Sports History On This Day: May 8

May 8, 1909 – A world Record Marathon run is recorded! American Albert Raines set a new world record in the States at the New York City Marathon with a time of 2:46:04.6 in the Big Apple.

This was a pretty monumental time in Marathon history as a few weeks later across the pond on May 26 someone else did it faster. British runner Henry Barrett ran a world record marathon at 2:42:31 in the Polytechnic Marathon in London.

Before Raines’ record-setting pace the record of 2:46:52 was established on February 12, 1909, by American James Clark when he ran from Brooklyn to Coney Island. Last I checked that is winter in the North East of the U.S.!

Clark’s time beat out the previous record set just 5 weeks prior on New Year’s Day in -18 degree temps in Yonkers, New York by Robert Fowler at 2:52:45 and the disorganized amateur race was ended just after seven runners completed the circuit.

Before the end of the summer of 1909, the record would be shattered again, only this time with an asterisk. According to the website MarathonGuide.com on August 31, 1909, Thure Johansson of Sweden set a new world record of 2:40:34 on a 368 m track.

According to the International Athletic Foundation’s Progression of the World’s Best Performances and Official IAAF World Records the distance was actually one meter short of 42.195 km. Really?? Okay, but he beat the time by almost 2 minutes! A record-shattering season of races indeed!