It was February 1, 1921, and more than 2,000 people had come out to cheer husband and wife Jenny and Frank Dill as they took the first steps of a hiking race that that would take them from Halifax to Vancouver in 134 days. The final pair to enter the competition, the Dills faced long odds of catching Dartmouth postman Jack Behan and his son Clifford, already 160 miles ahead. Even farther in front, with a two-week head start, was Charles Burkman, a handsome, spirited ex-soldier whose walking mate had succumbed to the harsh weather and abandoned the trek. The goal was to complete the 3,645-mile walk by early July 1921. While the sponsoring Halifax Herald received exclusive reports from the hikers, it wasn’t long before other newspapers picked up the story. Soon the entire nation was caught up in the daily drama of the five contestants, who drew big crowds wherever they settled for the night or shared a meal with locals. The hike had become Canada’s amazing race, a welcome antidote to a bleak economy, high unemployment and a nation still healing from the scars of war. Shirley Jean Roll Tucker’s lively account of this largely forgotten Canadian sporting event uses the vernacular of the day, with newspaper stories and the hikers’ own words.