JOHNNY HAYES
At the 1908 London Olympics, marathon runners tackled a course of 26 miles and 385 yards for the first time. The ending was pure sporting drama and it ensured one man’s place in running history. But not the one you might think
S aythe name John (or Johnny) Hayes to most people in running circles and you’re likely to get a blank expression. Yet this was the man who won the first modern Oly mpic marathon – arg uably the most dramatic and controversia l race in the event ’s history – and the runner who kick-started a long-dista nce racing craze in the US over a centur y ago. His stor y is a rema rkable one of hardship, determination, success and, when the time came, a dignified retreat from the limelight.
Hayes was born in April 1886, in New York Cit y. His fat her, Michael, grew up in Nenagh, Co Tippera r y, in Ireland, but like so many of his generation, he emig rated to the US. His mot her, Nellie O’Rourke, was born in the US, but was of Irish extraction.
Life was hard for the Hayes family on Manhattan’s lower east side. Michael worked 14 -hour days in a baker y – of ten joined by Joh nny, his eldest son – while Nellie cared for their f ive other children. The endless toil proved too much; Hayes’s parents died when he was still a teenager and his siblings were placed in a Cat holic orphanage.
To help them as best he could, Hayes took a job as a ‘sa ndhog ’, digging New York’s subway tunnels. It was hot, dangerous work, but it made him strong and taught him how to pace himself in tough conditions. Above g round, he fell in love with running. The sport would soon change his life.
When Hayes joined the Irish American Athletic Club, his abilit y was soon noticed. The IAAC of ten used its connections to place athletes in jobs that prov ided a modest wage while giving them time to train. For ma ny, this meant a position in the New York Police Department, but Hayes was about 5ft 4in and weighed 125lb (56kg ), so that was out. Instead, he was g iven a job in what was then called Bloomingdale Brothers department store. He was reportedly paid $20 a week but it ’s not known if he ever put in any hours. In later years, the stor y went around that Hayes would train by running laps of Bloomingda le’s roof top. There’s no ev idence of this, but what is beyond dispute is that he f lourished as a runner. In 1906, he f inished fifth in the Boston Marathon, in a time of 2:55:38. The following yea r, he came third, in 2:30:38, and that November he won the inaug ural Yon kers Marathon in 2:44:45. In 1908, he f inished second in Boston, in 2:26:04. Not for nothing was he later described in the UK’s Sporting Life newspaper as ‘the most consistent marathon runner in A merica’. Hayes would soon have his chance to sho
