The third marathon in Olympic history began like any other race, but after the start it couldn't have been more unpredictable, crazy, or wild.

It was August 30, 1904, in Saint Louis, Missouri. The thirty-two runners came from six countries. There were Americans, Greeks, South Africans, a Frenchman, a Canadian, and a Cuban. They were as different from one another as they could have been. Sam Mellor from Boston had won the 1902 Boston Marathon. Felix Carvajal was a just over five-foot-tall mailman from Cuba who had never won a race before. And William Garcia was a nearly six-foot-tall runner from California.

The temperature was in the nineties and the track was dusty and dry. Who would win the 24.85-mile race?

From the dust jacket