I know you are all chomping at the bit to find out how Team Flash did at the St. Louis University Cancer Center 5K this weekend. Well, I’m going to make you wait another day or two for the full report since today represents the anniversary of a significant event in St. Louis and Olympic history. 105 years ago today St. Louis, Missouri was the host for the 1904 Olympic Games marathon.

St. Louis hosted an Olympic games. It seems unbelievable now, but St. Louis was chosen to host the 1904 Olympics, in conjunction with the World’s Fair celebrating the Louisiana Purchase. Chicago was originally awarded the Olympics, but because St. Louis was hosting the fair, the Olympic committee transferred the games to St. Louis. Chicago was left the bridesmaid and is still waiting for their opportunity to host! In 1904, St. Louis was the fourth largest city by population in the United States. Only New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia were larger so it wasn’t as surprising as it would seem today that the games were moved.

The Olympic games weren’t exactly as popular as they are today. This was only the third modern games, after Athens in 1896 and Paris in 1900. While the Athens games were quite successful, the games in Paris were a bit of a disaster. The word ‘Olympic’ wasn’t used in conjunction with the Paris games and they were held with the Parisian World’s Fair, so the Olympics were overshadowed. Both the Olympic committee and the organizers of the St. Louis World’s Fair didn’t want that to happen again. So they made sure that the games were identified with the word ‘Olympic’ or ‘Olympiad’ and that they had their own organization within the World’s Fair organizing committee.

Many different Olympic competitions were held, but just as today, the highlight of the Olympic games was the track and field competition. The premiere event of track and field was not the 100 yard dash. Instead the marathon captured the public’s imagination. This was the centerpiece of the competition and was the only event held on August 30, 1904.

32 athletes from four countries; Greece, South Africa, Cuba, and the United States; lined up at the start of the race. That tells you that the Olympics were not quite the same competition as today! It was difficult to travel across the United States and many European countries did not send athletes. Two of the three South African participants were black tribesmen who were actually part of the fair exhibition on the Boer War and entered the race as a diversion. They were messengers in the Army and obviously had some training running. Greece sent a large contingent of athletes to the Olympics and ten of them entered the race. 18 runners, including all the race favorites, were American and one runner represented Cuba.

The Cuban, Felix Carbajal (#3 in the picture above), was an interesting story. The Cuban government, only an independent country for two years, did not sponser him. Carbajal raised enough money on his own to travel to the United States and enter the race. While he was in New Orleans, he lost his money in a craps game and had to hitchhike the rest of the way to St. Louis. So, upon arrival, he was penniless and starving! Luckily for him, some of the US Olympic shot putters took pity on him and gave him food and a place to stay. He showed up with no athletic clothes, shoes, or anything. So right before the race, one of his shot put buddies took a pair of garden shears and cut off his pants at the knee, but he still had to run the race in his normal shoes and the shirt that he wore on his back.

The US athletes in the race were not marathon slackers. They included Arthur Newton, who ran in the Paris Olympics in 1900, Sam Mellor, John Lorden, and Michael Spring, the last three winners of the Boston marathon, and a Boston runner-up, Thomas Hicks. These were all experienced marathoners and the winner was expected to come from this group.

The marathon in 1904 had still not settled on an exact distance for the race. Basically the marathon was just considered to be a very long race. The St. Louis course covered 24.85 miles or 40 kilometers. The course started with five laps around the 1/3 mile track in the stadium. This stadium still exists today and is the athletic field for Washington University. It is named Francis Field, after David Francis, the organizer of the World’s Fair. Here is the historic gate to the stadium. The building framed by the gate was built for the World’s Fair and is still used by Washington University.

The grandstand today:

A plaque on the gate:

The five laps in the stadium was the easy part of the race, because after that the runners had to go out and run on the ‘streets’ of St. Louis county. The roads were not well paved, particularly where this marathon was run. They were mostly hard packed dirt. The new fad of the time, automobiles, were out on the course to follow the runners. Race officials, runners supporters, and curious well heeled observers were all in cars. The cars caused clouds of dust that seriously affected the runners’ breathing. That, the heat, and the 90% humidity, made conditions nearly impossible for the runners. The course exited the stadium, turned down Olympian Way, then turned right onto Forsyth Boulevard.

Less then ½ mile down Forsyth, John Lorden had a bout of vomiting (come on – we’ve all been there) and had to abandon the race. He would not be the first. When the runners reached Brentwood Boulevard, they went south. Less then two miles after turning on Brentwood, the runner leading the race, Michael Spring, developed cramps and had to drop out. This left Mellor, Edward Carr, and Newton running together in the lead. They then turned west on Manchester Road. Thomas Hicks was trailing the leaders by about 2 miles. At the nine mile mark, Fred Lorz succumbed to stomach cramps and got in a car for a ride to the stadium.

At the thirteen mile mark, Mellor led, Newton was in second and Hicks was in third, but still well behind the leaders. Carr had dropped out of the race and the rest of the runners were strung out over about three miles of the course. When the course turned on to Ballas Road, runners started dropping like flies. Mellor dropped out. Hicks picked up the pace to catch up to Newton, but other runners were struggling. One runner who seemed to be going pretty well was the Cuban. He was hamming it up for the spectators, stopping to talk to them along the way and seemingly unaffected by the heat. He did ‘borrow’ two peaches from a race official and ate those along the way. Can you imagine? In the middle of an Olympic race and you are talking to the crowd and stealing peaches!

William Garcia collapsed on the side of the road and was taken to the hospital. He had a stomach hemorrhage and would have died if he hadn’t received assistance. Two race officials collided with each other in cars and drove into a ditch. They were both seriously injured. It wasn’t just the runners that were suffering during this race! The course itself didn’t make the going easier with seven major hills along the way. Note to anyone running races in St. Louis – you better be ready for some hills!

Hicks took the lead but there was still drama in the field. One of the South African runners, Len Tau, was chased off the course by a dog. He ended up going more then a mile off course! Even with the detour, Tau finished 9th. The second South African army messenger, Jan Mishiani, finished 12th.

Meanwhile, Hicks, though leading, was suffering. The runners headed east on Clayton Road, then North on Lindbergh Boulevard and then east on Olive back toward the stadium. Hicks requested water, but his handlers responded by moistening a sponge and rubbing that on his head. Seven miles from the finish, he was given 1/60th of a grain of strychnine and an egg white. This revived him for a bit. Three miles later he begged to be allowed to lie down, but his handlers made him continue, although they did let him slow to a walk.

Suddenly, Fred Lorz ran past Hicks and completely demoralized him. But Hicks was informed that Lorz had dropped out of the race and that he was still leading. That didn’t revive him enough, so his guys gave him another dose of Strychnine, two more egg whites, and brandy to wash it all down. They also heated water on one of the car engine blocks and gave him a sponge bath. That gave him enough strength, barely, to get to the stadium.

Meanwhile, the crowd in the stadium was getting restless. They didn’t expect to wait over three hours for the winner to show up. Then, a runner entered the stadium and the crowd rose to their feet and roared. The only problem was that the runner was Fred Lorz, who got a car ride back to the stadium. The car broke down on the way, so Fred thought he would just run the last couple miles. But the crowd decided he had won! Lorz was known as a bit of a jokester, so he went along with it. The race officials quickly realized he had already dropped out of the race and they did not treat him as the winner. The head of the Olympics, James Sullivan, was so upset that he declared Lorz banned for life. However, a few months later he was reinstated and he went on to win the Boston marathon in 1905.

Hicks (#20 in the picture above on the far left) finished the remainder of the course, along Olive, then on Brentwood, then finally back on Forsyth to the stadium. He stumbled around the track and then fell thru the tape. He was in no condition to receive his silver cup. In fact, the doctors had to treat him for a case of ‘very low vitality.’ His condition was no surprise given that he ran nearly 25 miles without water and after being given rat poison as a stimulant! His time was 3:28:53, the slowest Olympic marathon ever. Hicks did recover, but retired from running since he achieved his dream of winning a marathon championship.

You can still follow the course today. The field still has a track on it and the roads all still exist. After following the old course in a car, I doubt there is one building left that was in existence at the time of the race (with the possible exception of a church). Here is a typical view of the course:

Runners still run along these routes. They are probably oblivious to the fact that they are following in the footsteps of Olympic marathoners. Sometime this fall, I’m going to take my chances with the cars of today and run the complete route. It will be my own tribute to these runners who risked their lives trying to achieve an Olympic medal. If anyone reading this would like to join me, please send me an email to ‘bkflash at charter dot net’. We’ll work something out.

Final Standings – 1904 Olympic Marathon

Thomas Hicks, USA
Albert Coray, USA
Arthur Newton, USA
Felix Carbajal, Cuba
Dimitrios Veloulis, Greece