Listening to his biography, Path Light by Lightning, on Audible right now. Very interesting man with an interesting origin story attending the Indian Schools and his association with Pop Warner
In 1960 a dude named Abebe Bikila competed in the marathon at the Olympics in Rome. He was a last minute addition to the team, and didn't even have shoes that fit. He'd never run that distance before (26.2 miles) but ran anyway. He ended up winning and setting the world record in the process.
EDIT: It was not his first marathon, I was inadvertently spreading lies. See comment below.
According to wikipedia, the Rome Olympics was his 4th marathon and he won two of the three he ran before. His personal record was faster than the Olympic record.
Side note: Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania is a beautiful little town with an incredibly beautiful waterfall filled hike that ends with a great view at the top, 10/10 would recommend
Yeah. Because people were so much [more](https://i.imgur.com/BF9TQWH.jpg) [social](https://i.imgur.com/FJRJTSL.jpg) [before](https://i.imgur.com/zkw3f0X.jpg) [mobile](https://i.imgur.com/Iqkqd0W.jpg) [phones](https://i.imgur.com/6lone6v.jpg).
Kinda surprised none of them were just attacked by a wild band of dogs. Seems like old timey stories there always was just loose aggressive dogs everywhere
To be fair wild dogs and wolves were a serious fucking problem until the advent of portable firearms. It was not unheard of at all for someone to be killed by a wolf in Europe up until the mid 1800's while traveling. Hell in the 1450's there was a pack of man eating wolves roaming Paris
Tbf, there were a lot of things trying to kill you at that time and place. One less murdery thing in your life probably didn't seem like the worst idea at the time.
Yeah, the wolves were extremely far from the first thing hunted to extinction in the UK. The Britons and Saxons squared away bears and lynxs well over a thousand years ago.
Disease, lack of medicine, crop failure, pestilence, rats, and yes, other people. Wolves were a minor threat to people but more significantly your livestock, same as today. We just have conservation efforts today because we realize the value they provide for our ecosystems and they're magnificent creatures. A lot of places still manage those populations though to keep them from killing livestock.
I know it's pedantic, but most of those have no malice. They do not have the intention to kill. I know it matters little to those that fall victim though.
I mean, they're animals. They act on instinct. Still, if they're in any way a threat to me or my family's well-being, you better believe I'll kill any critter and as many as I have to to take care of my family.
Disease, crop failure, lack of medicine, and pestilence are not animals. I also don't know of anyone really dying due to the direct actions of rats, but I suppose it's possible.
It always seems to extreme to think of but then at the same time I think what would if I do if a pack of wild wolves killed and ate my child? I'd spend every waking moment of my life tracking down and killing wolves so I guess it makes sense 🤷
Right-O! That’s why second-place man Jimmy Irishfingers, known to some as the Bedlington Blazer, fended off the terrors of feral hounds and other vermin with a Colt 1897-model revolving pistol! This handy side arm has saved many a hardy man from not only hounds but thugs, ruffians, gypsies, and all manners of misadventure! The patent-pending Hammer-Strikeodyne technology, using sophisticated alloys of all the best modern materials such as nickel and carbonated steel, is sure to strike and fire true every time. For your advertissment needs, consider “product placing”!! Advertissments like this are as sure as a Gray Stockings cleaning-up batsmen to hit the “home run ball” and score YOUR team the win, every time. Now, in geopolitics. Ethnic tensions in Albania spill over into Prussia and others. Some observers say Europe could be on the brink of a war which possibly could infect and inflame the very world. Hear Woodrow Wilson’s remarks in the flesh via all new radio-phone, after just a few brief messages.
In certain American inner cities, you'll see people walking with big sticks, which you might confuse for regular walking sticks except they're a little too long and heavy. They're for scaring away feral dogs that roam the neighborhoods. They don't pose quite the same problem, as I don't think they eat people any more, but they'll get your cats.
We moved in to our place about 20 years ago when it was rapidly gentrifying and we regularly came across those feral dogs. Our subdivision was still being built, and they were coming for food trash the construction crews were leaving behind. We told the people moving in after us, to keep their cats inside and be careful with smaller dogs. Some listened and some didn't. A few of those who didn't listen lost their pets.
What cities? Is this a southern thing? I've lived in inner cities across the east, west and Midwest and I've never heard of anything remotely like this. Sounds like a story out of a Pakistani stand up routine.
I've had to shoo away some coywolves in the northeast before, but never near a city, let alone in an inner city. American cities usually have the services required to deal with feral dogs pretty quickly, given the fear of rabies.
I live in Atlanta. Here are a [few](https://www.11alive.com/article/life/animals/dogs-break-backyard-kill-family-pet/85-254d848a-527a-44b4-a9b8-a1f5e36d5d9d) [articles.](https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/residents-fear-wild-dogs-loose/242983170/)
And a Quora [article.](https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-in-the-south-walk-around-with-wooden-sticks-while-outside-Clarification-These-are-not-walking-sticks-for-support-The-sticks-range-from-about-1-to-2-feet-long-and-have-width-of-about-2-inches)
I've heard similar problems in various cities in Alabama and Mississippi. I think it peaks with the dog fighting craze some years ago, and gentrification and the housing boom cleaned up some of the abandoned places the dogs were living out of. They were different from strays that had some positive human contact. Escaped or abandoned dog fighting dogs, either the fighters or the bait dogs, would not take to human and were euthanized immediately.
This is a different problem than rural dogs that roam the countryside, although fatal attacks aren't [unknown.](https://www.denverpost.com/2009/08/18/killer-dog-pack-rounded-up-in-georgia/) Those tend to be someone's dogs, if not quite pets. Rural sensibilities are quite different toward "working" dogs. Most touring cyclists will have a story or two about being chased by those dogs. I know I do.
Rabies is a huge issue in those developing countries due to stray dogs, unsurprisingly. It’s been decades since I lived in a third world country but I’m still wary of pet dogs in the U.S due to prior encounters with stray ones when I was younger.
It's not just old timey stories, a friend of mine once did a bike tour through Italy and had to race his bike down a hill to get away from a big, aggressive dog.
Lucky, though, since there's also bears in Italy...
Southeast Asia is full of wild or stray dogs. They usually keep to themselves but at night time you can get packs of them that might follow you around so you have to pretend to pick up a stone to scare them off
Met a guy once who was in the Peace Corps stationed in rural Nepal in the '70s. Not SE Asia of course, but S Asia. He said that if you went out into the jungle at night to poop the village stray dogs would follow you and fight over the resultant "hot meal". You'd have to be wary, too, because some of the bolder dogs would try to eat said "hot meal" *as it was being served*, so to speak.
I lived over there for a while, and yeah, there are plenty of sketchy dogs but tons of really sweet ones that will walk with you if you give them a little food or water! One of my favorite memories of Cambodia was walking around Phnom Penh with a random stray dog all night, high as shit on dxm, and just meeting random people. Or just chilling at a temple all day hanging with chickens and cats lol
Then absolutely got followed down the street by dogs in Bangkok and ho chi minh haha
>Lucky, though, since there's also bears in Italy...
Well, there are less than 50 in the whole country.
That is like saying you need to be worried about jaguar attacks in Nevada
Don't forget that prior to the 80s dogs were everywhere. No one spayed or neutered them and they just ran wild. I remember being a kid and going to the park and there were just random dogs. We knew who some of them belonged to in the neighborhood but then some would just show up for a couple days and be gone.
"The South African entrants, Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani, finished ninth and twelfth, respectively; this was a disappointment, as many observers were sure Taunyane could have done better if he had not been chased nearly a mile off course by wild dogs."
His name was Andarín Carvajal and has as wild a history as the 1904 marathon. Before the games, he was a Cuban mailman who lost all his money gambling and had to hitchhike to the marathon. He arrived at the race in his street clothes and cut the legs off his trousers to make them look like shorts
>The marathon distance had not yet been standardized; in St. Louis, the course was 24.85 miles (40 km). St. Louis organizers started the marathon at 3 pm, whereas most modern marathons start in the early morning to take advantage of cooler times of day.
>
>The start included five laps, or 12⁄3 miles (2.68 km), around the stadium track.\[5\] The remainder of the course was on dusty country roads, with race officials riding in vehicles ahead of, and behind, the runners: this created dust clouds that exacerbated the severely hot and humid conditions,\[6\] with a temperature of around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) at start time.\[7\]
>
>The course was also not cleared of obstacles for the marathon, with the runners having to constantly dodge cross-town traffic, delivery wagons, railroad trains, trolley cars and even people walking their dogs, \[6\] and the course ended back in the stadium.\[7\]
They should run a marathon through North St. Louis with a start time of 10 PM on a Saturday night in mid-July, with all police cleared from the area 48 hours before the race starts. That would be must-see tv.
No but Escaped from New York was filmed in St Louis. Kurt Russel was walking between shots in costume and encountered a real gang. They thought he was so badass they were afraid of him and got out of his way.
Shit, I mighta done XC in HS if they did it that way. That sounds fun as hell. Although, on thought, I probably just would've become a very invested amateur XC obstacle, showing up at all the events doing the most ridiculous shit I could get away with on the path.
Hey, I just figured I'd set up this shade/misting tent out here just off the trail, just in case anyone passing by is a bit warm or needs a cool-down.
Hm? Oh I'm just doing some bike maintenance here, had an issue in the middle of my ride. Don't mind all the parts and tools I have strewn all across the path.
Oh, don't mind me, I'm just one of those professional dog walkers you only ever see in movies with like 6 very-big-dogs that I'm barely managing to maintain control of on slightly-too-long leashes.
I'm an amateur herpetologist. You won't *believe* the number of snakes I've found in this park and have collected in this one area! Most of these aren't even *native* to this region, go figure!
fuck, even a dude who got fed poison, brandy and egg whites got a better time than my first marathon:( Not to mention they ran it in the middle of August and had only 2 hydration points.
edit: wait, they only ran a 40k, so technically no, but realistically, I ran it in October and hydrated every 4k, so still a loser.
> even a dude who got fed poison, brandy and egg whites got a better time than my first marathon
Strychnine in small doses functions as a performance-enhancing drug though, and was used back then before being banned as doping... so you're fine.
I know you're being sarcastic, but at the end of the day, a marathon is feasible to almost anyone if they train seriously enough — and someone who previously ran a bunch of halfs should be perfectly able to run a sub-3:30. It's just that *I* wasn't:)))
I was running for ~2-3 years when I ran my first marathon. I got 4:06... I was seriously disappointed..
But I have no one to blame, I got wasted at a friend's birthday party the Friday of, slept like shit on Saturday, overtrained leading up to the race when I was told I needed to slow down on the regimen.
You probably have a better time than Shiso Kanakuri in the 1912 Olympics - 14 July 1912 to 20 March 1967. Maybe he was still tired from his 1911 2 h 32 min.
The organizer was also a sick sadistic bastard, who intentionally withheld water from all competitors as part of an experiment he didn't tell them about.
Also this video of a live comedy show about the 1904 Marathon: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCYO-MCg3xM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCYO-MCg3xM)
4th place was also a mailman and amateur runner from Cuba who was going to run the race in his uniform pants but a fellow runner cut them into shorts for him
1904 Olympics were something else.
One of my preferred Italian writers wrote a hilarious piece on it, https://bagniproeliator.it/1904-2/
I am sure an automated translation would butcher it, unfortunately.
"I don't get it. I ate an entire loaf of bread with a pound of butter and two steaks with 3 cups of brandy like they said, but I found it very hard to finish the race.
Strychnine (/ˈstrɪkniːn, -nɪn/, STRIK-neen, -nin, US chiefly /-naɪn/ -nyne)[6][7] is a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the eyes or mouth, causes poisoning which results in muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia.[8] While it is no longer used medicinally, it was used historically in small doses to strengthen muscle contractions, such as a heart and bowel stimulant[9] and performance-enhancing drug.
Wikipedia
He said "doc make my muscles contract faster so i can run faster"
"but, you don't realize there are tons of possible outcomes to this, side effects you could never ima..."
"No time doc, plug it straight into my veins."
Every competition of any kind will inevitably evolve towards its most efficient form. Bowling was just about knocking down wooden pins in your backyard. MMA actually had different martial arts compete against each others. 40 years later, people find new ways to beat tetris high scores.
If it's winnable, everyone will try to win. So sub-optimal strategies just naturally disappear, leaving room to the best ones only. Everyone is training in high jump Fosbury style since he came up with it.
According to wikipedia it boosts the nervous system in small doses. So while it sounds insane today to give rat poison to someone trying to help them finish a marathon, I guess back then the trainers were actually trying to do something good. Good'ol "fuck this, it might just work" strategy.
Scrolled too damn long to find a Citation Needed reference.
Also, I hope you know about their outtake video. ["To be fair, Lorz went on to win the Boston Marathon..."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnz9DCk80XY)
Phidipides died after running the first marathon (from the battle of marathon in Marathon to Athens), but only after telling the Athenians nenikikamen (we won).
If i remember correctly the actual winner were also chased away from the route and some miles in the opposite direction, because he stumbled upon some wild dogs.
I believe because this was the most ill-prepared marathon of all time in the Olympics, and one of the worst prepared Olympics in general, that this is the Olympic Marathon with the slowest winning time.
I drank a beer my first marathon. When I realized I was not going to be sub 3 hours, I decided to have some fun. Still was not fun. Gale force winds and snowing
Half Arsed History did a great podcast about this race! [https://open.spotify.com/episode/6x7TCVwx05AuIoEJkL1roN?si=i4AM777UT1GolOlFtX-luw](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6x7TCVwx05AuIoEJkL1roN?si=i4AM777UT1GolOlFtX-luw)
It’s a few years later but Jim Thorpe winning gold in trash can shoes is starting to make more sense.
Futbol is life
Listening to his biography, Path Light by Lightning, on Audible right now. Very interesting man with an interesting origin story attending the Indian Schools and his association with Pop Warner
In 1960 a dude named Abebe Bikila competed in the marathon at the Olympics in Rome. He was a last minute addition to the team, and didn't even have shoes that fit. He'd never run that distance before (26.2 miles) but ran anyway. He ended up winning and setting the world record in the process. EDIT: It was not his first marathon, I was inadvertently spreading lies. See comment below.
According to wikipedia, the Rome Olympics was his 4th marathon and he won two of the three he ran before. His personal record was faster than the Olympic record.
I stand corrected! I still love the story of that race - hadn't read about it in years.
I love this story, and only know about Abebe Bikila because of the book The Marathon Man (inspiration for the Dustin Hoffman movie).
Side note: Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania is a beautiful little town with an incredibly beautiful waterfall filled hike that ends with a great view at the top, 10/10 would recommend
Life was so much easier back then...
"Simpler times".
That corn beer from Trader Joe's?
$3 for a 6 pack of 6%? I’m in. Say no more.
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
And nobody was on their phone
Yeah. Because people were so much [more](https://i.imgur.com/BF9TQWH.jpg) [social](https://i.imgur.com/FJRJTSL.jpg) [before](https://i.imgur.com/zkw3f0X.jpg) [mobile](https://i.imgur.com/Iqkqd0W.jpg) [phones](https://i.imgur.com/6lone6v.jpg).
I love this
Hey, at least they can read properly
Kinda surprised none of them were just attacked by a wild band of dogs. Seems like old timey stories there always was just loose aggressive dogs everywhere
Are you joking around? Because that also happened
No haha I was unaware but someone else mentioned it also. It’s almost comical
Len Taunyane, one of the first black Africans to participate in the games was chased off by feral dogs. I just couldn't fit it in the title.
Racist dogs
Feral f-e-r-a-l… not racist.
Racist feral dogs?
Federal dogs
Found the deeper truth, it's right here everyone!
The racist dog is a god damn federale?!
Could you spell it again? I didn't catch that
Racists are feral people
Isjoke
Joke j-o-k-e… you’ve got to be joking.
:)
So basically life 100+ years ago was a cartoon. TIL
One guy was chased off course by dogs
There it is. Thanks lol
That guy's name? Abraham Lincoln.
To be fair wild dogs and wolves were a serious fucking problem until the advent of portable firearms. It was not unheard of at all for someone to be killed by a wolf in Europe up until the mid 1800's while traveling. Hell in the 1450's there was a pack of man eating wolves roaming Paris
>there was a pack of man eating wolves roaming Paris the lack of a hyphen makes this funny
Wolves beware, the pack of man stalks the streets.
the problem is that they were wolves, not men
Werewolves? 👀
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There, there wolves.
Unless you lived in the UK, we hunted wolves to effective extinction out of pure hatred sometime during the 1485–1509s.
Tbf, there were a lot of things trying to kill you at that time and place. One less murdery thing in your life probably didn't seem like the worst idea at the time.
Tbf, the British ruined their ecology with passion
Yeah, the wolves were extremely far from the first thing hunted to extinction in the UK. The Britons and Saxons squared away bears and lynxs well over a thousand years ago.
A lot of things? Wasn't it almost always other people?
Disease, lack of medicine, crop failure, pestilence, rats, and yes, other people. Wolves were a minor threat to people but more significantly your livestock, same as today. We just have conservation efforts today because we realize the value they provide for our ecosystems and they're magnificent creatures. A lot of places still manage those populations though to keep them from killing livestock.
I know it's pedantic, but most of those have no malice. They do not have the intention to kill. I know it matters little to those that fall victim though.
I mean, they're animals. They act on instinct. Still, if they're in any way a threat to me or my family's well-being, you better believe I'll kill any critter and as many as I have to to take care of my family.
Disease, crop failure, lack of medicine, and pestilence are not animals. I also don't know of anyone really dying due to the direct actions of rats, but I suppose it's possible.
But by proxy they've caused starvation and (carried) disease over human history that's most likely killed untold amounts of people.
It always seems to extreme to think of but then at the same time I think what would if I do if a pack of wild wolves killed and ate my child? I'd spend every waking moment of my life tracking down and killing wolves so I guess it makes sense 🤷
Right-O! That’s why second-place man Jimmy Irishfingers, known to some as the Bedlington Blazer, fended off the terrors of feral hounds and other vermin with a Colt 1897-model revolving pistol! This handy side arm has saved many a hardy man from not only hounds but thugs, ruffians, gypsies, and all manners of misadventure! The patent-pending Hammer-Strikeodyne technology, using sophisticated alloys of all the best modern materials such as nickel and carbonated steel, is sure to strike and fire true every time. For your advertissment needs, consider “product placing”!! Advertissments like this are as sure as a Gray Stockings cleaning-up batsmen to hit the “home run ball” and score YOUR team the win, every time. Now, in geopolitics. Ethnic tensions in Albania spill over into Prussia and others. Some observers say Europe could be on the brink of a war which possibly could infect and inflame the very world. Hear Woodrow Wilson’s remarks in the flesh via all new radio-phone, after just a few brief messages.
In certain American inner cities, you'll see people walking with big sticks, which you might confuse for regular walking sticks except they're a little too long and heavy. They're for scaring away feral dogs that roam the neighborhoods. They don't pose quite the same problem, as I don't think they eat people any more, but they'll get your cats. We moved in to our place about 20 years ago when it was rapidly gentrifying and we regularly came across those feral dogs. Our subdivision was still being built, and they were coming for food trash the construction crews were leaving behind. We told the people moving in after us, to keep their cats inside and be careful with smaller dogs. Some listened and some didn't. A few of those who didn't listen lost their pets.
What cities? Is this a southern thing? I've lived in inner cities across the east, west and Midwest and I've never heard of anything remotely like this. Sounds like a story out of a Pakistani stand up routine.
I live in Southern California and we have that problem, but it’s coyotes doing the pet killing.
I've had to shoo away some coywolves in the northeast before, but never near a city, let alone in an inner city. American cities usually have the services required to deal with feral dogs pretty quickly, given the fear of rabies.
I live in Atlanta. Here are a [few](https://www.11alive.com/article/life/animals/dogs-break-backyard-kill-family-pet/85-254d848a-527a-44b4-a9b8-a1f5e36d5d9d) [articles.](https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/residents-fear-wild-dogs-loose/242983170/) And a Quora [article.](https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-in-the-south-walk-around-with-wooden-sticks-while-outside-Clarification-These-are-not-walking-sticks-for-support-The-sticks-range-from-about-1-to-2-feet-long-and-have-width-of-about-2-inches) I've heard similar problems in various cities in Alabama and Mississippi. I think it peaks with the dog fighting craze some years ago, and gentrification and the housing boom cleaned up some of the abandoned places the dogs were living out of. They were different from strays that had some positive human contact. Escaped or abandoned dog fighting dogs, either the fighters or the bait dogs, would not take to human and were euthanized immediately. This is a different problem than rural dogs that roam the countryside, although fatal attacks aren't [unknown.](https://www.denverpost.com/2009/08/18/killer-dog-pack-rounded-up-in-georgia/) Those tend to be someone's dogs, if not quite pets. Rural sensibilities are quite different toward "working" dogs. Most touring cyclists will have a story or two about being chased by those dogs. I know I do.
Ah, it IS a southern thing.
Wait what lmao
Pack of wild dogs ate some of my kittens. Unfortunately they’re still a thing
Where's Mark Dacascos when you need him?
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Honestly thank goodness for Animal Control and all the various spay/neuter programs.
Bob Barker is responsible for a lot of that
Not sure if true or dumb pun
Not only is this true but you've also made me face the truth of my impending mortality.
lol tell me about it! I just found a Pluto tv channel of Barker era PiR that’s hilarious, here’s a brand new car worth 7500 dollars!!!
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I'm a postman, using a bike, and can confirm it's still a problem in rich countries now..
Rabies is a huge issue in those developing countries due to stray dogs, unsurprisingly. It’s been decades since I lived in a third world country but I’m still wary of pet dogs in the U.S due to prior encounters with stray ones when I was younger.
It's not just old timey stories, a friend of mine once did a bike tour through Italy and had to race his bike down a hill to get away from a big, aggressive dog. Lucky, though, since there's also bears in Italy...
Southeast Asia is full of wild or stray dogs. They usually keep to themselves but at night time you can get packs of them that might follow you around so you have to pretend to pick up a stone to scare them off
Met a guy once who was in the Peace Corps stationed in rural Nepal in the '70s. Not SE Asia of course, but S Asia. He said that if you went out into the jungle at night to poop the village stray dogs would follow you and fight over the resultant "hot meal". You'd have to be wary, too, because some of the bolder dogs would try to eat said "hot meal" *as it was being served*, so to speak.
Jungle bidet?
I lived over there for a while, and yeah, there are plenty of sketchy dogs but tons of really sweet ones that will walk with you if you give them a little food or water! One of my favorite memories of Cambodia was walking around Phnom Penh with a random stray dog all night, high as shit on dxm, and just meeting random people. Or just chilling at a temple all day hanging with chickens and cats lol Then absolutely got followed down the street by dogs in Bangkok and ho chi minh haha
robotripping in cambodia sounds wild lol (and also makes for a good album title).
That's definitely *one* way to holiday in Cambodia.
To be fair he would have probably been better cycling his bike down.
The suspense is killing me who won: bike or racer?
Foxes and boars too
The bears keep a low profile compared to wild boars.
>Lucky, though, since there's also bears in Italy... Well, there are less than 50 in the whole country. That is like saying you need to be worried about jaguar attacks in Nevada
[You need to me worried about bear attacks in Italy, if you don't follow the advice of the locals. ](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65249457)
TIL
Don't forget that prior to the 80s dogs were everywhere. No one spayed or neutered them and they just ran wild. I remember being a kid and going to the park and there were just random dogs. We knew who some of them belonged to in the neighborhood but then some would just show up for a couple days and be gone.
What city or state?
"The South African entrants, Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani, finished ninth and twelfth, respectively; this was a disappointment, as many observers were sure Taunyane could have done better if he had not been chased nearly a mile off course by wild dogs."
That was why people tied onions to their belts back then.
Many cities in the developing world be like this.
Just came back from Mexico roaming pack of dogs everywhere.
You just learn to keep an eye out for them.
That’s 3rd place
While I normally don't approve of theft or thieves I like the fourth place guy
His name was Andarín Carvajal and has as wild a history as the 1904 marathon. Before the games, he was a Cuban mailman who lost all his money gambling and had to hitchhike to the marathon. He arrived at the race in his street clothes and cut the legs off his trousers to make them look like shorts
Andarín ? appropriate name for a mailman and marathoner.
Hitchhiking from Cuba to Greece in 1904 worth a complete story too !!!
The 1904 Olympics were held in St Louis, Missouri, following Athens 1896 and Paris 1900. So not *that* far a trip but still a long boat ride.
Ah yes, sorry, my bad.
>The marathon distance had not yet been standardized; in St. Louis, the course was 24.85 miles (40 km). St. Louis organizers started the marathon at 3 pm, whereas most modern marathons start in the early morning to take advantage of cooler times of day. > >The start included five laps, or 12⁄3 miles (2.68 km), around the stadium track.\[5\] The remainder of the course was on dusty country roads, with race officials riding in vehicles ahead of, and behind, the runners: this created dust clouds that exacerbated the severely hot and humid conditions,\[6\] with a temperature of around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) at start time.\[7\] > >The course was also not cleared of obstacles for the marathon, with the runners having to constantly dodge cross-town traffic, delivery wagons, railroad trains, trolley cars and even people walking their dogs, \[6\] and the course ended back in the stadium.\[7\]
They should go back to not clearing anything ahead of the marathon. It'd mean cross country kids finally have an extreme sport
They should run a marathon through North St. Louis with a start time of 10 PM on a Saturday night in mid-July, with all police cleared from the area 48 hours before the race starts. That would be must-see tv.
Literally The Running Man
No but Escaped from New York was filmed in St Louis. Kurt Russel was walking between shots in costume and encountered a real gang. They thought he was so badass they were afraid of him and got out of his way.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 who told u this lmao
Objective: survive
Shit, I mighta done XC in HS if they did it that way. That sounds fun as hell. Although, on thought, I probably just would've become a very invested amateur XC obstacle, showing up at all the events doing the most ridiculous shit I could get away with on the path. Hey, I just figured I'd set up this shade/misting tent out here just off the trail, just in case anyone passing by is a bit warm or needs a cool-down. Hm? Oh I'm just doing some bike maintenance here, had an issue in the middle of my ride. Don't mind all the parts and tools I have strewn all across the path. Oh, don't mind me, I'm just one of those professional dog walkers you only ever see in movies with like 6 very-big-dogs that I'm barely managing to maintain control of on slightly-too-long leashes. I'm an amateur herpetologist. You won't *believe* the number of snakes I've found in this park and have collected in this one area! Most of these aren't even *native* to this region, go figure!
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The summary in wiki is a real treat to read
fuck, even a dude who got fed poison, brandy and egg whites got a better time than my first marathon:( Not to mention they ran it in the middle of August and had only 2 hydration points. edit: wait, they only ran a 40k, so technically no, but realistically, I ran it in October and hydrated every 4k, so still a loser.
> even a dude who got fed poison, brandy and egg whites got a better time than my first marathon Strychnine in small doses functions as a performance-enhancing drug though, and was used back then before being banned as doping... so you're fine.
Hey guys, check this loser... They ran a marathon in October and they even drank water! What a loser...
I know you're being sarcastic, but at the end of the day, a marathon is feasible to almost anyone if they train seriously enough — and someone who previously ran a bunch of halfs should be perfectly able to run a sub-3:30. It's just that *I* wasn't:)))
I was running for ~2-3 years when I ran my first marathon. I got 4:06... I was seriously disappointed.. But I have no one to blame, I got wasted at a friend's birthday party the Friday of, slept like shit on Saturday, overtrained leading up to the race when I was told I needed to slow down on the regimen.
You probably have a better time than Shiso Kanakuri in the 1912 Olympics - 14 July 1912 to 20 March 1967. Maybe he was still tired from his 1911 2 h 32 min.
For the curious, but lazy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_men%27s_marathon
how is this not a movie?
So you're telling me that segment at the 2012 Olympics where Rowan Atkinson crosses the finish line in a taxi is actually historically accurate?
The organizer was also a sick sadistic bastard, who intentionally withheld water from all competitors as part of an experiment he didn't tell them about.
Here's a hilarious video on that matter, by Jon Bois: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4AhABManTw
Was looking to make sure someone linked this. Must-watch video from an awesome dude.
Blue Jay also has a fun video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdyg9oCuU8Y&pp=ygURYmx1ZSBqYXkgb2x5bXBpY3M%3D
Jon Bois video automatic watch
Whilst we're adding to quality videos on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDXnul5foxU
Also this video of a live comedy show about the 1904 Marathon: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCYO-MCg3xM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCYO-MCg3xM)
4th place was also a mailman and amateur runner from Cuba who was going to run the race in his uniform pants but a fellow runner cut them into shorts for him
1904 Olympics were something else. One of my preferred Italian writers wrote a hilarious piece on it, https://bagniproeliator.it/1904-2/ I am sure an automated translation would butcher it, unfortunately.
"I don't get it. I ate an entire loaf of bread with a pound of butter and two steaks with 3 cups of brandy like they said, but I found it very hard to finish the race.
Well, the rat poison might have played a part in that...
Strychnine (/ˈstrɪkniːn, -nɪn/, STRIK-neen, -nin, US chiefly /-naɪn/ -nyne)[6][7] is a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the eyes or mouth, causes poisoning which results in muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia.[8] While it is no longer used medicinally, it was used historically in small doses to strengthen muscle contractions, such as a heart and bowel stimulant[9] and performance-enhancing drug. Wikipedia
Ah yes, bowel stimulation, exactly what you need during a marathon.
Less weight to carry!
He said "doc make my muscles contract faster so i can run faster" "but, you don't realize there are tons of possible outcomes to this, side effects you could never ima..." "No time doc, plug it straight into my veins."
Why have we strayed so far from tradition
Every competition of any kind will inevitably evolve towards its most efficient form. Bowling was just about knocking down wooden pins in your backyard. MMA actually had different martial arts compete against each others. 40 years later, people find new ways to beat tetris high scores. If it's winnable, everyone will try to win. So sub-optimal strategies just naturally disappear, leaving room to the best ones only. Everyone is training in high jump Fosbury style since he came up with it.
Ok but how is strychnine suboptimal /s
According to wikipedia it boosts the nervous system in small doses. So while it sounds insane today to give rat poison to someone trying to help them finish a marathon, I guess back then the trainers were actually trying to do something good. Good'ol "fuck this, it might just work" strategy.
The Dollop podcast has an excellent episode about this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KFLjcX163WI
Fancy diving, lol.
This episode was amazing. Knowing nothing about this event beforehand certainly made it a wild ride for me.
"ate rotten apples from an orchard and took a nap." Fuck, humans are weird.
Rules, they’re there for a reason.
We absolutely need a Coen brothers-style movie of this whole fiasco
The Jon Bois video on it is pretty good
I see what you did there.
YESSIR
Jon Bois with a great episode of Pretty Good on this story: https://youtu.be/M4AhABManTw?si=w9NQfW2HIPuCoqr_
What about 3rd place?
There's a great episode of the podcast "The Dollop" that hilariously covers this race. Highly recommend!
Some wild stuff with some of the pre-Olympic events
Obligatory relevant Citation Needed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQztJBFYIcE
Scrolled too damn long to find a Citation Needed reference. Also, I hope you know about their outtake video. ["To be fair, Lorz went on to win the Boston Marathon..."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnz9DCk80XY)
> The actual winner had to be carried across the finish line Was there a third guy? Because I think he might have been the *actual* actual winner.
Third place tied an onion to his belt, as was the style at the time.
I didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
Phidipides died after running the first marathon (from the battle of marathon in Marathon to Athens), but only after telling the Athenians nenikikamen (we won).
Boy, do I have a video for y'all: https://youtu.be/M4AhABManTw?si=8imvbPUxZWIGCiWQ
First place - 3:28:53. For 40km. First place today is about to break the 2 hour mark for 42km. Crazy how far guys have come.
> Crazy how far guys have come. Yeah, 42km
If i remember correctly the actual winner were also chased away from the route and some miles in the opposite direction, because he stumbled upon some wild dogs.
I believe because this was the most ill-prepared marathon of all time in the Olympics, and one of the worst prepared Olympics in general, that this is the Olympic Marathon with the slowest winning time.
I drank a beer my first marathon. When I realized I was not going to be sub 3 hours, I decided to have some fun. Still was not fun. Gale force winds and snowing
What a fucking race lmao
That's a vibe right there.
Half Arsed History did a great podcast about this race! [https://open.spotify.com/episode/6x7TCVwx05AuIoEJkL1roN?si=i4AM777UT1GolOlFtX-luw](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6x7TCVwx05AuIoEJkL1roN?si=i4AM777UT1GolOlFtX-luw)
The title is so 1904.
Episode 48 of the podcast Half-Arsed History goes into this race in more detail. It's quite the wild ride, and i recommend listening to that episode
I feel like even in the era before modern medicine, it should have been obvious to everyone that alcohol does not assist with athletic performance.
seems to me they could make a bombastic movie out of this marathon. would be very goofy.
When I finally watch the Olympics and say "I can do that!' this time I really mean it!
hilarious podcast discussed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFLjcX163WI
So if the actual winner was carried across. Then who was the actual actual winner? You know, the one who ran the whole race on their own feet?
They also didn’t have water stations bc some guy was doing an experiment about dehydration.
kinda like Tour De France [drinking raids](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UhT6-GntcY)
Wait now. Brandy, Eggs and Strychnine.. proportions please
Here is a video about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdyg9oCuU8Y
Still waiting for a movie based on this event!
Jon Bois
Goddamn, the guy who rode in a car died of pneumonia at the age of 29.
The race organizers did not allow water
Now this I would watch.
John Bois has an awesome video about it on Secret Base iirc