Earlier in the year, this postcard of Reading’s 1908 Marathon race (reference: D/EX1485/28/5) was shared on RBA’s social media accounts. There was some interest from followers to know more, and as with so many things in the archives, this unravelled a much more intriguing story than what appeared on the surface.
The postcard itself shows competitors waiting at the starting line on what must have been a chilly afternoon on Wednesday 2 December. Fifty runners took part with the race beginning at the Palmer Park cinder track. The race was open to athletes residing in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire and members of Reading Athletics Club (RAC) - the body that regulated the event.
The race was officially called the Reading Observer Marathon Race with the newspaper producing a detailed write-up after the event. The report described the race as ‘the biggest of its kind ever held in Berkshire’. There was also a sponsorship from Oxo. Over 100 bottles of Oxo and a good number of bananas and raisins were distributed enroute and Oxo jellies and rice puddings were supplied at Palmer Park.
Despite this strong backing, the race was in jeopardy before it even began. This is revealed in the minutes of a Reading Athletics Club committee meeting held on 17 November 1908, less than a month before the event was due to happen. A letter from Berkshire County Council was read which stated that they were unable to let them run the marathon race on Berkshire roads. This was due to an old byelaw which prohibited running on the county’s roads. When many would have given up, the RAC did not and they instead came up with a route which was almost entirely through areas that were then part of Oxfordshire.
The new route started with two laps on the track at Palmer Park, before moving on to Wokingham Road, London Road, Watlington Street, Forbury Road and Vastern Road. The race proceeded into Caversham, Emmer Green, Henley-on-Thames, Shiplake and Dunsden Green before returning to Palmer Park and finishing with a further two laps.
The winner was L.O.J. Southwell of Southampton (RAC member) who completed the course in 2 hours, 19 minutes and 15 seconds. Today’s marathon fans may marvel at how such a short time was possible, but the Reading marathon was 23 ¼ miles long whereas the official standard distance of a marathon is considered about 26 miles and 385 yards. Famously, Dorando Pietri completed the 1908 London Marathon in 2 hours 54 minutes and 46 seconds, but he was later disqualified due to assistance from officials at the end. The world record was set at that race by Johnny Hayes, the competitor just behind him, with 2 hours, 55 minutes and 18 seconds. Find out more about this race in our July 2012 highlight online.
It was nonetheless an impressive time, and a correspondent wrote to the Reading Observer shortly afterwards and remarked, ‘we are left wondering how a man of Southwell’s calibre could possibly have been left out of the British Olympic Marathon team’. The crowd at the finish line praised him as ‘the second Dorando’. In fact, the time was so impressive that some people retrospectively questioned the true distance of the course. The Reading Observer notes, ‘Southwell ran so well that his time worked out as equal to the best of the day, therefore a doubt appears to have entered the minds of some that a mistake in measuring must have been made.’ However, the reporter strongly defended the calculations taken beforehand and argues that the conditions of the day were in his favour. Today, a Jones Counter, fixed on a bicycle, is used to measure marathons so no such disputes can occur.
This postcard poses a classic example of how one small item in the archives can be just the tip of the iceberg on the story behind it. The Reading Observer described the race as ‘an event which will be handed down to posterity’. This cannot be argued with, as we are still intrigued by what occurred on that day nearly 117 years later!