Episode 6: 1904 Olympic Marathon

Welcome to Ill-Equipped History, where two unqualified women discuss history. Today, they talk about the 1904 Olympic Marathon in St. Louis. The race was a disaster, with dusty roads, no water stations, and obstacles like traffic and potholes. Many runners dropped out, and one even had to have surgery due to dehydration. Despite the chaos, the first two black contestants finished the race. Overall, it was a poorly organized event that showcased racism and incompetence. Welcome to Ill-Equipped History! I'm Emily, your host for this week, and my beautiful co-host Morgan is with us. Hello! And we are two women who are completely unqualified to talk about history who are going to do it anyway. So come join us for a fun story today! Alright! Also, I don't sound like death this week! My sinuses have finally cleared up! Yay! And mine are coming in! So it was my turn. So if I sound a little snotty today, that was, I don't know, Mother Nature's fault. So let's get into it! How are you doing today? I'm good! I'm on my third cup of tea. I read a book. I already ate my dinner. I'm ready to go. Productive day! Productive day! I got the kids asleep and in bed before we even started this, so there's not going to be any pitter-patter for me to edit out later. That's very impressive. Good day! Yeah, thank you, thank you. So let's get into it! The year is 1904, and the sweltering August sun is bearing down on the onlookers of the Francis Olympic Field Stadium. They have waited hours to see who the winner of this historic event will be, and it's nearing the end. Who do you think will win? My bet was on Sam Miller. He did win the Boston Marathon last year. Miller? Well, if you want to lose your money, that's how you do it. My bet's on Fred Lord. He's got some great potential and a nice butt, too. Lord, my grandmother is faster than him and has a better butt. What? Someone is better? An American won! An American? It's Fred Lord! Lord, get your dancing shoes on. We're going out tonight. Told you! Hold on. Something ain't right about this kid. He's probably even dirty. What? You gonna say something about your grandma again because your grandma can kiss my... She's an imposter! I saw him yankin' out of an automobile. A fraud! Liar! Throw him off the stage! All right, damn it! You were sayin'? Damn it. That was a good one. I broke Emily. So, Morgan, what is it we're talking about today? It sounds like some kind of race is going on at an Olympic stadium. What we are talking about today is the 1904 Olympic Marathon, specifically the marathon that happened during that Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, and I would like to in St. Louis, Missouri, and I would like to preface this by saying it was a leet shitshow. It was in St. Louis. Sorry, St. Louis. In 1904, and it was the first Olympics held on American soil, and they fucked it up. I was laughing so hard reading most of this stuff. I have tears in my eyes already, so I'm ready for this. That scene gave me life. Okay, so where was it? As we said, it was in St. Louis, Missouri at the Francis Olympic Field. Now, this field had just been built specifically for the Olympics. You know, the Olympics, they typically build new buildings for that reason, and this one is actually, it's kind of nice to hear that they built something for the Olympics and didn't just abandon it like they kind of do nowadays, but it is now sitting on the Washington University campus, and it was named after David R. Francis, who was a former Missouri governor and president of the organizing committee for those Olympic games. All right. It's still in use today. They use it for campus tracks and stuff, so it's got a track in the middle of it, and then they use it for stuff like that. The marathon was on August the 30th in 1904, and this Olympics was a little different than the others for the sole reason that it wasn't just the Olympics. Another event was going on at the same time, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the 1904 World's Fair, and they kind of mashed the two together. So at the same time you're having the World's Fair, you're having the first Olympics on American soil, which you'd think would just make it this huge event, which it was, but the problem was that the World's Fair overshadowed the Olympics. The people cared more about the World's Fair than the Olympics. Yeah, the World's Fairs were big deals. Yeah, and it didn't carry the grandeur of the two previous Olympics that were in other countries. Okay. So getting into a little bit about the other things of the Olympics first and who put on the race. The man responsible for designing the course was James E. Sullivan, and he was the head of the physical culture department for the World's Fair. Can I cut in really quick? Yes, yes. And Monsters Incorporated, the main character's name is James P. Sullivan. I just thought that was weird. Sorry, continue. I'm never going to watch Monsters Inc. the same again because this guy sucks so bad. I've literally titled this section the worst person ever. Oh, no. Sorry. It's okay. Yay! Continue. So he intended the games to showcase the, and I'm quoting this, white American excellence. Through a series of events that were extremely racist called the Anthropology Days. All of this is super cringe and I hate it, but I just wanted to put the information out there because I didn't want to just ignore it. Yeah, I wish you guys could. But this guy sucks. I wish you guys could see my face because it is smelled like four-week-old milk. Like, ew, this is gross. Stank face. It's super gross. The Anthropology Days were basically three days where they took non-white competitors and had them play sports that they had never done before to, quote, flaunt their athletic inferiority to the world. It's gross. It's a lot of gross. The headline in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch headlined it as, Barbarians Meet the Athletic Games. What? Disgusting. What? Yes. Now, I know this is 1904, but it doesn't make it right. Sullivan claimed that the marathon would be used as evidence of racial superiority, even though 80% of the runners were white. I'm sorry. Going back to what you said earlier, having a bunch of people do something that they've never done before or have never trained in to show, like, oh, look at these guys over here. That is, like, you're purposely putting them in a position where they're going to look like they're not good at something when they've never trained in it before. How low are you going to do this thing that you've never done before the very first time in front of how many people? Oh, it was all just to make them look bad. Literally, that's all it was for. Yeah, this guy fucking sucks. Yeah, he does. I told you, it's the worst person ever. It is the worst person ever. And in a book, and this guy actually had something to do with the race. He was one of the physicians who rode in a car, who we'll look into that in a minute. But he was assisting one of the runners, and he wrote in his book named The Olympic Games 1904, which was a very original title, that the marathon established, quote, the stamina of the Caucasian race and the superior distance running powers. And the book didn't even talk about the fact that, like, what we'll get into in a minute, that two of the finishers were the first two black contestants to actually participate in the Olympics. They finished, and they they did a good job. And it didn't even, like, mention them. Wow. Because, you know, people suck sometimes. It's cringey, isn't it? It's really cringey. Like, I have a lot of thoughts that I won't get into right now. Continue. Me too. That was the shit part of this. Now we're going to get into the fun part of this. Okay. Now that's past us. So I just wanted to get that out of the way. So who competed? 32 men total. And of those 32 men, only 14 finished, and one was disqualified. Only three of them. Only 14 finished out of 38. 32. Total shit show. That's less than half. I know. And one was disqualified. Three of them were Boston Marathon winners, like previous Boston Marathon winners. None of those Boston Marathon winners even finished the race. Finished. Really? They didn't even make it back to the finish. None of them. What? I know. And a lot of those Boston Marathon winners were, you know, a lot of them were bet to win. Yeah. They already won a marathon. The Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon, which is not a small feat. No, it's not a... Ten. Yeah. Yeah. Ten were Greeks who had never run a marathon. Most of the athletes were middle distance specialists and novelists. And like I said earlier, the first two black contestants were in this race. Now, I forgot to write it down specifically, but not a lot of countries participated in this one because I think of global economy, not economy, but global, I guess, economics. Yeah, just shit was going down in the world and not a lot of countries could come and participate. So we've got participants from the US, France, Cuba, Greece, South Africa. And it looks like that. Oh, Great Britain. And I think that's it. Canada. Sorry, Canada. That's not a lot. No, it's really not. And it is a lot of white, predominantly white countries. Yeah. Yeah. Even the ones from South Africa, one of those contestants, Bertie Harris, he was white as well. So, I mean, it was just a racist race. Horrible. Okay, so let's go over a few of the contestants. I couldn't find information on every single one, but let's talk about who we do know about. So Frank Pierce, he was the first Native American to compete in the Olympics. Fred Lors, who we've already heard from once, he was a bricklayer by trade and had finished in the top five at the previous two Boston Marathon. John Lorden, he was the 1903 Boston Champ. He was Irish born, but running for the United States. Thomas Hicks was a professional clown, second place winner in the Boston Marathon the year prior. And I think the funniest thing about this is that they knew he was a clown when he was running, but they kept saying that he was the one that looked the most serious. He just deadpanned the whole time he was running. I don't think he cracked a smile once. It's a serious business. Like enough for them to, like, say something about it. He knows how to compartmentalize. Clowning is a clown? He does. He does not clown on the marathon at all. He wasn't clowning around that day. Okay, I'll stop. Arthur Newton, he had won bronze the day before in steeplechase. Please don't ask me what steeplechase is. Steeplechase is the horse race. Oh, God, thank you. Okay. I forgot to look it up. And Sam Meller, whom again we heard from previously in our skit, he was the 1902 Boston Marathon champ. So he had won two years prior. And he was a pre-race favorite. In addition to his Boston win, he podiumed there in 1901 and 1903. And he'd won the Pan American Exposition Marathon in 1901 in 104 degree heat. Oh, God. Yeah, that's hot. Yeah. That's really hot. So, of course, he was a pre-race favorite. William Garcia was from San Francisco. That's all we know about him. Albert Corey was French born, US representing marathoner, and he worked at a slaughterhouse. Right. Lynn Tanyane and John Mashiani were the two South African black contestants. They were from the Tswana tribe. And this was their first marathon. They were the only black athletes to represent that nation until 86 years later. What? Yeah. Wow. So the South Africans were only sending white contestants until 86 years. That's 1990. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. They had no formal racing training experience or anything. And they were only at the St. Louis World's Fair participating in the Boer War Exhibition. Okay. And they arrived at the start line barefoot. All right. That's confidence. And then there's Adrian Felix Carvajal, whom I would like to point out is my favorite person. Okay. He's my favorite. He is a Cuban nail man who arrived at the race in a long sleeve shirt, hat, pants, heavy shoes, and a big old mustache. I mean, this mustache is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. Carvajal had raised the money for his journey to America by running exhibitions in Cuba. But after he had a layover in New Orleans, and he gambled all of his money away. Oh, no. So he just he just hitchhiked the rest of the way to St. Louis. He barely made it. He barely got to New Orleans. And he was favored to win. He was also favored to win that mustache. Somebody felt really bad for him and helped him cut off his pants into jeans. Because we'll get into the race details in a minute. But it was 90 degrees that day. Oh. And he showed up in a long sleeve shirt and long pants and heavy shoes. And is that mustache not beautiful? Oh, I see it. Sorry, I can't see anything. I have to zoom in. That is quite the mustache. And I see his little pants that were cool pants that they cut. And he's got his sleeves rolled up to his elbow. I mean, at least it looks like a flowy shirt. Is he wearing stockings underneath his pants? Absolutely. Well, he he looks and you'll you'll you'll know why he's my favorite later. But one little fun fact, he was favored to win and he kept stopping to talk to people during the race. He was so charismatic. What a what a friendly guy. I love him. He's just like, yeah, I'm here to run. I'm here to talk. I'm here to have a good time. Gamble all my money away. I'm just here to have a good time. So race details. The race was 24.85 miles. So 40 40 40 kilometers. 40 kilometers. Words are hard. 26.2 miles didn't become the standard until 1921. So they just kind of got to, I guess, make up how long it was. The worst person in the world designed the track. So we'll blame him for it being too short. So what they did was they did five laps around the track in the stadium first and then they were to follow some country roads and then it ended up to it kind of went through town a little bit and then it came back around. On this course there were seven hills varying from 100 to 300 feet tall. Two big hills. Which just sounds like it's something. Yeah, those are big hills. And I'll just go ahead and get into the issues with the race. What? Issues with this race? No. Bitch. Get ready. Buckle up. Remember that mud run we did? I was actually just thinking about it. I think I would do that about five times before I ran this race. Oh my gosh. Even that hill? I would do that. That was a shitty hill. And I would do it with the stomach bug that I had during that race again. Wow. But anywho. So the issues with the race, they were on dusty country roads. They had vehicles at the beginning of the race and at the end. So kind of flanking the runners. But the vehicles were just kicking up dirt and dust into the runners faces while they're running. Oh no. The late start time, which I didn't say, they didn't start till 3 p.m. In the heat of the day. When did this happen again? What month was this? In August. Oh no. August. In St. Louis? 90 degrees in St. Louis. That sounds like the worst thing ever. At 3 p.m. Oh God. And do you think they roped off the roads? Absolutely not. These people were having to run past people walking their dogs. They were avoiding traffic, delivery wagons, trains, trolleys. Oh my God. Vanguard on horsemen. Oh my God. And potholes. It became a game of fraud. And then right behind them were journalists and doctors and supporting team and stuff kicking up even more dirt. I picture the Nazi journalists jogging along behind the runners. Like, okay, now he's moved up to fifth place and now he's moved back to third place. Oh my, that's pretty much what it was like. It was just a shit show. And then the worst part was the dickhead Sullivan that we talked about earlier. He wanted to test his theory of purposeful dehydration. He thought that eating and drinking during a marathon would only upset tummies. So they put one water station right smack in the middle. Oh my God. At mile 12. Oh my God. Of 24, it was one water station. Oh my God. And no one was allowed to give them any water or food or anything. Oh my God. That sounds so awful. These poor men. Right. Give, give me that mud run five times. It was so bad. At least there was shade when we walked and there wasn't dust being, like, we weren't breathing in dust. The worst part was the hill and they had seven hills. I figured the best way to do this, because we got a lot of players in this, is just, we're going to go, you know, not mile by mile, but kind of close to it. Okay. So at 3.03 PM, David R. Francis fires the starting gun. Okay. And they're off. So lap one, Frank Pierce briefly took the front and he was followed by Arthur Newton, Thomas Hicks, and Sam Miller. So a lot of those big key, key names that we were talking about earlier. By lap three, Fred Lors took the lead. Close behind him, John Lorden began vomiting and walked off the track as the first DNS of the race. Oh man. At lap three. He didn't even make it out of the stadium. Yeah, but he was one of the ones that, if I remember right, was a Boston Marathon champ. In lap three, he was like, I'm out. Yeah. At lap five, Hicks overtook Lors to lead them out of the stadium and onto the dirt roads. So we've got Hicks and then Lors and then a couple of those other people. I mean, I don't know exactly where everyone was because it was 1904 and we don't know everything, but this is pretty good. So at mile three, Newton held fifth. Hicks had fallen back to seventh. Albert Corey was in ninth. Lynn Coignane and John Masciani were close behind that. So probably 10th, 11th, 11th, 12th, something like that. Okay. At mile six, Newton led. Miller second. Lors and Felix, most of the sites that I read called him Felix. So we're calling him Felix. Carvajal following. By mile 10, Lors got muscle cramps and flagged down a car, which probably had his coach in, for a ride back to Francis Field. In my guess, Lors was like, never mind, I can't do this. Just take me back to the field. Whatever. Felix Carvajal, my favorite, stopped for a snack and apparently during this, spectators wouldn't give him some of the peaches that they had. So he just like ran up and like playfully like stole them out of the, which is like, I've taken those, but it wasn't enough. So he ran into a field and ate some apples out of an orchard. The hungry man. But the apples were rotten. And he got stomach cramps and he laid down for a nap. Just a little nappy nap. This is why Dickhead didn't want anyone to eat food. Because stomach cramps. I know. Don't get me right. Okay. So that was mile 10. Mile 12, remember this is where the only water station is. Meller was leading and Newton and Hicks were following. So Meller, I remember he was one of the favorites, was slowing to combat the cramps that he was having. Another account claimed that he thought he had taken a wrong turn and had worn himself out running backwards on the course, like trying to, you know, figure out where he was because they didn't rip that shit off. He soon dropped out of the race where Hicks took the lead. So Hicks took the lead at mile 16 with Newton trailing. And this is just so sad to me because poor Hicks, he is four miles past the only water station. He had two trainers following him in a car. And you can see in the little picture, this is him running with his two trainers running next to him in full suits. Mind you, they're just running in suits. He was begging them for water, begging them for a drink. And they wouldn't give it to him. So instead, they gave him a sponge bath. They were like sponging his shoulders and his mouth. I was just like, give me that water. Like a dog, just shook it. Oh, that's so sad. Oh, I know. But they're nearing the end. Right? Okay. At mile 19, William Garcia in fourth place collapsed. This is terrifying because he was on the side of the road and he began to cough up blood and pass out before being discovered and taken to the hospital where he had to have surgery due to a dust lined esophagus and a torn stomach lining due to the hours of running in the heat, dehydrated. This man almost died. Had no one found him, I think one of the one of the sources said that I think another hour he would have died. Yeah. Thankfully, no one did die. And I cannot believe I cannot believe no one died in this race. Me. Oh, my God. Now, meanwhile, this is mile 19. At about that time, Lors, remember, he was living his best life in the car. He said it back to the stadium. He decides he's feeling a little better. He's not having so many cramps. This motherfucker gets out of the car after he just rode 11 miles and decides to finish the race on foot and runs the rest of the way to the stadium. Finishing the race in about three hours, something I'll get into his exact time. No one's. Well, I think one person sees him get out of the car and tells him to, like, stop racing. But he's just like, no, I'm gonna do what I want. And he just finishes the race. So everybody in the stadium, they don't see him because they're running on back roads, basically. So he is. This is our scene at the beginning. He is on stage with Alice Roosevelt, the first daughter of the United States, about to, like, crown him the victor when a spectator yells that that he had been seen getting out of the car. And he tried to, like, defend his victory as a joke that he wasn't going to actually take the win. He was gonna he was just going along and it was ha ha funny funny. Bullshit. Total bullshit. I'm so glad we did that at the same time. But this earned himself a lifetime ban from marathon running. Yeah, he cheated so much. Like, cheated so hard. Okay, so mile 20, four miles away from the end. While Lors was being publicly shamed, Hicks was leading, but having a really bad time. I know, he's thirsty. Is the man water? His trainers gave him a combination of egg whites and one milligram of strike nine sulfite, sulfate? I think that's how you say that. Which made Hicks be the first person in the Olympics to take a performance enhancing drug. Lots of firsts in this race. But he did it while racing. Yeah, in high doses. This is rat poison. Oh my god, because I feel like I've heard of straconine before. Yeah, straconine. And in low doses, it's a stimulant. And it's currently banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Yeah. So at mile 20, he drinks egg whites and the straconine. Makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it. I know. Like you're dying of thirst, you get egg whites. Yeah. Oh, gross. Like the, sorry, the consistency. Mixed with, God knows what that tastes like. Oh man. Okay, it gets worse. Oh god. Hicks was continuing, but he was still, still on the struggle bile. Yeah. Due to the two mile hill to get back to the stadium. So they gave him a second dose. Oh no. And a shot of brandy. We're not going to let you drink any water, which is what you've been begging for. But here are some egg whites and liquor. And some rat poison. Good luck, buddy. We're just going to get you all stimulated and drunk. They drew it in my eyes. What the fuck? I know. So the poor guy, at about mile 20 to 22, one of the sources said that he started to hallucinate and he thought he had 20 more miles left in the race. And he was panicking. I know you're crying. I know. I feel so bad while we're laughing. I feel bad. But okay. So at the finish line, Hicks won. And I feel like after all that, he just really did. But his trainers pretty much had to carry him over the line. And he was like, doing a little shuffle. He could barely carry himself. His legs were just like, shuffling back and forth. While his trainers held him upright. Yeah, he won. But this is the slowest winning marathon time in Olympic history. Oh, my God. And it's slowest by 30 minutes. Wow. Yeah, he lost eight pounds during the race. And it took an hour and four doctors to get him well enough to just leave the ground. Oh, my God. Eight. Yeah, eight hours or eight pounds. He lost eight pounds in a day. In three and a half hours. Wait, it took him three and a half hours to run 24 miles? 24 miles. Holy shit. That's still like way faster than I can run 24 miles. It takes me 13 minutes to go one mile. I get winded going up the stairs. Absolutely not. I'm too thick for this. Well, you could run a 24 mile marathon in 90 degree heat in St. Louis with no water and you'd lose so much weight. Kill yourself to lose weight. So, Charles Lucas, a race official, said about Hicks, his last two miles, his eyes were dull, lusterless, the ashen color of his face and skin had deepened. His arms appeared as a weight tied down. He could scarcely lift his legs while his knees were almost stiff. Oh, my God, this poor guy. This man was on the brink of death. And honestly, it was the best thing that ever happened to him that the race was two miles shorter than it should have been. Yeah. I would like to add that at some point, Len Fonyan was chased a mile off course by wild dogs and he still finished ninth. Wow. Yeah. Wow. I just don't know at what point that happened. Yeah. So, I'm just adding it at the end. But he was chased a mile off course. So, let's get into some finishing times. Now, Fred Lors finished in three hours and 13 minutes. Wow. Okay. Now, remember, he was riding 11 miles in a car. Yeah. Thomas Hicks finished in three hours, 28 minutes and 53 seconds. Lors only beat Hicks by 15 minutes in a car. What a trooper Thomas Hicks is. I mean, can we give him a round of applause? So, Albert Corey, he finished, he was second place. He finished in three hours, 34 minutes and 52 seconds. Arthur Newton, United States, finished three hours, 47 minutes, 33 seconds. Now, remember Mr. Felix Carvajal? Mm-hmm. He took a little nappy nap. Yeah, after eating rotten apples. He finished fourth. That nap really did wonder. Oh, I can't. Now, I wish I could tell you what his run time was, but according to the sources, they either didn't write down the rest of the finishing times or they've just kind of been lost to history. So, only Lors, Hicks, Corey, and Newton, the top three and the disqualified, were documented, really. Okay. But, Linh Tuan-Yen finished ninth, and John Masciani, our two only black contestants, finished and they got ninth and twelfth. Good for them. Hey, they finished and that's a feat in itself. Yeah. And one of them got chased off course by dogs. For a mile. For a mile and then had to, like, come back around. God, and you can imagine, like, having to run to, like, outrun wild dogs. Like, this man was sprinting. Like, hell no. You need to test getting the fuck out of there. And he's still finishing ninth place. Yeah. Most of these people didn't even finish at all. Less than half actually finished. Oh, my gosh. So, do you want to hear about the aftermath? Yes, please tell me about the aftermath. Because this race turned some heads. So, two days after the marathon, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dubbed it a, quote, man killer event and reported that Olympic committee members were calling for its removal. Sullivan, old shitty Sullivan himself, turned on the event that he put together and publicly stated that, quote, a 25-mile run is asking too much of the human endurance. This shithead. I, he, he had this whole thing about this will be the, the demonstration of the white, what the fuck was it? Like, the white endurance or whatever and white superiority in athletics. And he was like, uh, 25 miles. That's too much. It's too much. You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of the Fyre Festival. Wait, which? The Fyre Festival? Oh, my God. We need to cover that. We need to cover that in an episode. It was this festival for a bunch of like, influencers and wealthy elites. And it was a shit show. Oh, no, no, I remember that. And they like, had no food and it was horrible. And it was supposed to be on like, this island or something like that. Yeah. And then the creator of it was like, what? Well, it sucks. I don't know what to say. That's what it reminds me of. Yeah. Okay, no, you're right. I know what you're talking about. I'm not very good at names. Okay. Do you want to know one more shitty thing about Mr. Sullivan? Oh, God, what? He was also an outspoken misogynist. Of course he was. Because why not? God, one more. And as the head. You say, add one more cherry on your shit cake. The shit Sunday. I can't think of it. I was like, shit, shit, shit cake. Have you seen? What's the movie? Is it the help where she makes that shit? Yes. Oh, iconic. So I love, love that movie. Okay. But he was also a misogynist. And as the head of the US Olympic Committee, in the next Olympics in 1908, he was able to ban American women from competing in the Olympic Games. What? But like women from other countries competed, right? I think so. What a shit stain this guy. He's literally the scum. He is a freak on a pair of gross, unwashed undies. From a guy who does not wipe his ass. So my son while potty training. That that is this guy, that little shit on Paw Patrol underwear. He was that underwear I threw away a lot. I would like to say that the race was not canceled. And in 1908, there was only one returning competitor from the 1904 Olympics marathon. And that was Sidney Hatch. And he finished eight. All right. In 1904. He was the only one to be like, let's go again. That was fun the last time. Let's do it again. Yeah, everyone else was like, fuck this. Yeah. So I do know a little bit about the ongoing lives of some of the people. So Hicks ran the marathons for the next five years. Good for him. Tuan Yen and Mashiani practically disappeared from recorded history after that race. So I don't think they ran another one. I know. Corey raced annually in an early iteration of the Chicago Marathon and won in 1908. Get it. Good for him. Yeah. Newton competed in his third event of the games four days later, taking gold in a four mile team race that fielded just two teams. All right. So I guess there wasn't a lot of competition. Corey claimed another silver on the losing squad. Okay. So I guess they raced against each other again. Against each other. Yeah. And Lohr's lifetime ban lasted, how long do you think? I don't know. Like one day. I don't know. It was less than a year. He won the next Boston Marathon, the 1905 Boston Marathon. Did they keep an eye on him this time and make sure he didn't ride most of it in a car? I hope so. And Carvajal, Mr. Felix, my favorite, that handsome devil, Carvajal continued to travel for marathons. And in 1905, he returned to St. Louis to take third in the inaugural All-Western Marathon. In 1906, the Cuban government sent him to Greece for an Olympics adjacent marathon, only for him to disappear on his way there in Italy. Oh, God. After being presumed dead, complete with newspaper obituaries, he reappeared in Havana several months later and continued his racing career. He just took a little sabbatical. He just showed up back in Cuba. Like, surprise, I'm back. Thanks for the vacation, Cuban government. I love this man. He's just out here doing whatever the hell he wants. What an icon. Truly icon. Truly. Oh, man. I mean, oh, my God. Oh, man. This is great. And that's all I have. I was laughing so hard doing the research for this. This is wild. This is so crazy. Thank you for covering this topic. You're welcome. You're welcome, audience. I hope this is a good one for y'all. Oh, man. Oh, my God. We both have had tears in our eyes, like, most of this episode. Oh, my goodness. This is such a shit show. You know what, like, I'm glad that there is a committee to ensure that athletes are safe, but oh, my God, can you imagine watching this go down? On TV. On TV. Like, if this, like, if this happened in current times, someone just got out of a car and, like, ran to the finish line. One guy gets chased by dogs. Another guy is doing shots of brandy and rat poison and being dragged across the finish line. And he's the winner. And he's dragged across, like, that can't even be, like, an actual win. I don't think he went under his own power, but at that point, they were like, just let him win. He's just a shell of a man at this point. Please. He thinks he has 21 miles to go. Please just let him. He lost eight pounds. He probably looks like the grandma on SpongeBob asking for chocolate. Chocolate? What is this, egg whites? Give me some water. Don't just sponge me. What? Get free. Get free. Well, if you, if you want to hear more stories like this. Keep listening. Or if you have, yeah, keep listening. Or if you have any more stories that will make us cry less, please send them to our email or comment on Instagram. Our Instagram is illiquidhistory and our email is illiquidhistory at gmail.com. No spaces, no dashes. Sorry, I just wanted to. We're going to have to get off here so I can, like, breathe. Thanks for listening. Okay, bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.