“Those who do not listen to history are doomed to repeat it” -George Santanya, 1905

In 1904, the U.S. held their first ever Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri, being the third modern Olympic Games ever. Most of the St. Louis Olympics ran on without a hiccup, until they got to the Olympic marathon event. There, instead of having the athletes race in the morning to avoid heat, they had the runners run in the middle of the afternoon at a heat index of 135 degrees. In addition, race officials rode in vehicles ahead of and behind the runners, kicking up dust clouds which only made the conditions worse. It didn’t help that there were only two water stations on the course. When the race started, things began to go south fast. One of the two first-ever Black Olympic athletes got chased away by a pack of wild dogs, while another runner got sick from eating a rotten apple and decided to take a nap (he would go on later to place 4th). One racer by the name of Fredrick Lorz got tired halfway through the race, and proceeded to take a car for the rest of the marathon, placing first before being disqualified. The first person to legitimately cross the finish line was Thomas Hicks, who had two questionable coaches during the race. Instead of giving Thomas water, the coaches gave him Strychnine, a form of rat poison, and bourbon as a stimulant boost, leaving him hallucinating and at the brink of collapse when he crossed the finish line. Needless to say, the race was a complete disaster.
Now, Claremont High School sports have gotten stale. With no new entries in the catalog of athletics, the fans are finding it hard to stay in tune with the happenings of CHS sports. In order to remedy this, Dr.O’Connor began researching for a new sport to liven up the roster. He already had a soft spot for cross-country so he decided on going the next step by creating a CHS marathon. There, instead of student racers, Dr.O’Connor decided on having teachers race.
With the burst of sound from the air horn at the start of the race, every single Claremont High School teacher starts off running. The course wraps around all of Claremont, and despite heat advisory warnings, Doctor O’Connor still started the race. Within the first 30 minutes, we already had the first couple of drop outs, Gyorgyovich and Chua. As soon as Mr. Easton started to see some of his friends dropping out of the race, he began to lose hope for himself and he dropped out shortly after. Pettibone found himself face to face with an unleashed dog, choosing between fight or flight; he decided on flight, running over a mile off track. Mr. Martinez, tired only 13 miles in, saw a beautiful peach tree, where he took a bite, only to find a rotten interior. Vomiting profusely, naturally he realized the best course of action for him would be to sit down and take a nap.
Burke was spent, sitting down in the shade for some protection over the hot weather, where he saw an electric scooter. Promptly coming up with an idea, he simply stole the scooter and rode off towards the finish line. Finishing “first”, Burke accepted the award with grace and it isn’t until after he leaves when officials find out about the scooter scandal (that will later appear in the Wolfpacket’s seventh issue, which will be their biggest issue yet). Meanwhile, Carvalho, alongside her trainers Mitchell and Dehmer were on track to be the first legitimate victor of the marathon. Slowing down to a slow walk, Carvalho was force fed G-Fuel powder as a energy boost by Mitchell and Dehmer. Even taking into consideration the unhealthy amount of G-Fuel powder consumed, Carvalho crossed the finish line in first place, being crowned the champion in the first (and last) CHS Marathon.
After the poorly organized event concluded, Dr. O’Connor decided that it would be too dangerous to host another one, and completely abandoned the event. He learned that, after all, it would be best for the students to race.