 with participants walking nearly 1,000 kilometers in six days inside packed indoor arenas, which is kind of hard for me to imagine, but it was a real spectacle, according to Matthew Algeo, who is the author of the book Pedestrianism, when watching people walk was America's favorite spectator sport. He said there were brass bands playing songs, there were vendors selling pickled eggs and roasted chestnuts, and it was really a place to be seen back in its day.