26mi235 wrote:
As for the original post and the statements about not having a standard distance, that was only the case very early on although early courses were usually about 25 miles long. At the London Olympics (1924?), the course was set out and then the decision was made to allow the start (I think, it might have been the finish) to be viewed by the Royal children at the Palace, the race was made 26 miles 385 yards. It has stuck to this distance generally since.
It was the 1908 Olympics but not set as the standard distance until the 1920s.
Back then, officials picked the start and finish lines and if they were about 40k apart that was good enough. No one bothered measuring them with much accuracy if at all. So the fact that they put the '08 start & finish lines right in front of royalty wasn't out of the ordinary.
This was the Olympic marathon where Dorando Pietri led most of the way but was suffering from some sort of heat injury when he entered the stadium. Officials helped him across the finish because he looked like he might die otherwise. US officials protested, Pietri was DQ'd, gold medal to American Tom Hicks.
42.2k STILL wouldn't have stuck as the popular distance if it weren't for the attempt by these two to cash in on their fame. They ran a series of heavily-wagered pro races against each other in the following years and all of them re-created the exact distance. Some of them were on Madison Square Garden's indoor track. Marathoning's popularity as a spectator sport exploded from 1908 to 1912 but then went back to its old status as an obscure race for mental deficients.
Martin & Gynn's book "The Marathon Footrace" has details and results of every major marathon from 1895 to the late 70s. It's a fabulous resource.