The 1904 Olympic Marathon was amazing!
The winner was disqualified for riding 11 miles in a car, before the car broke down so he decided to run the rest of the way. The people who finished 2nd and 3rd were disqualified for taking rat poison as a performance enhancer. The race featured the first 2 black africans to compete in the Olympics (they were originally there as part of a side show). They did rather well. One of them could have won it but he was chased over a mile off course by a dog.
Finally, the man who finished 4th was a Cuban Postman who quit his job to compete. he was very good, and probably could have won it, but halfway round he got hungry. After he stole some peaches from a marshall he wandered into an orchard and ate some apples. Unfortunately the apples were rotten so he felt sick and had to have a lie down before continuing the race and finishing 4th.
Incidentally the eventual winner was Tom Hicks, a British born American, although he was so doped up on drugs and alcohol he had to be carried over the line.