knee. Harry completed the trip in 3 1/2 hours on February 15, 1910, winning the $600 wager.  Local legend has it that he carried a young boy on his  back around the local bar for a victory lap.

The Race Has Been Recreated Since That Time.

In 1964,   a group of coal miners from Edinboro, Pennsylvania challenged a
team   from Pizen Switch (Yerington), Nevada in the   "Race of the Century". Yerington High School teacher and coach,   Mike Lommori, won that race as he   ran the straight-aways and walked the curves on the school track in   the winning   time of   2:27.59,  breaking Warren's mark by over an hour.   YHS graduate and University of Nevada, Reno football linebacker, Howard Dodge, captured   top honors twice in a race recreation run on the blacktop streets of Yerington -- the first time in 1976 in 2:07.26 and the second in 1980 in 2:08.48 -- just a minute off his record time.   In 1980,   another YHS graduate, DeAnn Homestead, won the first women's division race carrying a 6O-pound sack 1.1 miles in 11:29.37 minutes. In 1992 the forth recreation, in hopes of making the event an annual affair, was a shortened version.   Bubba Quillici of Yerington finished a shortened 8-lap race around a two-block downtown city course toting a 1OO-pound sack in 43:05.87 minutes. Vicky Smith, also of Yerington, took the women's title carrying a 50-pound sack over the same course in   51:10.58 minutes.

The race is grueling, and there are few who would dare! Maybe someday soon
the challenge will go out, and a few hearty souls will take the challenge again.

"Runners to the starting line!"

This sent one female competitor In   September 1996,   into a panic. Suzanne
Schlosberg, a contributing editor for SHAPE magazine, had seen the sack race flier in Rachel, NV and decided to take up the challenge for $1000 prize money. The recreation of the race was 5 miles on pavement lapping a two block section of Main Street.   She had not trained by running at all and was shocked when the other eight contestants sprinted from the starting line.

"I was so thrilled that I forgot to take the sack off my shoulders when I was the first female contestant to cross the finish line.   Several spectators came up   to shake my hand. One woman hugged me. They all wondered where I was from and how I had trained. I wondered what it was like to live in a town   with people that were so friendly." (Quote: SHAPE MAGAZINE April 97)