The 1904 marathon was held in sweltering 32°C (90°F) heat, but the true danger was the race director, James Sullivan. Driven by a misguided theory that water consumption hindered performance, he enforced a policy of deliberate dehydration. With only two water stations over 40 kilometers, runners were pushed to the brink of physical collapse. This event shares the dark absurdity found in other historical anomalies, such as The Dancing Plague of 1518.

The starting line was a chaotic mix of amateurs and adventurers rather than professional athletes. Notable participants included:

• Felix Carvajal: A Cuban postman who hitchhiked to the race and ran in street shoes and cut-off trousers.
• Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani: South African participants who were at the World’s Fair for a Boer War reenactment and ran the race barefoot.
• Fred Lorz: A construction worker whose desperate attempt to finish led to his reputation as a ‘dream thief.’

The course was a nightmare of unpaved, hilly dirt roads. Because officials and journalists followed the runners in early automobiles, the athletes were constantly engulfed in thick clouds of dust. This led to severe health consequences, most notably for William Garcia, who suffered from internal hemorrhaging and lung lacerations after inhaling excessive amounts of dirt, nearly dying on the course.

As the runners neared total exhaustion, their support teams resorted to dangerous measures. Thomas Hicks, struggling to stay upright, was administered a mixture of strychnine (rat poison) and egg whites by his coaches. They believed this would act as a stimulant, but it only caused his condition to deteriorate rapidly, turning his skin gray and causing his eyes to sink, illustrating the extreme lengths people went to in the name of victory.