Tom Longboat may have won the 1907 Boston Marathon in part by avoiding the interference of a passing train. However, the next year in London he was not so lucky. The man who had set a course record of 2:24:24 in Boston collapsed with cramps during the 1908 Olympic Marathon, a race that turned out to be longer than the one he ran the year before and indeed longer than any previous Olympic marathon.
This was in part because no standard existed in 1908. Olympic Committee guidelines suggested 40 km, but this was not set in stone. So, when presented with the task of designing a marathon course, London’s leading athletic club–the Polytechnic Harriers–designed one that ran from Windor Castle through the countryside and small towns surrounding London to the stadium at Shepherd’s Bush. This way the royal family would see the runners off at the start and, along with a crowd of spectators, view the finish.
However, the distance from castle to stadium was 26 miles (42 km). On top of that were an additional 586 yards and 2 feet to allow the competitors to finish the race with a lap around the track. But it turned out that the royal entrance the Polytechnic Harriers had planned on using to bring runners into the stadium would not be available. Instead, organizers chose another entrance and changed the direction finishers would run around the track from the standard counter-clockwise to clockwise. In so doing the final distance for the race was reduced to the now standard 26 miles 385 yards.
It was not until 1921 that the International Amateur Athletic Federation standardized the length of marathons at 26 miles 385 yards, and not until 1924 that another Olympic marathon featured that distance. But in the meantime a number of races took place that matched the one run in London. This was a result of the dramatic finish, which in addition to Longboat’s surprising DNF and the poor performance of British runners also saw Dorando Pietri struggling into the stadium, crossing the line ahead of Johnny Hayes only with the help of Olympic officials. Pietri was ultimately disqualified and Hayes won the race, but both competed in numerous rematches in the years that followed, helping to cement the place of the 1908 Olympics in marathon history, and along with it the distance we’ve all come to know so well.
For the full story see Martin Polley, ”From Windsor Castle to White City: The 1908 Olympic Marathon Route,” The London Journal, Volume 34, Number 2, July 2009 , 163-178.