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Winning a Marathon by Hitching a Ride
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It's a pretty safe bet that if the person who crosses the finish line first during a marathon doesn't look like a marathon runner, that person probably cheated. Marathon running isn't like baseball; you can't be successful at it and be fat at the same time. With that in mind, just imagine the crowd's surprise when the winner of the 1904 Olympic Marathon also happened to be a professional bricklayer who hadn't done any running in months. That man was Fred Lorz.
Via Legendsrevealed.com
And that thing he's holding is an early 20th century Porta-John.
Lorz likely started the race with honest intentions, considering the fact that he ran the first nine miles clean, leaving him exhausted to the point of near collapse. So, naturally, his manager pulled up alongside the defeated runner and asked him if he needed a ride. He probably meant a ride to the hospital, but to Lorz, it meant he now had a real shot at winning the race.
Because cars in 1904 were about as reliable as AT&T reception in big cities, the pair only made it 11 miles before the car broke down. But that was all the rest Lorz needed. He hopped out of the car and ran the last few miles of the race, winning easily. To his credit, moments later, his conscience got the best of him and Lorz admitted that his win may have been aided by the use of automotive technology. He was banned for a year and apparently used the time off to actually get in shape, because he won the Boston Marathon the very next year.
Via Historiasdeldxt
You can see how overcome with joy he is in this photo.
But 75 years later, another suspect winner won the Boston Marathon, and she wasn't nearly as conflicted about claiming victory. The winner in the women's group of the 1980 Boston Marathon was Rosie Ruiz, fresh off her New York City Marathon 11th place women's finish only six months before. After onlookers at the finish line noticed that Ruiz wasn't even sweating despite looking way too flabby to run 26 miles without dying, they questioned whether her winning (and record-breaking) run might have been the result of cheating.