In this episode of Half-Arsed History, be amazed at the total lunacy that surrounded the 1904 Olympic Marathon, which featured people coughing up blood, getting attacked by dogs, stopping for naps, taking rat poison as a performance-enhancing drug, and even taking cars to the finish line.

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Image: Beals, Jessie Tarbox. Group of runners in the 1904 Olympic Marathon Race. 30th August, 1904. Photograph. Missouri History Museum, St. Louis Via Wikimedia.