Emileigh Only Marathon 6

In 1904, the Olympic Marathon in St. Louis was a disaster. The race took place in 90-degree heat, on dusty country roads with vehicles kicking up dirt. There was only one water station at mile 12, and the runners had to dodge traffic and potholes. Many top runners dropped out due to cramps and dehydration. One runner even hitchhiked part of the way. The race was won by Thomas Hicks, who was given a mixture of egg whites and strychnine to keep him going. It was a chaotic and poorly organized event. Hey, hey. Okay, let me lower this and yawn. I feel like I'm going to be doing that a lot. Not because I'm tired, but because my lungs fucking suck. Okay. I know, I know, but I can feel the tightness in my chest and I know it's my allergies making my asthma do stupid stuff and then when my asthma kicks up, I yawn a lot because my body's like, it's the only way to get breath. Oh my God, we're recording. I forgot. Okay. I know. Oh, we totally are. We might put it in like a bloopers reel. It sounds like, you sound like a Spongebob character. Chocolate. We're making, why don't you sound like, we're definitely making a bloopers reel. Why? Okay, let me yawn one more time. God, that's so satisfying. Okay. And, um, alright. Welcome to Ill-Equipped History. I'm Emily, your host for this week, and my beautiful co-host Morgan is with us. And we are two women who are completely unqualified to talk about history. We're going to do it anyway. So come join us for a fun story today. Yay. And mine are coming in. So it was my turn. So if I sound a little snotty today, that was, uh, I don't know, mother nature's fault. So let's get into it. How are you doing today? Productive day. Productive day. I got the kids asleep and in bed before we even started so there's not going to be any pitter-patter for me to edit out later. It's a good day. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So let's get into it. The year is 1904 and the sweltering August sun is bearing down on the onlookers of the Francis Olympic Field Stadium. They had waited hours to see who the winner of this historic event will be and it's nearing the end. Who do you think will win? Miller? Well, if you want to lose your money, that's how you do it. My bet's on Fred Lors. He's got some great potential and a nice butt, too. Look, someone is coming. An American! Woo! Doris, get your dancing shoes on. We're going out tonight. Told you! What? You going to say something about your grandma again because your grandma can kiss my... I saw him get out of an automobile. A fraud! Throw him off the stage! Arrest him! Damn it. That was a good one. So, Morgan, what is it we're talking about today? Do you know? What we are talking about today is the 1904 Olympic Marathon, specifically the marathon that happened during that Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. And I would like to preface this by saying it was a complete shitshow in 1904. And it was the first Olympics held on American soil. And they fucked it up. It was so bad. I was laughing so hard reading most of this stuff. That scene gave me life. So, where was it? As we said, it was in St. Louis, Missouri at the Francis Olympic Field. Now, this field had just been built specifically for the Olympics. You know, the Olympics, they typically build new buildings for that reason. And this one is actually, it's kind of nice to hear that they built something for the Olympics and didn't just abandon it like they kind of do nowadays. But it is now sitting on the Washington University campus. And it was named after David R. Francis, who was a former Missouri governor and president of the organizing committee for those Olympic games. Yep. And it's still in use today. They use it for campus, you know, tracks and stuff. So, it's got a track in the middle of it. And then, you know, they use it for stuff like that. The marathon was on August the 30th in 1904. And this Olympics was a little different than the others for the sole reason that it wasn't just the Olympics. Another event was going on at the same time, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the 1904 World's Fair. And they kind of mashed the two together. So, at the same time you're having the World's Fair, you're having the first Olympics on American soil, which you think would just make it this huge event, which it was. But the problem was is that the World's Fair overshadowed the Olympics. The people cared more about the World's Fair than the Olympics. So, it, yeah. And it didn't carry the grandeur of the two previous Olympics that were in other countries. So, getting into a little bit about the other things of the Olympics first and who put on the race. The man responsible for designing the course was James E. Sullivan. And he was the head of the Physical Culture Development, ooh, he was the head of the Physical Culture Department for the World's Fair, which in turn, yes, yes. I'm never going to watch Monsters, Inc. the same again because this guy sucks so bad. I've literally titled this section the worst person ever. Oh, no. That's okay. So, poor Sully. So, he intended the games to showcase the, and I'm quoting this, white American excellence through a series of events that were extremely racist called the Anthropology Days. All of this is super cringe and I hate it, but I just wanted to put the information out there because I didn't want to just ignore it. But this guy sucked. Yeah, like, stank face. It's super gross. The Anthropology Days were basically three days where they took non-white competitors and had them play sports that they had never done before to, quote, flaunt their athletic inferiority to the world. It's gross. It's a lot of gross. The headline in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch headlined it as Barbarians Meet the Athletic Games. Disgusting. Yes. Now, I know this was 1904, but it doesn't make it right. Sullivan claimed that the marathon would be used as a racial superiority event through all of the runners. Oh, sorry. Sullivan claimed that the marathon would be used as racial superiority even though, as all, why can I not say this sentence? Sullivan claimed that the marathon would be used as evidence of racial superiority, even though, like, 80% of the runners were white. So, like, it wasn't even, it just, it, Oh, no. It, it pisses you off, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it was all just to make them look bad. Literally, that's all it was for. And, yeah, it does. I told you, it's the worst person ever. And in a book, and this guy actually had something to do with the race. He was one of the physicians who rode in a car, who will, we'll look into that in a minute. But he was assisting one of the runners, and he wrote in his book named The Olympic Games 1904, which was a very original title, that the marathon established, quote, the stamina of the Caucasian race and the superior distance running powers. And the book didn't even talk about the fact that, like, what we'll get into in a minute, that two of the finishers were the first two black contestants to actually participate in the Olympics. They finished, and they, they did a good job. And it didn't even, like, mention them. Because, you know, people suck sometimes. It's cringey, isn't it? Me too. That was, that was the shit part of this. Now we're going to get into the fun part of this. Okay. So I just wanted to get that out of the way. So who competed? 32 men total. And of those 32 men, only 14 finished, and one was disqualified. Three of them. Yeah. 32. Total shitshow. I know. And one was disqualified. Three of them were Boston Marathon winners, like previous Boston Marathon winners. None of those Boston Marathon winners even finished the race. None of them. Okay. No, it's okay. No, it's okay. We were actually at a decent... Oh. Okay. Leave, leave your audacity running. Okay. Okay. I'm going to leave. Okay. Okay. Okay. I just want you to know that I looked at my phone while you were doing that, and I just got a personal, like, DM from one of the girls in the book club that said, excuse me, did I just accidentally find a podcast that's about to be hosted by you with like a million question marks? And I was like, yeah, I was going to tell the book club today, but I forgot. So I'll tell them tomorrow or later. 17, and we haven't even dropped anything yet. I know. I love that. So I was thinking that, like, at the lead up, maybe every couple days, we could post a picture of, like, something that involves your episode or something that involves my episode. It's like little teasers. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. To kind of keep it going. Okay. Let me get my notes back up. And okay. So no, that's okay. This was a good spot to stop because it'll be easy. It's a lot easier than editing in the middle of talking about poor Uncle Jimmy rotting in the desert. So that's a mess. Okay. I think the worst of it was that when it cut off, we were, like, way up here with our energy. And when we came back, we were way down here. So I was like, how do I? But I made it work. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So I'll just start with a spot that I already know we've covered. So three of them were Boston Marathon winners, which none of the Boston Marathon winners finished. They didn't even make it back to the stadium. None of them. I know. And a lot of those Boston Marathon winners were, you know, a lot of them were bet to win. So none of them even finished the Boston Marathon, which is not a small feat. Ten. Yeah. Yeah. Ten were Greeks who had never run a marathon. Most of the athletes were middle distance specialists and novelists. And like I said earlier, the first two black contestants were in this race. Now, I forgot to write it down specifically, but not a lot of countries participated in this one. Because I think of global economy, not economy, but global, I guess, economics. Yeah. Just shit was going down in the world and not a lot of countries could come and participate. So we've got participants from the U.S., France, Cuba, Greece, South Africa, and it looks like that. Oh, Great Britain. And I think that's it. Canada. Sorry, Canada. That's not a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Even the ones from South Africa, one of those contestants, Bertie Harris, he was white as well. So, I mean, it was just a racist race. Horrible. Okay. So let's go over a few of the contestants. I couldn't find information on every single one. But let's talk about who we do know about. So Frank Pierce, he was the first Native American to compete in the Olympics. Fred Lors, who we've already heard from once, he was a bricklayer by trade and had finished in the top five at the previous two Boston Marathons. John Lorden, he was the 1903 Boston Champ. He was Irish born, but running for the United States. Thomas Hicks was a professional clown, second place winner in the Boston Marathon the year prior. And I think the funniest thing about this is that they knew he was a clown when he was running. But they kept saying that he was the one that looked the most serious. He just deadpanned the whole time he was running. I don't think he cracked a smile once. Like enough for them to, like, say something about it. He does. He wasn't clowning around that day. Okay, I'll stop. Arthur Newton, he had won bronze the day before in steeplechase. Please don't ask me what steeplechase is. I don't know. Oh, God, thank you. Okay. I forgot to look it up. And Sam Meller, whom, again, we heard from previously in our skit, he was the 1902 Boston Marathon Champ. So he had won two years prior. And he was a pre-race favorite. In addition to his Boston win, he podiumed there in 1901 and 1903. And he'd won the Pan-American Exposition Marathon in 1901 in 104-degree heat. Yeah, that's hot. That's really hot. So, of course, he was a pre-race favorite. William Garcia was from San Francisco. That's all we know about him. Albert Corey was French-born, U.S. representing marathoner. And he worked at a slaughterhouse. Lynn Tanyane and Jean Machiani were the two South African black contestants. They were from the Tswana tribe. And this was their first marathon. They were only – yeah. They were the only black athletes to represent that nation until 86 years later. Yeah. So the South Africans were only sending white contestants until 86 years. Yeah. Yeah. They had no formal racing training experience or anything. And they were only at the St. Louis World's Fair participating in the Boer War Exhibition. And they arrived at the start line barefoot. And they just killed it. I mean, good for them. And then there's Adrian Felix Carvajal, whom I would like to point out is my favorite person. He's my favorite. He is a Cuban mailman who arrived at the race in a long-sleeved shirt, hat, pants, heavy shoes, and a big old mustache. I mean, this mustache is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. Carvajal had raised the money for his journey to America by running exhibitions in Cuba. But after he had a layover in New Orleans and he gambled all of his money away, so he just hitchhiked the rest of the way to St. Louis. Uh-huh. And he was favored to win. He was also favored to win. Do you see the picture of him? It's right below his name. Somebody felt really bad for him and helped him cut off his pants into jeans. We'll get into the race details in a minute, but it was 90 degrees that day. And he showed up in a long-sleeved shirt and long pants and heavy shoes. And is that mustache not beautiful? It's quite a mustache. Look at those little pants that they cut. And he's got his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. I mean, at least it looks like a flowy shirt. Absolutely. And you'll know why he's my favorite later. But one little fun fact, he was favored to win and he kept stopping to talk to people during the race. He was so charismatic. I love him. I'm just here to have a good time. So, race details. The race was 24.85 miles, so 40 kilometers. Words are hard. 26.2 miles didn't become the standard until 1921. So, they just kind of got to, I guess, make up how long it was. The worst person in the world designed the track, so we'll blame him for it being too short. Yeah. So, what they did was they did five laps around the track in the stadium first. And then they were to follow some country roads. And then it ended up, it kind of went through town a little bit, and then it came back around. On this course, there were seven hills varying from 100 to 300 feet tall, which just sounds like it sucks. Big hills. Big hills. And I'll just go ahead and get into the issues with the race. Bitch. Get ready. Buckle up. Remember that mud run we did? I think I would do that about five times before I ran this race. Even though I would do that. That was a shitty hill. And I would do it with the stomach bug that I had during that race again. But, anywho. So, the issues with the race, they were on dusty country roads. And they had vehicles at the beginning of the race and at the end. So, kind of flanking the runners. But the vehicles were just kicking up dirt and dust into the runners' faces while they're running. The late start time, which I didn't say, they didn't start until 3 p.m. In the heat of the day? In August. August. 90 degrees in St. Louis. At 3 p.m. And do you think they roped off the roads? Absolutely not. These people were having to run past people walking their dogs. They were avoiding traffic, delivery wagons, trains, trolleys. You know, Vanguard on horsemen. And potholes. And, I don't know. And then right behind them were like journalists and doctors and supporting team and stuff kicking up even more dirt. Oh my, that's pretty much what it was like. That was just a shit show. And then the worst part was the dickhead Sullivan that we talked about earlier, he wanted to test his theory of purposeful dehydration. He thought that eating and drinking during a marathon would only upset tummies. So they put one water station right smack in the middle. At mile 12 of 24, it was one water station. And no one was allowed to give them any water or food or anything. Give me that mud run five times. It was so bad. Yeah. The worst part was that hill. The worst part was that hill. And they had seven hills. Yeah. I figured the best way to do this, because we got a lot of players in this, is just we're going to go, you know, not mile by mile, but kind of close to it. Okay. So at 3.03 p.m., David R. Francis fires the starting gun. And they're off. So lap one, Frank Pierce briefly took the front. And he was followed by Arthur Newton, Thomas Hicks, and Sam Miller. So a lot of those big key names that we were talking about earlier. By lap three, Fred Lors took the lead. Close behind him, John Morton began vomiting and walked off the track as the first DNF of the race. At lap three. Lap three. He didn't even make it out of the stadium. Yeah, but he was one of the ones that, if I remember right, was a Boston Marathon champ. And lap three, he was like, I'm out. Yeah. At lap five, Hicks overtook Lors to lead them out of the stadium and onto the dirt roads. So we've got Hicks, and then Lors, and then a couple of those other people. I mean, I don't know exactly where everyone was, because it was 1904, and we don't know everything. But this is pretty good. So at mile three, Newton held fifth. Hicks had fallen back to seventh. Albert Corey was in ninth. Lynn Twanian and John Masciani were close behind that. So probably 10th, 11th, 11th, 12th, something like that. At mile six, Newton led. Meller second. Lors and Felix, most of the sites that I read called him Felix, so we're calling him Felix. Carvajal following. And by mile ten, Lors, remember this, Lors got muscle cramps and flagged down a car, which probably had his coach in, for a ride back to Francis Field. And my guess, Lors was like, never mind, I can't do this, just take me back to the field, whatever. Felix Carvajal, my favorite, stopped for a snack, and apparently during this, spectators wouldn't give him some of the peaches that they had. So he just, like, ran up and, like, playfully, like, stole them out of the – which is like, ha-ha, I'm taking those. But it wasn't enough. So he ran into a field and ate some apples out of an orchard. But the apples were rotten, and he got stomach cramps, and he laid down for a nap. Just a little nappy nap. I know. Don't prove him right. Okay, so that was mile ten. Mile twelve, remember, this is where the only water station is. Meller was leading, and Newton and Hicks were following. So Meller – I remember, he was one of the favorites – was slowing to combat the cramps that he was having. Another account claimed that he thought he had taken a wrong turn and had worn himself out running backwards on the course, like, trying to, you know, figure out where he was because they didn't rip that shit off. He soon dropped out of the race where Hicks took the lead. So Hicks took the lead at mile sixteen. With Newton trailing. And this is just so sad to me because poor Hicks, he is four miles past the only water station. He had two trainers following him in a car. And you can see in the little picture, this is him running with his two trainers running next to him in full suits, mind you. They're just running in suits. He was begging them for water, begging them for a drink. And they wouldn't give it to him. So instead, they gave him a sponge bath. They were, like, sponging his shoulders and his mouth, which is just a tease. Like a dog, just shook it. Oh, I know. But they're nearing the end, right? Okay. At mile nineteen, William Garcia in fourth place collapsed. This is terrifying because he was on the side of the road and he began to cough up blood and passed out before being discovered and taken to the hospital where he had to have surgery due to a dust-lined esophagus and a torn stomach lining due to the hours of running in the heat, dehydrated. This man almost died. Had no one found him? No one found him? I think one of the sources said that, I think, another hour he would have died. Yeah. Thankfully, no one did die in this race, but he came the closest. Me, too. Now, meanwhile, this is mile nineteen. At about that time, Lors, remember, he was living his best life in the car. He's headed back to the stadium. He decides he's feeling a little better. He's not having so many cramps. This motherfucker gets out of the car after he just rode eleven miles in a car and decides to finish the race on foot and runs the rest of the way to the stadium. Finishing the race in about three hours something. I'll get into his exact time. No one's, well, I think one person sees him get out of the car and tells him to, like, stop racing, but he's just like, no, I'm going to do what I want. And he just finishes the race. So everybody in the stadium, they don't see him because they're running on back roads, basically. So he is, this is our scene at the beginning. He is on stage with Alice Roosevelt, the first daughter of the United States, about to, like, crown him the victor when a spectator yells that he had been seen getting out of a car. And he tried to, like, defend his victory as a joke that he wasn't going to actually take the win. He was going to, he was just going along and it was ha-ha, funny, funny, bullshit. Total bullshit. I'm so glad we said that at the same time. But this earned himself a lifetime ban from marathon running. Like, cheated so hard. Okay, so mile 20. We're four miles away from the end. While Lors was being publicly shamed, Hicks was leading but having a really bad time. I know, he's thirsty. Give the man water. His trainers gave him a combination of egg whites and one milligram of strike nine sulfite, sulfate? I think that's how you say that. Which is made, which made Hicks be the first person in the Olympics to take a performance enhancing drug. Lots of firsts in this race. Yeah, in high doses, this is rat poison. In low, yeah, strike nine, yeah. And in low doses, it's a stimulant. And it's currently banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. So at mile 20, he drinks egg whites and the strike nine. I know. Yeah. And at mile, like the, sorry, the consistency. Mixed with God knows what that tastes like. Okay, it gets worse. Hicks was continuing, but he was still on the struggle bus due to the two-mile hill to get back to the stadium. So they gave him a second dose and a shot of brandy. And a shot of brandy. I know. Stop it. This is going to get you all stimulated and drunk. You're going to win. I know. So the poor guy, at about mile 20 to 22, one of the sources said he started to hallucinate and he thought he had 20 more miles left in the race and he was panicking. I know. Are you crying? I know. I felt so bad while we're laughing. I feel bad. But okay. So at the finish line, Hicks won. I feel like after all that he deserves to, but his trainers pretty much had to carry him over the line and he was like doing a little shuffle. He could barely carry himself. His legs were just like shuffling back and forth while his trainers like put him over the finish line. Yeah. He won. So Hicks won, but this is the slowest winning marathon time in Olympic history. And it's slowest by 30 minutes. Yeah. He lost eight pounds during the race. And it took an hour and four doctors to get him well enough to just leave the grounds. Charles Lucas. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. Eight hours. Or eight pounds. Eight pounds. In three and a half hours. He lost eight pounds. 24 miles. You won't catch me. I get winded going up the stairs. Absolutely not. I'm too thick for this. So Charles Lucas, a race official, said about Hicks, his last two miles, his eyes were dull, lusterless. The ashen color of his face and skin had deepened. His arms appeared as weights tied down. He could scarcely lift his legs while his knees were almost stiff. This man was on the brink of death. And honestly, it was the best thing that ever happened to him that the race was two miles shorter than it should have been. So I would like to add that at some point, Lynn, was it Lynn? Yeah. Lynn Tuan Yen was chased a mile off course by wild dogs and he still finished ninth. Yeah. I just don't know at what point that happened. So I'm just adding it at the end. But he was chased a mile off course. Yep. So let's get into some finishing times. Now, Fred Lors finished in three hours and 13 minutes. Okay. Now, remember, he was riding 11 miles in a car. Thomas Hicks finished in three hours, 28 minutes and 53 seconds. He only – Lors only beat Hicks by 15 minutes in a car. I mean, can we give him a round of applause? So Albert Corey, he finished – he was second place. He finished in three hours, 34 minutes and 52 seconds. Arthur Newton, United States, finished three hours, 47 minutes, 33 seconds. Now, remember Mr. Felix Carvajal? He took a little nappy nap. He finished fourth. That nap really did wonders. Now, I wish I could tell you what his run time was, but according to the sources, they either didn't write down the rest of the finishing times or they've just kind of been lost to history. So only Lors, Hicks, Corey, and Newton, the top three and the disqualified, were documented, really. But Len Tuan-Yen finished ninth, and John Masciani, our two only black contestants, finished, and they got ninth and 12th. So, hey, they finished, and that's a feat in itself. And one of them got chased off course by dogs for a mile and had to, like, come back around. Like, hell no. Needs a test. Most of these people didn't even finish at all. So, do you want to hear about the aftermath? Because this race turned some heads. So two days after the marathon, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dubbed it a, quote, man-killer event and reported that Olympic Committee members were calling for its removal. Sullivan, old shitty Sullivan himself, turned on the event that he put together and publicly stated that, quote, a 25-mile run is asking too much of the human endurance. This shithead. He sucks. Yeah. It's too much. Wait. Which? What are you talking about? Oh, no, no. I remember that. And they, like, had no food, and it was horrible. It was supposed to be on, like, this island or something like that. I don't know. Who did that? Yeah. Okay, no, you're right. I know what you're talking about. I'm not very good at names, so. Do you want to know one more shitty thing about Mr. Sullivan? He was also an outspoken misogynist. And as the head. Because why not? And as the head. The shit Sunday. Have you seen, what's the movie? Is it the hell where she makes that shit pie? I love, love that movie. Okay. But he was also a misogynist. And as the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee in the next Olympics in 1908, he was able to ban American women from competing in the Olympic Games. I hate him. I think so. He's literally the scum of the earth. He was. So my son while potty training. Yeah. He was that underwear I threw away a lot. I would like to say that the race was not canceled. And in 1908, there was only one returning competitor from the 1904 Olympics marathon. And that was Sidney Hatch. And he finished eight in 1904. He was the only one to be like, let's go again. Everyone else was like, fuck this. Yeah. So I do know a little bit about the ongoing lives of some of the people. So Hicks ran the marathons for the next five years. Tuan Yen and Mashiani practically disappeared from recorded history after that race. So I don't think they ran another one. I know. Corey raced annually in an early iteration of the Chicago marathon and won in 1908. Yeah. Newton competed in his third event of the games four days later, taking gold in a four-mile team race that fielded just two teams. So I guess there wasn't a lot of competition. Corey claimed another silver on the losing squad. So he just kept on. Oh, no. Corey claimed a silver on the losing squad. Okay. That makes sense now. Against each other. Yeah. And Lohr's lifetime ban lasted how long do you think? It was less than a year. He won the next Boston marathon, the 1905 Boston marathon. Hopefully not in a car this time. I hope so. I hope so. And Carvajal, Mr. Felix, my favorite, that handsome devil, Carvajal continued to travel for marathons. And in 1905, he returned to St. Louis to take third in the inaugural all-Western marathon. In 1906, the Cuban government sent him to Greece for an Olympics adjacent marathon, only for him to disappear on his way there in Italy. After being presumed dead, complete with newspaper obituaries, he reappeared in Havana several months later and continued his racing career. He just took a little sabbatical. Hello. I love this man. He's just out here doing whatever the hell he wants. Truly. I mean, oh, my God. And that's all I have. I was laughing so hard doing the research for this. You're welcome. You're welcome, audience. I hope this is a good one for y'all. This is such a shit show. Yes. On TV. Like, if this happened at current times, someone just got out of the car and, like, ran to the finish line. Someone's like... I mean... And he's drug across. Like, that can't even be, like, an actual win. I don't think he went under his own power, but at that point, they were like, just let him win. He did it. He lost eight pounds. He probably looks like the grandma on SpongeBob asking for chocolate. Oh, God. She is a sponge. Oh, my God. I can't breathe. Oh, no. Oh. Well, if you want to hear more stories like this, or if you have... Yeah, keep listening. Or if you have any more stories that will make us cry, laugh, please send them to our email or comment on Instagram. And... And we're going to have to get off here so I can, like, breathe. Okay, bye. Um... Oh, it's not stopping. It's not stopping. Is it... It's the red button.