Episode 77 - The 1904 St. Louis Marathon, The Wildest Event In Olympic History - a podcast by All Thats Interesting

Marathons today follow a simple formula. There's a starting line and a finish line, a crowd of excited and apprehensive racers, and a clear course to follow. But the 1904 Olympic Marathon took some unexpected turns, in more ways than one. 
From the moment the starting gun went off a few minutes after three pm on August 30, the race got even wilder. Preceded by horses meant to clear the road, and followed by cars to monitor the race, the runners were instantly choked by swirling, dry dust. This, the heat of the Missouri day, and the lack of water stations along the route made the run a hellish challenge for the 32 runners, just 14 of whom would end up finishing the race.In the end, the course of the 1904 Olympic Marathon would be dubbed, by an observer, “the most difficult a human being was ever asked to run over.” In the days that followed, there was even some serious talk of striking the marathon from the Olympic games for good, as it was referred to as a "man-killing" event.
This is the story of perhaps the strangest sporting event in modern history.https://allthatsinteresting.com/1904-olympic-marathon

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