No wonder the demands of going the distance in this toughest of races still compels many to try to cut corners
At the 1908 London Olympics entrants for the marathon had to agree that “a competitor must at once retire from the race if ordered to do so by a member of the medical staff appointed by the British Olympic Council to patrol the course”, there being a genuine concern for the wellbeing of anyone foolish enough to volunteer for such a test of endurance. In the 1906 Athens Olympics (since relegated to the status of “Intercalated Games”) worried organisers stationed an ambulance every kilometre along the route (at its conclusion Billy Sherring, the Canadian winner, was presented with a small goat). The 1904 event, in St Louis, featured two near-fatalities, only 44% of entrants completed the course and the athlete who finished fourth had to stop off mid-race for a nap.
Observers wondered what made someone suitable for such an outlandishly testing event. “The longer the race the more, we should suppose, depends on the man’s condition, and this, of course, is not merely a matter of firm flesh and bright eyes,” the Guardian wrote in its report on a 1909 marathon. “Obscure points about a man’s heart or liver may be the determining influence in such a race, and even one who has been comfortably passed by an insurance doctor cannot know much about these … Races which call for the extreme measure of endurance must probe curiosity into a man’s organs.”
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