The Worst Marathon Ever
The 1904 Olympic Marathon was a disaster, and I’m here to tell you about it. Welcome back to Cold Case Mysteries with Rohith Koneru where I talk about everything other than cold case mysteries. In this episode, we are talking about the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon, a race that included fraud, rat poison, feral dogs, and multiple instances of near-death. Let’s get into it.
The course of the race looked like this, the runners would run a few laps around the track at Francis Field, then run along a bunch of streets in suburban St. Louis, and finally come back to Francis Field to finish the race. To take into context how bad this marathon was, out of all 1421 Olympic marathon runners from every Olympic Games, the winner of this 1904 marathon ranks 1398 out of 1421, which is the 2nd percentile. Out of the 41 runners that registered to race in the marathon, only 14 finished. Oh no.
Boston Marathon champion John Lorden was one the favorites to win this race. He made it two blocks before vomiting profusely and dropping out.
There are many reasons why this marathon went so terribly, so ill list a few:
- It was very hot outside. The ideal marathon temperature is 45 degrees. On that day in St. Louis, it was over 100 degrees outside.
- There was only one water source on the entire track, ONE. It was 12 miles into the race. Even worse, many athletes suffered intestinal problems from drinking the water.
- The running path was mainly dirt roads. This would be fine, but race officials were driving cars all over the path, which kicked up dust. This caused some runners to swallow so much dust that their stomach membrane rubbed off, like William Garcia, who was found 19 miles into the race coughing up blood on the street. He almost bled to death
- There were a lot of feral dogs. One competitor got chased off course by a mile. He finished 9th.
One racer went by the name Felix Carvajal. A mailman hailing from the great country of Cuba, Carvajal raised money by running across the 
entirety of Cuba in order to sail to America. He then stowed away on trains all the way to St. Louis, where he finally showed up to the race. All of the other competitors were wearing normal attire, short sleeves, shorts, and athletic shoes. My man Felix was wearing long johns, heavy shorts, long sleeves, and dress shoes. It was 100 degrees outside. He is about to run 26 miles. Felix was broke so the stole some peaches and ate them as he was racing. He was doing pretty well until he stole some apples from an orchard which turned out to be rotten. He got a stomach ache and took a nap on the sidewalk. After some time, he woke up and just started running again. He finished 4th. FOURTH? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Felix wasn’t even invited to the race, he just showed up.
Fred Lorz was fast out the blocks but is now falling behind due to cramps. He eventually throws in the towel and gets in a car to go back home. At the 16-mile mark, Thomas Hicks has built a considerable lead but is starting the fall victim to cramps as well. He begs his trainer for water, but he won’t give it to him. Instead of water, he feeds him egg whites and rat poison. Smart guy. Meanwhile, on his car ride home, the
car Fred Lorz is in breaks down, so he decided to start running again just for fun. At 20 miles, Thomas Hicks is falling apart even more. In response to this, his trainer gives him more egg whites, more rat poison, and BRANDY. While this is happening, Fred Lorz strolls past Hicks looking full of energy and unfazed by the conditions. Without knowing that Lorz already dropped out of the race, Hicks is crushed. Hicks eventually finds out that Lorz is out of the race and keeps going, but he is not in the best condition. He finished his bottle of brandy, so a bystander gives him another bottle. After a couple miles, race officials and his trainer are practically carrying Hicks, but they still refuse to give him water. However Hicks pulls through and as he enters the stadium, he sees the organizers present the trophy to FRED LORZ. After finishing, Hicks was driven to the hospital immediately, he probably never ran in a marathon again.
In the end, Fred Lorz admitted to cheating, and Thomas Hicks was awarded first place, but I dont think he really cared. And that is the story of the 1904 St. Louis Marathon.
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Hey Rohith, this was an absolute whirlwind of a blog to read. As you know, I am very into running, so I was excited to read about what happened at the 1904 Olympic Marathon. I was prepared for some strange things to be mentioned, but this exceeded my expectations. First of all, what were they thinking trying to hold the race in St. Louis when they could’ve predicted that it would be insanely hot and humid outside. And to top it off, they couldn’t even give the competitors more than one water stop?!? If I were Thoams Hicks, I would have punched my trainer in the mouth as soon as I finished the race, but he was probably too tired. Giving someone brandy, egg whites and rat poison in the middle of a race definitely wouldn’t fly with today’s nutritional guidelines. It’s even more impressive that Hicks was eventually able to finish in first place despite these conditions after they found out that Fred Lorz had skipped half the race in his car. True perseverance. I don’t quite know what to make of the athlete from Cuba Felix Carvajal who showed up seemingly completely unprepared, but props to him for finishing fourth despite his circumstances, competing against veteran marathon runners, no less. All in all, I blame the complete flop of the marathon on the officials and organizers of the race, because you’ve just got to do a better job than they did.
Hello Rohith! I always love hearing about your cold cases but this one was a bit different. It sounds like these people’s deaths were the result of an ill-prepared race but not an intentional murder, I could be wrong though. Another thing I looked into after reading this was the mixture of rat poison, brandy, and egg whites. I was honestly so confused about how this would enhance anyone’s athletic ability but apparently in small doses it acts as a stimulant. I also read that this was the first drug usage found in any Olympic games. I have so many questions about this incident though. Number one: why would Felix show up in long pants and a long shirt when it’s 100 degrees outside? Also, how did nobody notice that Fred Lorz was cheating as he literally rode in a carriage down the path? Overall the organizers of this event utterly failed and it is honestly sad that people lost their lives at an event that is supposed to be safe and exciting. Also, I do not expect you to know all of the answers to my questions. I know there is probably not too much information on the event. Overall great work cannot wait for next week!