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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's

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Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're on a sprint

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Speaker 2: to retirement. You're on Stuff you should Know a marathon sprint. Yeah, unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: marathon so never ending, ceaseless ultrathon marathon of all time.

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Speaker 1: You know, this was another listener suggestion. I feel like

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Speaker 1: those have been rolling in lately with a lot of

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Speaker 1: good suggestions, and this was something I had not heard of,

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Speaker 1: the story of the nineteen oh four marathon. And this

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Speaker 1: comes to us from Peter Fitzgibbon.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and thanks today for helping us out with this

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Speaker 2: one too. Yeah, thanks all around, Peter Fitzgibbon, what a

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Speaker 2: great name. Agreed, So thanks a lot, Peter, because this

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Speaker 2: is a really interesting story and I hadn't heard anything

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Speaker 2: about it either, But there was what's widely considered as

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Speaker 2: the hardest, worst, most difficult marathon ever run. Marathon, not ultrathon.

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Speaker 2: No again, I'm just specifically talking about marathons, and the

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Speaker 2: mind bending part of it is it wasn't even an

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Speaker 2: official marathon link. It was two miles shorter than what

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Speaker 2: we consider marathons today, and this is still considered the hardest.

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Speaker 2: And it wasn't because some racing genius came up with

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Speaker 2: the perfect difficult marathon course. No, it was because the

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Speaker 2: people involved had no idea what they were doing. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and this was one of the first marathons in the

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Speaker 2: modern era, in the modern Olympics, it was actually the

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Speaker 2: third one.

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Speaker 3: That's right.

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Speaker 1: If you know, there was no marathon in the the

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Speaker 1: og Ancient Games. I think a lot of people think

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Speaker 1: that maybe there was because of the great story of

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Speaker 1: how the marathon came to be, but that would happen

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Speaker 1: much later. There was a gentleman named Mishe Brielle, who

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Speaker 1: is a nineteenth century French linguist, and he loved Greek mythology.

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Speaker 1: Happened to be good friends with the founder of the

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Speaker 1: modern Olympics, a guy named Baron Pierre de Corbetin, and

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Speaker 1: he went to that first IOC meeting braille did, and

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Speaker 1: he said, hey, guys, we've all heard the story of

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Speaker 1: the Battle of Marathon in four ninety PC, when the

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Speaker 1: Greeks fought the Persians and the Greeks won, and very

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Speaker 1: famously sent Fidipites the messenger to run twenty four miles

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Speaker 1: back to Athens to say we won. We won, And

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Speaker 1: then when he did that, immediately dropped dead, like we

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Speaker 1: should commemorate that race by making people run that far

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Speaker 1: in these modern Olympics.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and the IOC said, I don't think anyone even

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Speaker 2: invited you. Who are you? And he said the same

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Speaker 2: thing again, almost very it was creepy, and they were

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Speaker 2: finally like, well, a good idea is a good.

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Speaker 3: Idea, he says, I'm friends with the baron.

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Speaker 2: So they decided to include the Olympic marathon in the

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Speaker 2: inaugural Games in Athens eighteen ninety six, the first modern Olympics,

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Speaker 2: and because it was an Athens they were actually able

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Speaker 2: to make a legit marathon from Marathon to Athens, just

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Speaker 2: like the original version.

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Speaker 3: Right yeah.

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Speaker 2: Their goal was for no one to drop dead when

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Speaker 2: they got back, and fortunately no one did. Into the

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Speaker 2: Greek's great delight, Greek runners took the top three spots,

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Speaker 2: the winner being spirit On lewis not the Greek ist

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Speaker 2: last name, but his first name definitely screamed Greek.

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Speaker 3: Did you say, unfortunately no one died?

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Speaker 2: Or and fortunately I said, and what kind of a

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Speaker 2: monster do you think?

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Speaker 1: I am Hey, I knew it, but I just wanted

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Speaker 1: to clear that up for people.

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Speaker 2: Oh thank you, you're looking out for me.

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Speaker 3: I was looking out for you.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend.

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Speaker 1: So nineteen oh four was the third Olympic Games, the

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Speaker 1: first one in the US, just as a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a backdrop because it ties in a bit to

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Speaker 1: what happened in Saint Louis. But the nineteen hundred Games

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Speaker 1: in Paris were a bit of a flop because it

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Speaker 1: was overshadowed by the Paris Exposition that was held at

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Speaker 1: the same time, and the same thing basically happened in

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Speaker 1: Saint Louis. It coincided with their World's Fair aka the

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Speaker 1: Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exhibition, and it was, you know, just

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Speaker 1: sort of overshadow At world's fairs were very big deals.

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Speaker 1: The Olympics at the time weren't that big of a deal,

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Speaker 1: in fact, because it wasn't like a big city like

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Speaker 1: New York or Chicago or something. A lot of American

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Speaker 1: athletes didn't even come, so we maybe didn't necessarily field

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Speaker 1: our best. But one noteworthy thing was this was the

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Speaker 1: first Olympics to debut all three metal colors or I

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Speaker 1: Guesstal medals.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, gold, silver, bronze. Right, I don't mean to be pedantic, Chuck,

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Speaker 2: I'm sorry in advance, but it's my understanding that it

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Speaker 2: wasn't until the seventies people called it Saint Louis. I

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Speaker 2: think up to that point it was Saint Louis.

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Speaker 3: Okay, I'm glad you puted that out.

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Speaker 2: So one of the cool things about the Saint Louis

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Speaker 2: Olympics is that there was a guy named George iSER

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Speaker 2: who I read a little bit about. He had a

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Speaker 2: wooden leg, and this is a nineteen oh four wooden leg.

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Speaker 2: He won six medals I think in one day as

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Speaker 2: an American gymnast.

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Speaker 3: Did he win leg throwing?

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Speaker 2: Did he win?

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Speaker 3: What? Leg throwing?

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Speaker 2: I didn't know that that was an event. I think

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Speaker 2: you're thinking of the strongest lumberjack event.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, okay, that are the Highland Games. Sure.

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Speaker 3: So he won.

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Speaker 1: Gymnastic medals with the wooden leg.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing, pretty impressive, six of them.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So this is actually a pretty sweet mashup of our

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Speaker 2: marathon episode in our Human Zoos episode. They kind of

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Speaker 2: collide here in this episode, the nineteen oh four marathon

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Speaker 2: and the reason why is because in nineteen oh four,

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Speaker 2: there's a guy named James E. Sullivan, and he was

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Speaker 2: essentially the guy who ran amateur sports in America, and

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Speaker 2: he was also on the International Olympic Committee representing America.

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Speaker 2: He had a lot to do with amateur sports, right. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: he was selected as the organizer of the nineteen oh

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Speaker 2: four Games in Saint Louis. And he's also one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons why there was such a thing as the

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Speaker 2: human Zoo at the World's Fair that year too.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: He was, by all accounts a pretty xenophobic, racist kind

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Speaker 1: of guy. One of the things he did later on

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Speaker 1: famous I say, legendary athlete Jim Thorpe, Indigenous American Jim

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Speaker 1: Thorpe at his metal strip because Sullivan made a push

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Speaker 1: to do so because they found out that he played

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Speaker 1: minor league baseball. Very briefly, I want to do a

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Speaker 1: thing on a show on Jim Thorpe, by.

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Speaker 2: The way, Yeah, I agree, we should definitely do an

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Speaker 2: episode on him, because in addition to him being such

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Speaker 2: an amazing athlete, he really apparently got screwed over, not

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Speaker 2: just by the people taking his medals back, but by

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Speaker 2: people around him he trusted who basically sold him out

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Speaker 2: to cover their own hides.

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Speaker 1: So back to Sullivan, before we get to his human

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Speaker 1: zoo experience that he cultivated at this World's Fair, just

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Speaker 1: want to also point out that he was pretty much

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Speaker 1: exclusively into white men participating in sports, because not only

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Speaker 1: did he have a bone to pick with Jim Thorpe,

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Speaker 1: but he did not like black athletes participating. He did

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Speaker 1: not like women participating. In nineteen oh eight, at the

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Speaker 1: Olympics in London, they finally said, hey, you know what,

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Speaker 1: we should have women in here swimming and running, and

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Speaker 1: Sullivan refused to let the United States field a women's team.

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Speaker 2: Right, And like you also said, the World's Fair was

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Speaker 2: going on at the same time as the Olympics, and

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Speaker 2: part of the World's Fair, as was profiled more closely

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Speaker 2: in our Human Zoos episode, was essentially just a bunch

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Speaker 2: of indigenous villages from around the world that where the

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Speaker 2: actual people, like actual indigenous people from the Philippines, from Congo,

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Speaker 2: from all sorts of other countries at the time, were

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Speaker 2: brought to be in these living exhibits, essentially to show

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Speaker 2: just how superior white America and white Europe was to

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Speaker 2: these people. They were basically paid under contract to act

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Speaker 2: as native and indigenous as they possibly could, and that

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Speaker 2: was a big central feature of the nineteen oh four

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Speaker 2: World's Fair, and being the head of the Department of

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Speaker 2: Physical Culture for the World's Fair, Sullivan kind of did

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Speaker 2: a mash up between the World's Fair and their human

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Speaker 2: zoos and the Olympic Games that he was organizing and

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Speaker 2: came up with what were called the Anthropology Games, whereas

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Speaker 2: he also called them the Special Olympics.

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Speaker 3: That's right.

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Speaker 1: These were athletic contests where they would get white Americans

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Speaker 1: and pit them against indigenous people people of color. In

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Speaker 1: the newspaper there in Saint Louis, you know, things like

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Speaker 1: barbarians meet in athletic games, and it was, you know,

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Speaker 1: it was like an exhibition again of like to try

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Speaker 1: and show the superiority of white athletes for this World's Fair,

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Speaker 1: and isn't everyone gonna love it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So they came up with the shot put, the

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Speaker 2: long jump, the high jump, the mile run. And I'm

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Speaker 2: pretty sure we talked about this in the Humans News episode,

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Speaker 2: but the indigenous people who were recruited to participate on

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Speaker 2: the indigenous side essentially weren't really told the rules they

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Speaker 2: were just told go do this essentially, and so of

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Speaker 2: course they lost. It was super lopsided, and so I guess,

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Speaker 2: just to be fair, they came up with some indigenous

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Speaker 2: type events. I made scare quotes everybody, tree climbing, archery, javelin,

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Speaker 2: and yes, essentially the white athletes mopped the floor with

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Speaker 2: the indigenous athletes, proving to Sullivan and the rest of

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Speaker 2: the white people assembled to watch this stuff that whites

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Speaker 2: were inherently superior for another while longer.

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Speaker 1: So Sullivan was also the guy that was in charge

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Speaker 1: of designing this race, even though he probably shouldn't have

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Speaker 1: been because he did a very poor job designing this course.

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Speaker 1: He had a theory and it wasn't his idea, but

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Speaker 1: there was a theory at the time where something called

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Speaker 1: purposeful dehydration was the way forward for endurance athletes. That is,

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Speaker 1: don't drink it much, don't eat much, because that'll just

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Speaker 1: upset your stomach and it'll not help you in your race.

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Speaker 1: So he said, hey, why don't we try this out

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Speaker 1: here and we'll just put one water station close to

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Speaker 1: the twelve mile mark and not let them drink any

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Speaker 1: water aside from that, and we'll see how it shakes out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, from what I can tell, it was you would

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Speaker 2: be disqualified if you were caught drinking water other than

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Speaker 2: at that station. So yeah, I know that. So the

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Speaker 2: runners involved had support teams who were basically helping them

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Speaker 2: along with like, you know, keeping their spirits up or whatever,

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Speaker 2: but one of the things they were absolutely forbidden from

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Speaker 2: doing is giving their athlete water their runner water.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So it sounds nuts purposeful dehydration, but if you stop

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Speaker 2: and think about, you know, it's also not a good

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Speaker 2: idea to eat a bunch of stuff and then go

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Speaker 2: out and run today. I think this is people just

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Speaker 2: mistakenly thought that about water at the time too.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The other bad idea was they started this thing at

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Speaker 1: three in the afternoon in August, and Saint Louis, which

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Speaker 1: is hot and humid, it was ninety degrees that late afternoon,

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Speaker 1: you know, into early evening is most times the hottest

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Speaker 1: part of the day. And not only that, but he said, hey,

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Speaker 1: let's run it out there on the dirt road, which

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Speaker 1: may have been okay if it was just these what

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Speaker 1: was it, thirty two runners running, but they had a

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Speaker 1: team of horses running in front of them to try

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Speaker 1: and like clear the road and lead the way along

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Speaker 1: with doctors and race officials and journalists. So they're just

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Speaker 1: kicking up like clouds of dust that you know, reportedly

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Speaker 1: you couldn't even see through at times that they're having

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Speaker 1: to run through and breathe this stuff in.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, basically the whole time they're just choking on

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Speaker 2: dust apparently. Also, I think that there were regular cars

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Speaker 2: just using the road too at the time, so it

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Speaker 2: was not it was just a poorly designed, poorly planned,

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Speaker 2: poorly executed thing altogether.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: There was one other thing about it too that I

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Speaker 2: think most marathons would be, like what there were seven

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Speaker 2: hill climbs. They range from one hundred feet to three

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Speaker 2: hundred feet, and a three hundred foot hill is as

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Speaker 2: tall as a twenty to thirty story building. I'm sure

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Speaker 2: it's not nearly as steep as climbing up a thirty

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Speaker 2: story building, but still you're walking up a substantial or

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Speaker 2: running up a substantial incline to a substantial height and

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Speaker 2: then back down seven times. That's on top of everything else.

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Speaker 2: That just is everything that's set up this race to

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Speaker 2: be just legendary. I mean, we're talking about one hundred

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Speaker 2: and twenty years later, you.

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Speaker 3: Know, yeah, Heartbreak Kill.

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Speaker 1: Just to compare, if you don't know what kind of

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Speaker 1: elevation rise that is for a marathon. For the Boston Marathon,

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Speaker 1: I think it's about ninety feet well, and I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure of the actual you know, I think it's I

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Speaker 1: think it's about a half mile for Heartbreak Hill. But

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Speaker 1: again I'm not really sure how far that three hundred

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Speaker 1: feet was, but it's more than three times, so it

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Speaker 1: couldn't have been fun.

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Speaker 2: Are you are you in a marathon? Are you going

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Speaker 2: to run a marathon?

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Speaker 1: Am I into marathons? I've never run more than two

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Speaker 1: miles in my life.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, hey, they say the journey toward a

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Speaker 2: marathon starts with a two mile run. No, no, no.

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Speaker 1: My line that I always use is I don't even

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Speaker 1: like to drive twenty six miles.

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Speaker 2: That's a good line.

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Speaker 3: Man. Not not into it.

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Speaker 2: I say, we take a break and come back and

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Speaker 2: start talking about some of the runners that were in

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Speaker 2: this thing.

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Speaker 3: Okay, all right, we'll be right back. All right.

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Speaker 1: So I mentioned that thirty two people participated in this

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Speaker 1: race in nineteen oh four, fourteen would end up finishing

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Speaker 1: the race, which is by far the fewest ever in

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Speaker 1: Olympic history still to this day. But you know, we'll

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Speaker 1: kind of go through some of the runners here, because

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Speaker 1: some were more experienced than others, some were wackier than others.

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Speaker 1: Three had won the Boston Marathon, so they were you know,

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Speaker 1: there were some legit experienced marathoners in there, but there

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Speaker 1: were definitely some dudes running this race that and again

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Speaker 1: in nineteen oh four. Running marathons wasn't you know nowadays,

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Speaker 1: if you do that kind of thing, that's your full

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Speaker 1: time job basically, you know, if you're competitive, that is

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Speaker 1: like at an Olympic level. But back then it was

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Speaker 1: just like, hey, I do this. I run a bakery

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Speaker 1: or I'm a professional clown. But I'm pretty good. You know,

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Speaker 1: I can run a long way, so I'm in the Olympics.

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Speaker 2: Right. There was a guy named Fred Lowers who was

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Speaker 2: a brick player, and he had won a five mile

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Speaker 2: race sponsored by Sullivan's Amateur Athletic Union. Goodness, yeah, sure,

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Speaker 2: five miles marathon. What's the difference. There's a guy named

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Speaker 2: Albert Corey. He worked at Slaughterhouse in Chicago. He was

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Speaker 2: from France, so I guess Albert Carrier Corey, I blew

285
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Speaker 2: up in my face. And then there was one of

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Speaker 2: the best known non professional or non one of the

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Speaker 2: best known walk ons I guess you could call him

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Speaker 2: same was Felix Carvea Hall and he was from Cuba.

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Speaker 2: He was five feet one inch and he was one

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Speaker 2: hundred percent awesome.

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Speaker 1: He was he was He had a big personality. He

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Speaker 1: was quite a character according to all accounts. At various

293
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Speaker 1: time during the race, he would he would stop just

294
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Speaker 1: to chat it up with people who were cheering him on.

295
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:43,440
Speaker 1: He would playfully like steal peaches out of their hands

296
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Speaker 1: as he was running. He showed up in long sleeves

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Speaker 1: and long pants and everyone was like, dude, you got

298
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Speaker 1: to cut those pants down at least and luckily enough

299
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Speaker 1: there was a someone there with a knife and cut

300
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Speaker 1: them off at the knees for him, like right before

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Speaker 1: the race started.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he was no stranger to running or moving long distances.

303
00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:09,640
Speaker 2: His nickname was Anderene the Walker, and he was well

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Speaker 2: known in Cuba already because he had walked the length

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Speaker 2: of Cuba and back at least once. I saw it

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Speaker 2: twice in one source, that's seven hundred and seventy seven

307
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Speaker 2: miles and He just did it because he wanted to.

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Speaker 2: I saw him compared to the turn of the century

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Speaker 2: Cuban Forrest Gump.

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Speaker 3: I wonder how he liked his shrimp.

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Speaker 2: That's a great question. He probably liked it free because

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Speaker 2: he very frequently didn't have any money.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: He was also a messenger, supposedly ran thirty miles a

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Speaker 1: day as part of his job. When he and this

316
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Speaker 1: is where it gets really kind of fun. They didn't

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Speaker 1: They weren't going to pay his way. Cuba was like sorry.

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Speaker 1: I think the mayor of Evan was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're not going to pay your way to go there.

320
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Speaker 1: You're welcome to race, but we're not supporting this financially.

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Speaker 1: He started running around hall in circles in protest and

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Speaker 1: got so many supporters. They said, all right, here's the

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Speaker 1: money book, your passage on a steamship, which he took

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Speaker 1: to New Orleans and supposedly was lost his money gambling

325
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Speaker 1: and had a hitchhike close to seven hundred miles to

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Speaker 1: Saint Louis from there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he hitchhiked and walked, And I saw that by

328
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Speaker 2: the time he arrived in Saint Louis for the race,

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Speaker 2: he hadn't eaten in two days, so he ran that

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Speaker 2: marathon without having eaten the last two days.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: You also said that he liked to joke around with

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Speaker 2: people and stop and chat with spectators and stuff. Apparently

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Speaker 2: he didn't speak English, and I also saw they didn't

335
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Speaker 2: really speak Spanish, that he spoke some strange slangy dialect

336
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Speaker 2: of Cuban or from Cuba, and that people didn't necessarily

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Speaker 2: know what he was talking about. Yeah, well, I could

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Speaker 2: tell he was so animated. You were just engrossed in

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Speaker 2: what he was saying, and maybe kind of got what

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Speaker 2: he was saying, the general broad strokes of what he

341
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Speaker 2: was trying to get cross, or at the very least

342
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Speaker 2: you get a laugh out of you. That's that's how

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Speaker 2: I kind of took all that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I know I've said this before, but when I first

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Speaker 1: traveled through Europe in the mid nineties, I spent an

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Speaker 1: entire night at a German brew house with my friend

348
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Speaker 1: that I was traveling with, hanging out with this old

349
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Speaker 1: German guy.

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Speaker 3: I mean old.

351
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Speaker 1: He was probably in his forties, but we were in

352
00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:27,320
Speaker 1: our early twenties. Old he seemed ancient. But yeah, hung

353
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Speaker 1: out with this guy drinking with him for probably five hours.

354
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Speaker 1: He didn't speak a word of English and I spoke

355
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Speaker 1: very bad German, but we communicated all night long.

356
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Speaker 2: It's the international language of beer.

357
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Speaker 3: I exactly ed love.

358
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Speaker 2: We kissed later on, very nice after drinking for five hours.

359
00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:46,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, imagine that.

360
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:53,360
Speaker 2: So carve Hal is again the biggest personality to emerge

361
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:55,520
Speaker 2: out of this, but he was far from the only

362
00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:58,760
Speaker 2: kind of character. I guess. There were two guys and

363
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:03,320
Speaker 2: it's awesome. There's a picture of them together, Leneyu Yanni

364
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,480
Speaker 2: and I don't know if it's Yan or John, but

365
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:11,280
Speaker 2: Yan Masciani. They were both from South Africa and they

366
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:15,879
Speaker 2: were from the Swana tribe Dswana, and they were at

367
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 2: the World's Fair because they were some of the indigenous

368
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,160
Speaker 2: people who've been imported to really kind of play up

369
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:26,840
Speaker 2: their indigenousness and also to reenact the Boer War between

370
00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,399
Speaker 2: the Dutch and the English that had just concluded, and

371
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:34,280
Speaker 2: they in the war. They had been messengers for the Boers,

372
00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:36,679
Speaker 2: so they were kind of recreating this on the daily.

373
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Speaker 2: They were also involved in I think they ran a

374
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Speaker 2: marathon in the Anthropology Games. I have no idea how

375
00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:49,879
Speaker 2: they were actually brought into the actual Olympic Marathon. The

376
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:54,760
Speaker 2: main one, the closest explanation that I saw is that

377
00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:59,680
Speaker 2: there was not a lot of internationality among the participants. Again,

378
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,879
Speaker 2: like you said, people just weren't coming. I think d

379
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,320
Speaker 2: kouber Tan, the guy who founded the modern Olympics, didn't

380
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:08,760
Speaker 2: even bother to show up. That was that poorly attended

381
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:14,560
Speaker 2: in that klue Ge, Right, So they needed to make

382
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:19,240
Speaker 2: it more international, and so they had too on Yani

383
00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:23,080
Speaker 2: and Mashiani run in this marathon. That's the best explanation

384
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:25,919
Speaker 2: I could see of how two black athletes ended up

385
00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,520
Speaker 2: running in the Olympic Mathon they would actually become the

386
00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:32,080
Speaker 2: first black African athletes in Olympic history of any event

387
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:36,240
Speaker 2: of any sport. Yeah, and the first or the last

388
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,920
Speaker 2: to represent South Africa for another eighty six years until

389
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:44,560
Speaker 2: apartheid was taken down taken apart Wow. And then there's

390
00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:47,960
Speaker 2: one other thing about tu Yani to on Yani, he

391
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:51,000
Speaker 2: was a mailman, which will come into play in just

392
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:51,600
Speaker 2: a little bit.

393
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:52,480
Speaker 3: Yeah.

394
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:54,399
Speaker 1: I love the picture of those guys, like you mentioned,

395
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:57,719
Speaker 1: it's the look on their faces a little bit like

396
00:21:58,480 --> 00:21:59,120
Speaker 1: we're gonna.

397
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:04,119
Speaker 2: Do what it's like studiously avoiding looking perplexed, but I

398
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:05,480
Speaker 2: think they're kind of perplexed.

399
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:08,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's we're gonna do what slash we got this.

400
00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of got that feel for sure.

401
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:12,960
Speaker 3: Because spoiler they finished the race.

402
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you spoiled it for me, all right.

403
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,760
Speaker 1: So the first thing that they did is they ran

404
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,719
Speaker 1: five laps around the Olympic Stadium. You know, I think

405
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:28,800
Speaker 1: they still do something like that now where they you know,

406
00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,200
Speaker 1: where their spectators are to watch before they get out

407
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:35,400
Speaker 1: on that dirt road. And before they left the stadium,

408
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:41,560
Speaker 1: John Lorden Boston Marathon Winter started vomiting and quit the race.

409
00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:44,639
Speaker 2: Yeah. It was really surprising because he was a favorite.

410
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:46,720
Speaker 3: Five laps in less than five.

411
00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:51,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, So that was the first guy. Once they

412
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:53,640
Speaker 2: made it out of the stadium and onto the dirt roads,

413
00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:56,919
Speaker 2: they were immediately confronted with the problem of the thick dust.

414
00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:01,080
Speaker 2: So in addition to running, they're also coughing, breathing shallowly,

415
00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:06,600
Speaker 2: I'm sure, And about ten miles in things really started

416
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,720
Speaker 2: to fall apart. And that's I mean, that's a significant

417
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:11,879
Speaker 2: distance considering what they were having to put up with.

418
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,160
Speaker 2: And again, this is a ninety degree day in the afternoon,

419
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:20,040
Speaker 2: in August. Right, Yeah, So what happened first after John

420
00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:21,800
Speaker 2: Lorden was out.

421
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,439
Speaker 1: Well, they're getting dehydrated. They're choking on the dust and

422
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 1: dirt everywhere. About the ten mile mark, our buddy Fred

423
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:32,680
Speaker 1: Laure's the brick layer, said.

424
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:34,200
Speaker 3: I'm tapping out.

425
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:36,640
Speaker 1: He called on his little satellite phone and seid, I'm

426
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:39,120
Speaker 1: officially withdrawing, and they got a helicopter and there flew

427
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 1: him out.

428
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 3: He actually didn't.

429
00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: He said he couldn't continue, and then he flagged down

430
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:48,280
Speaker 1: a car and jumped in the car and was like,

431
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 1: I'll just ride with you guys, because you're heading back

432
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:55,119
Speaker 1: to the Olympic Stadium. But I'm out, and they said sure,

433
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: no problem. So just kind of put that in your

434
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:57,760
Speaker 1: back pocket.

435
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 2: I saw somewhere also that it was his court team

436
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 2: slash coach that had been riding along with him. Yeah,

437
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 2: like next to him. Yeah, car yeah, so carve Hall.

438
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,160
Speaker 2: He doesn't have anybody there. He's totally on his own.

439
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,119
Speaker 2: He doesn't have a support team. And remember he hasn't

440
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 2: eaten in two days. So part of the course ran

441
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 2: past an apple orchard and he decided to stop and

442
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,400
Speaker 2: eat some apples, and depending on who you ask, either

443
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:25,520
Speaker 2: he ate too many apples because he was very hungry.

444
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 2: The apples he ate were rotten, or didn't he eat

445
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 2: apples at all, and he just ate a bunch of

446
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:32,960
Speaker 2: peaches like you said that he'd snatched from some spectators.

447
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 2: Either way, he ended up with stomach cramps from either

448
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 2: the apples or the peaches or both. And so carve

449
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 2: Hall did what any Olympic marathon or would do face

450
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 2: with that situation. He found a shady place to lay

451
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,280
Speaker 2: down and took a nap in the middle of the marathon.

452
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:53,600
Speaker 1: That's right, which is hysterical. So one guy's in a car,

453
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 1: one guy that the favorite had had puked and stopped

454
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 1: before they left the stadium. Fun Cuban friend is napping

455
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: in the orchard. One of the South African runners is

456
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:09,359
Speaker 1: chased a mile off course by a stray dog. So

457
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,640
Speaker 1: that ends up adding I mean, I guess a couple

458
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:16,720
Speaker 1: of miles if he had to get back right, yeah,

459
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:19,080
Speaker 1: and so he ran like a real marathon.

460
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:22,399
Speaker 2: Then yeah, exactly, yeah, because this is about two miles shorter.

461
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 2: So yeah too. On Yanni was the only one to

462
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:27,399
Speaker 2: run a real marathon. And the reason I mentioned that

463
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 2: he was a mailman is because yes, he was chased

464
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 2: by a dog while he was running the marathon. Little cliche,

465
00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 2: but it's it's true. I've seen dogs chase mail carriers before.

466
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:38,360
Speaker 2: It's not a pretty sight.

467
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:40,919
Speaker 1: And now ask a mail carrier, they will say that

468
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: it's a trope for a reason.

469
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,680
Speaker 2: So all the way at mile sixteen, Sam Meller, who

470
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 2: was another favorite, he started to cramp up from dehydration,

471
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,919
Speaker 2: and there's an account that says that he got lost.

472
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 2: Actually he was kind of disoriented from dehydration and exhaustion

473
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 2: and trying to find his way back to the course.

474
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:08,280
Speaker 2: He wore himself out and eventually he was just like,

475
00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:10,640
Speaker 2: I can't do this anymore. I'm out, all.

476
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:12,000
Speaker 3: Right, So Maloria's now out.

477
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,640
Speaker 1: And then we've got the worst case of them all,

478
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:19,439
Speaker 1: which was a guy from California named William Garcia Billy

479
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:23,920
Speaker 1: Garcia a mile nineteen starts coughing up blood. He passes

480
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: out on the road and has rushed to the hospital

481
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 1: and has to have emergency surgery because his esophagus was

482
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: so caked with dust and dirt and he was swallowing

483
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,560
Speaker 1: so much of this stuff it tore his stomach lining,

484
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: so he could have literally died yeah.

485
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 2: And imagine. I mean, like this guy just started breathing

486
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 2: this dust just a couple hours before, so I mean

487
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 2: it had a really pronounced effect. There was some really

488
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:49,479
Speaker 2: nasty dusts.

489
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 3: I guess should we take up a break.

490
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna take a break, and we're gonna start

491
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 2: closing in on that finish line after we get back.

492
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 2: How about that.

493
00:26:57,800 --> 00:26:58,920
Speaker 3: All right, We'll be right back.

494
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:24,159
Speaker 1: So I mentioned earlier, you might have thought I was

495
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:27,040
Speaker 1: kidding when I said some people, you know, might work

496
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,359
Speaker 1: as a professional clown but can run far. That was

497
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: the case with Thomas Hicks. He was a clown, but

498
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: he was also a clown that suffered from dehydration because

499
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,160
Speaker 1: he was not allowed to drink. Right at mile ten,

500
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: was like, you've got to give me water, you know,

501
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,480
Speaker 1: dust flying out of his mouth, and they said no, no, no,

502
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 1: you have to run two more miles to get that water.

503
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 1: They sponged him down with some warm, distilled water, which

504
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,480
Speaker 1: must have been quite a relief, wiped his back and

505
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: shoulders off a little bit. Eventually he would get that water.

506
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,120
Speaker 1: But then on the other side of that break at

507
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,440
Speaker 1: the seven mile mark, was like, by the way, I'm

508
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: thirsty again.

509
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 3: That didn't satisfy me for the rest of the race.

510
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 1: They said, here, drink this, and he said, what is

511
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 1: it and they said his egg whites and strychnine down

512
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 1: the hatch.

513
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, and apparently that that was like giving Popeye spinach,

514
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:23,159
Speaker 2: because you definitely put a little peppin in step. And

515
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 2: the reason why is because strick nine, in very small doses,

516
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 2: I saw something like one milligram acts as a stimulant,

517
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 2: so much so that there was a bronze medalist from

518
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 2: Kazakhstan in weightlifting name Isat Artikov who had his metal

519
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,800
Speaker 2: strip because he tested positive for stryck nine in twenty sixteen. Yeah,

520
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,520
Speaker 2: and it's enough of an effective stimulant that it's a

521
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 2: banned substance. At the time, there weren't any banned substances

522
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,960
Speaker 2: apparently except water in the Olympics or in the marathon. Right,

523
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:56,440
Speaker 2: so they were able to give them this little boost

524
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 2: with strychnine. I don't know what the purpose of the

525
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,480
Speaker 2: egg whites were, but I'm sure he was like, I

526
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,880
Speaker 2: don't care. It's there's some percentage of this this water

527
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 2: and I'll take it.

528
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:05,360
Speaker 3: Right.

529
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: Water was a performance enhancing drug, but stri thinks, yeah,

530
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,720
Speaker 1: exactly all right, So back to Fred Lawres. Remember this

531
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 1: guy's kicking it in his doctor's car. He's riding around

532
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 1: the AC's blaring, he's listening to run DMC in the

533
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 1: back of that limo, and they, you know, they get

534
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 1: close to the finish line. Back at the stadium about

535
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: four miles out. He was like, this will be hysterical.

536
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: I'm feeling pretty good now after being in the car

537
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 1: for so long. Yeah, I'm going to pretend like I'm

538
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 1: still in this race. Got out of the car, ran

539
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 1: into the stadium. The crowd roars because he's in the lead,

540
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 1: and crosses the finish line at three hours and thirteen

541
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 1: minutes and was being handed basically the Brial Cup named

542
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 1: for Brial who invented this thing from Alice Roosevelt, daughter

543
00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 1: of Teddy, and someone in this stands says, wait a minute,

544
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:03,719
Speaker 1: that guy was in a car. I'm not sure how

545
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 1: they found this out, but someone in the stands clued

546
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 1: them in that he was cheating, and despite him saying like, hey,

547
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:11,960
Speaker 1: this is just a joke, they're like, no, no, no, my friend,

548
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 1: you were about to take that cup your band for life.

549
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 2: Yeah. I imagine that person like shouting out that he

550
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 2: was a cheater, being kind of like Princess Buttercup getting

551
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 2: booed in the Princess Bride. Everybody's cheering, and there's that

552
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:29,240
Speaker 2: one old woman going boo. Yeah, that's kind of exactly

553
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 2: how it happened, to tell you the truth, now I

554
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 2: think about it. So Laws was disqualified and Hicks, Thomas Hicks,

555
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 2: the professional clown, was far enough back that his team

556
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 2: received word like, hey, this guy is just disqualified. The

557
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:50,080
Speaker 2: first place is now opened again. And Thomas Hicks is like, Okay,

558
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try hit me with some more strychnine and

559
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 2: egg whites, and you got any brandy on you, because

560
00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,719
Speaker 2: I think it's brandy time. And they did. They gave

561
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 2: him concoction of those three things, and he drank it down,

562
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 2: and they said, wait a minute, champ, we got something

563
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 2: even better for you. We're gonna give you another warm

564
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 2: sponge bath.

565
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:10,960
Speaker 3: Right, I'll get out there and chafe.

566
00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 2: And so he kept running. And as he kept running,

567
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,600
Speaker 2: remember he had apparently a mile twelve. With that water station,

568
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 2: they were allowed one cup of water.

569
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:20,960
Speaker 3: That's it.

570
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:23,400
Speaker 2: They couldn't just sit there and pound water. So this

571
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 2: guy was nearing the end of a twenty four mile

572
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 2: run with one cup of water on, two doses of

573
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 2: Strych nine, a bunch of egg whites, and some brandy,

574
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 2: and he is just barely hopping along. Toward the end,

575
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,440
Speaker 2: he was kind of engaging in like a shuffling jog

576
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 2: into a walk and then back into a shuffling jog.

577
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 2: And he seemed to as far as the I think

578
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 2: the race officials said, he was basically out of it,

579
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 2: just totally out of it, not even in his body anymore.

580
00:31:54,000 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: Can you imagine the pasty glue like quality of the

581
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: inside of his mouth and the sweaters on his teeth, Yeah,

582
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: for sure, and his breath. Frankly, yeah, at least they.

583
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 2: Didn't gi him yokes, but yes, it would still be

584
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 2: pretty bad.

585
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was one quote about the last couple of

586
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: miles there his eyes. Almost want to read this as

587
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 1: Quint from Jaws, because that's what it sounds like. His

588
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 1: eyes were dull, lustreless, the ashen color of his face

589
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: and skin had deepened. His arms appeared as weights well

590
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 1: tied down. He could scarcely lift his legs while his

591
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: knees were almost stiff.

592
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's walking around like Molly Shannon on the episode

593
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 2: of Seinfeld where she doesn't move her arms when she walks. Right,

594
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:44,640
Speaker 2: That's how this guy was running his marathon toward the end. Yeah, totally, Yeah,

595
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 2: making meringue in his mouth. Oh god, So he started

596
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 2: to hallucinate as the report that Thomas Hicks was like,

597
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 2: the finish line is still twenty miles away. Can you

598
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 2: imagine just the sense of dread. Oh my god, that

599
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 2: would run over you if you suddenly start believing that.

600
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,520
Speaker 2: And I guess his support team was like, no, no, buddy,

601
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 2: we're almost there. We're right there. And as he started

602
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:09,480
Speaker 2: to cross the finish line, his trainers helped him. This

603
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 2: was a kind of something that plagued early marathons that

604
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 2: the trainers of supports staff were totally fine with essentially

605
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:18,880
Speaker 2: carrying you across the finish line.

606
00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 3: Yeah.

607
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was this one or the

608
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 2: guy from the nineteen oh eight Olympic Marathon, but one

609
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 2: of the two were so carried across the finish line

610
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,960
Speaker 2: that their feet were still moving in mid air as

611
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 2: if they were still making their way, you know, cartoon

612
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 2: pretty much. Yeah, so he was very much helped across

613
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 2: the finish line. But this thing was so exhaustive and

614
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 2: just so brutal that he's still one first place. But

615
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 2: even as he was crossing the finish line, there was

616
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 2: the Saint Louis Dispatch wrote about how he looked and

617
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 2: how he was behaving, which was even worse than what

618
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 2: the race official wrote earlier.

619
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 3: Do you't me to read it? Yeah? You want me

620
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:03,960
Speaker 3: to read like quint.

621
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 2: Well, Either that or like a nineteen oh four Saint

622
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 2: Louis writer.

623
00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:09,920
Speaker 3: Oh, I'll just read it Sammy Davis.

624
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, no, no, come on.

625
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:14,439
Speaker 3: No, it's too long.

626
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: I'll read the last bit. He must have heard the

627
00:34:17,239 --> 00:34:19,239
Speaker 1: uproar around him, but he betrayed no sign of it.

628
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:21,520
Speaker 1: He was past that. He did look up once, when

629
00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 1: the din was at its height. He was within a

630
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:26,080
Speaker 1: few yards of the finish.

631
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:27,360
Speaker 3: Did you hear that?

632
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 2: Did something blow up?

633
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:30,440
Speaker 3: No, it's bad thunder.

634
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,799
Speaker 1: Let's leave it in there and here come Sammy to

635
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: finish up his lower job. Man was hanging as an imbecility.

636
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:43,320
Speaker 1: His eyes stared blankly bab but his pitiful expression didn't change.

637
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:43,600
Speaker 3: Man.

638
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 2: I think the best thing that ever happened in this

639
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:51,080
Speaker 2: podcast was everyone, including me, discovering that you can do

640
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 2: a great Sammy Davis Junior.

641
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean it all goes to Billy Crystala just

642
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 1: stole his impression from SNL.

643
00:34:57,520 --> 00:34:58,840
Speaker 2: I'm not I reject that.

644
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,879
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, so he was in worse shape than we thought.

645
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:04,640
Speaker 3: Even he didn't even know what was going on.

646
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:05,920
Speaker 2: What was his time?

647
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:10,720
Speaker 1: Three hours, twenty eight minutes, the worst time in history

648
00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:11,839
Speaker 1: of the Olympics.

649
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:15,480
Speaker 2: So apparently by thirty minutes, it was the slowest gold

650
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 2: medal time in the Olympic marathon by thirty full minutes.

651
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:22,440
Speaker 2: And keep in mind, starting at the next Olympics in

652
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 2: nineteen oh eight, the marathon began to be run as

653
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,840
Speaker 2: a twenty six point two mile race, so this was

654
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,920
Speaker 2: two miles shorter and still slower by thirty minutes. So

655
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:35,480
Speaker 2: technically he was probably about forty minutes slower than the

656
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 2: next worst time in Olympic history. There was one other

657
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:42,840
Speaker 2: really significant thing about all this. It had the greatest

658
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,880
Speaker 2: number of did not finishes. Something like fifty six percent

659
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:50,840
Speaker 2: of the people did not complete the race. Only fourteen

660
00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:54,799
Speaker 2: of the original thirty two runners completed this race. That

661
00:35:54,960 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 2: is abysmal. I think the next worse percentage was like

662
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 2: twenty eight percent. In Tokyo a few years back. This

663
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 2: is like, no, nothing has ever been run like this

664
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 2: before and hasn't been since.

665
00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, our friends from South Africa both finished, like I

666
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 1: said earlier. One came in twelfth place, so beat two people,

667
00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:18,239
Speaker 1: and one of them came in ninth place, so you know,

668
00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:21,239
Speaker 1: ninth out of fifteen. And these guys had never run

669
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 1: marathons before.

670
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 2: No, and one of them I think we left out.

671
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:26,400
Speaker 2: If you look at that photo, one of them's wearing

672
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 2: boots and the other one's barefoot, so it's pretty impressive. Carvall,

673
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 2: Carve Hall, I just I keep thinking of the ice

674
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 2: cream cake in it. Message. Yeah, Carve Hall. He finished fourth,

675
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,840
Speaker 2: and don't forget he took a nap in the middle

676
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,320
Speaker 2: of this, hadn't eaten in two days, and still finished fourth.

677
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:48,440
Speaker 2: So there's no telling what he could have done had

678
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:52,279
Speaker 2: he been wrested and fed and hadn't eaten a bunch

679
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,359
Speaker 2: of apples that gave him stomach cramps. So Carve Hall

680
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:56,360
Speaker 2: won in my opinion.

681
00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:57,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree.

682
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:01,319
Speaker 1: You would think that James Sullivan learned his lesson, and

683
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:05,399
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I guess we proved that water

684
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 1: drinking is probably something you should do, because you know,

685
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:12,200
Speaker 1: less than half of these guys finished. Not. So he

686
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:15,600
Speaker 1: actually wrote a book in nineteen oh nine called Marathon Running,

687
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,040
Speaker 1: where he said, don't get into the habit of drinking

688
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 1: and eating in a marathon race.

689
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 3: Some prominent runners do, but it is not beneficial. Smart

690
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 3: smart guy.

691
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 2: So he did also say that there was that the

692
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 2: marathon was essentially indefensible and that I asked too much

693
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:36,560
Speaker 2: of human endurance. So he kind of turned his back

694
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 2: on it. But other people are like, no, we like

695
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:41,800
Speaker 2: the marathon. He's like, really, okay, yeah, the marathon's great, right,

696
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:44,760
Speaker 2: And like I said, the nineteen oh eight Olympic Marathon

697
00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 2: was the first where it was run as twenty six

698
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:52,120
Speaker 2: point two miles, And the lore goes that that extra

699
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 2: point two miles was because the distance from the actual

700
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 2: finish line at twenty six miles to the box where

701
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 2: the royal were sitting watching the race was point two miles,

702
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:05,319
Speaker 2: so they had to add point two miles onto that

703
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:08,479
Speaker 2: twenty six miles so that the royals could be sitting

704
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,880
Speaker 2: there at the finish line. That's the lore, and I'm.

705
00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:13,840
Speaker 3: Pressing it's true. Yeahs not totally buy that.

706
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 2: Sure you got anything else.

707
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:18,960
Speaker 3: I got nothing else. This was a good one. Thank

708
00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 3: you to Peter Pittsgibbon.

709
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,600
Speaker 2: Thanks Peter. If you want to be like Peter and

710
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 2: send us an email, we would love that. We always

711
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 2: are happy to get good ideas. We'll add them to

712
00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 2: the pile. And since I said that and got confused

713
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 2: for a second thinking that I was wrapping up the show,

714
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:36,520
Speaker 2: it's time for listener mail.

715
00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:42,919
Speaker 1: I'm going to call this short and suite on phone

716
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:46,200
Speaker 1: freaking And this is from Kathy with a K. Hey, guys,

717
00:38:46,239 --> 00:38:48,200
Speaker 1: when you mentioned long distance calls and how people got

718
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 1: around the high rates, reminded me of when I was

719
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:53,000
Speaker 1: a teenager and we'll go out of town with friends

720
00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 1: skiing or to the beach at a system where they

721
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 1: would arrive at our destination. We would call home person

722
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:04,240
Speaker 1: to person asking to speak to buddy, who was their dog,

723
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 1: and that was the little clue there. My parents would

724
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,239
Speaker 1: say he was not at home, and they would know

725
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 1: that we'd arrived safely.

726
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 2: Nice.

727
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:15,759
Speaker 1: That's from Kathy with a K. So it's a nice

728
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 1: little workaround hack parents knew when someone called asking for

729
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 1: the dog, that just meant they were there safely.

730
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:21,880
Speaker 3: Fair charges.

731
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 2: Anytime I hear Kathy with the K. It makes me

732
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,480
Speaker 2: wonder if it's one of our Stuff you Should Know

733
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,319
Speaker 2: Army members Kathy with the K from Arizona who gave

734
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:32,000
Speaker 2: us the lastos to learn how to steer with.

735
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 3: I don't think it's at Kathy, but I've still got

736
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,200
Speaker 3: that rope. I keep it at the camp same here.

737
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 3: I hope to rope a bear one day.

738
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:39,640
Speaker 2: That would be great. I hope you get it on

739
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:42,000
Speaker 2: video if you do. Yeah, Well, if you want to

740
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,200
Speaker 2: be like Kathy and send us a cute little anecdote

741
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:46,799
Speaker 2: about something we talked about, we love that too, and

742
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,680
Speaker 2: you can send that as well to Stuff podcast at

743
00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:54,000
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio dot com.

744
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:57,040
Speaker 3: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

745
00:39:57,120 --> 00:40:01,319
Speaker 3: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

746
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows