Forums >Off the Beaten Path>Comicbook story of the Marathon
Runs in the rain
TRUE Comics No. 73 from October 1948 with a story about the Marathon! The first part covers the origin and is based on the popular legend of Phidippides of somewhat doubtful accuracy. Then there is the story of the 1908 London Olympics where Dorando Pietri collapses giving the win to the American Johhy Hayes. The end of the story mentions the Americans Ted Vogel, Johnny Kelly and Ollie Manninen competing in the upcoming London Olympics. Alas, none of them were medalists in that event, here were the results:
1st place, gold medalist Delfo Cabrera Argentina 2:34:51.6 2nd place, silver medalist Tom Richards Great Britain 2:35:07.6 3rd place, bronze medalist Étienne Gailly Belgium 2:35:33.6 14 Ted Vogel United States 2:45:27.0 21 Johnny Kelley United States 2:51:56.0
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Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?Get up, get out, get out of the door!
Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
not bad for mile 25
This is cool! Call it a Graphic Novel to give it more panache!
No historical marathon coverage is complete without the race at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics.
Dave
Dave - You can't really cover the full history of the Marathon in a 4 page comic book story and the 1904 Olympics was perhaps just too weird and they chose a more inspiring story. I read your link and it was a bizarre with the racist "Anthropology Days" events, the deliberate lack of water to research dehydration and the joker Fred Lorz who hitched a car ride to the finish and was initially declared the winner! Also strange was the use of strychnine and brandy stimulants by the eventual winner Tom Hicks who began hallucinating and was assisted over the finish line by his trainers! How come he was not disqualified?
My post was only marginally related to the original subject here, I was not in any way being critical of that comic. I was just using this opportunity to share that story with anyone who hadn’t seen it, because it was so bizarre and entertaining.