The first marathon (490 B.C.) killed the winner, Pheidippides.* But skinny, bandy-legged Johnny Kelley scarcely worked up a sweat last week in the Boston Athletic Association's 49th annual marathon. Trotting briskly down asphalt Exeter Street, he waved a victor's clenched fist to the crowd, kissed his father and wheezed: "Pa, I made it." An oversize laurel wreath kept slipping over his ears.
Johnny swallowed a lump of sugar after every fourth mile. He nursed his 37-year-old legs up & down hill for 26 miles and 385 yards, turned into Exeter Street to see a pretty sightno one in front of him. He...
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