This is the memory palace, I'm Nate de Mayo. Frank Hicks pinned the number 20 to his shirt.

He had run far before, not a marathon, but he had run far and fast. And when he found out that

the 1904 Olympics were going to be held in the States for the first time, he started training,

doing 10 and 15 mile days on the new paved roads in the outskirts of Boston.

He knew he didn't have a shot at winning, but just to be there, running against the best in the

world would be great. The first two Olympics had been awesome, revived the spirits of the ancient

Greeks in Athens in 1896, then Paris in 1900, and now St. Louis, which admittedly wasn't Athens

or Paris. But it had somehow managed to land the world's fair, and then Teddy Roosevelt twisted

arms and brought the games to the fair too. It was going to be awesome. Frank Hicks would think

while ticking off miles in Massachusetts. Never win with him, but still. As Hicks secured his

number and lined up with the starting line at the third Olympic marathon, he realized he may have been

wrong. Maybe he could win it. He'd never run this far before, but he'd been training hard.

And it was hot, it was 90 in the shade, but he was tough. And looking around, the competition

kind of wasn't. There was that Frenchman who lived in Chicago, he was good, and that guy

Fred Lors from New York. That guy was the real deal, but that was kind of it. None of the big

guns from Europe were there, because who the hell wanted to go to St. Louis? You are Great Britain's

greatest Greco-Roman wrestler. You throw the meanest shot put in all Sweden. You'll go to Athens.

You'll book a ticket to Paris, but cross an ocean to the United States and then hop a train to

the middle of nowhere to some city that you probably never even heard of. You'll pass, thanks.

So when the marathoners lined up and waited for the starters pistol, Frank Hicks liked his odds.

There were 30 other runners. It looked like there were going to be a lot fewer up until the day before,

but then 10 Greek showed up on the evening train, but they were in terrible shape after their journey.

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