Early on, the Olympics were not the well-oiled machine that they are today. The 1904 Olympics repeated mistakes from the 1900 Olympics, and actually piggy-backed off of the more popular World’s Fair. But they still happened.

They took place over four and a half months, and though these Games were sort of lost in the shadow of other things, this was the first time that gold, silver, and bronze were awarded for first, second and third place.

There were just 12 countries that participated, for a total of 651 athletes. These athletes competed in 95 different events, and the Games took place over the span of more than four months – from July 1 to November 23.

The marathon race saw just 14 men finish. It also was one of the strangest races ever. The first winner, Fred Lorz, took a car from mile 9 to about mile 19, but was disqualified, seemingly because he didn’t actually fully complete the race. It was still a US sweep though, with Thomas Hicks, Albert Coray and Arthur Newton coming in first, second and third. Conflicting reports state that Coray was actually from France, but due to poor documentation at the time, he was incorrectly listed as being from the United States.

The race took place on August 30, and was extremely hot. The heat reached into the nineties, plus a humidity index. Rather than hold the race in the early morning to capitalize on cooler temperatures, it was held in the afternoon. It started and ended in the Olympic Stadium, but the rest was on unshaded dirt roads.

I’ve run in some marathon races that have aid stations poorly positioned (namely, the LA Marathon, who had the first GU station at mile 20 one year), but the only water station for these marathoning men was at mile 11. So, dehydration was a real thing. This was intentional, “purposeful dehydration” to test the athletic stamina of the athletes. This race ended up being one of the slowest thus far, and had 18 of the 32 participants dropping out.

Strychnine, egg whites, dehydration, street clothes, running barefoot – the 1904 Olympic marathon was a crazy race. One participant, Andarin Carvajal hadn’t eaten in 40 hours, so he snacked on rotten apples along the course, and got stomach cramps. He also had lost all his money before the Olympics, having gambled in New Orleans. As a result, he ran the race in street clothes.

Francis Field was the location of the 1904 Olympic Stadium. Today, Francis Field is part of Washington University in St. Louis, and used for different athletic events. The stadium used to have a capacity of 19,000, but renovations in 1984 reduced capacity to 3,300.