At the Summer Olympics, the marathon will be the only foot race measured by the standard system instead of the metric system.
And yet the precise distance of 26 miles 385 yards is entirely random, established at the 1908 London Games as an accommodation to the British royal family, not as an adherence to historical imperative.
When the modern Olympics began in Athens in 1896, a race of 40 kilometres, or 24.85 miles, was held to commemorate the legend of Pheidippides. He is the messenger who is said to have run from Marathon to Athens to announce a Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. And to have promptly died.
The 1900 Olympic marathon in Paris covered just more than 25 miles, and the 1904 Olympic marathon in St Louis returned to the distance of 24.85 miles. This was more like cooking than civil engineering. Race directors designed their courses by a sense of feel, not by a fastidious recipe.
In Paris, according to David Wallechinsky’s ‘The Complete Book of the Olympics,’ the route was so badly marked that some runners took a wrong turn and had to share the road with bicyclists, automobiles, recreational runners and the occasional animal. One of the favourites stopped for a beer early in the race and dropped out. The 1908 London Games established what is now the customary distance of the marathon. The reason? To provide a better view for the royal family at the start at Windsor Castle and the finish in the Olympic Stadium. The result, Wallechinsky said, was a distance that was “completely arbitrary.”
The race began on the East Terrace at Windsor Castle. Some believe this was to control the swelling crowd. But King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, along with the Prince and Princess of Wales, had been influenced by attending the 1906 Athens interim games on the 10th anniversary of the modern Games. And they were hardly the first royals to affect an event.
At the 1896 Athens Games, the men’s saber competition was nearly concluded, Wallechinsky said, when King George I of Greece made a late arrival. The event was restarted, much to the dismay of the Austrian leader, who then lost to two Greek contenders whom he had already defeated. When the men’s rings competition in gymnastics ended in a tie at those Games, Prince George of Greece got to pick the winner. His choice? Not the German. For the 1908 Olympic marathon, the British royals were somewhat more circumspect. The Princess of Wales signalled the start of the race, which began under the window of the royal nursery at Windsor Castle so that her children could watch.
Thus, David Miller wrote in his history of the Olympics, “Athens to Athens,” the marathon distance “was determined in a bizarre manner.”
It was about 26 miles to the Olympic Stadium in west London. Another 385 yards were added around the track to place the finish in front of the royal box. The additional yards would make for a gripping and disputed result.
Entering the stadium first on that hot and humid July day was an Italian pastry chef named Dorando Pietri. But he was exhausted, delirious. He turned the wrong way on the track, reversed course and began stumbling. According to news accounts, Pietri fell five times in that final quarter mile. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, covered the race for The Daily Mail of London and wrote, “I caught a glimpse of the haggard, yellow face, the glazed, expressionless eyes, the long, black hair streaked across the brow.”
By assisting Pietri to his feet, race officials knew they were jeopardising his gold medal. But as the official Olympic report said, “It was impossible to leave him there, for it looked as if he might die in the very presence of the Queen.”
Pietri reached the tape first, collapsed and was placed on a stretcher. Arriving second was John Hayes of the United States, which had become incensed by a controversial finish of the 400 meters and the absence of the Stars and Stripes from the roof of the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony. The Americans protested the aid given to Pietri, and Hayes was declared the winner. Although he was disqualified, Pietri became a hero. Queen Alexandra presented him with a gold cup. He spurred an international marathon craze. Irving Berlin wrote a song about him. And finally in 1921, the official marathon distance became 26 miles 385 yards.