Does it change anything if Weston took performance enhancing stuff?
"Weston spent 8 years touring Europe, starting in 1876 in England where he challenged England's racewalking champion to a 24-hour, 115 mile ultramarathon. The Englishman quit 14 hours and 65.6 miles into the race, but Weston walked the full 24 hours and covered 109.5 miles. His performance caused a bit of a controversy when he later
admitted to having been chewing coca leaf throughout much of the race."
(From his Wikipedia entry)
Also interesting is that the card shows a cross country walk, but it's not mentioned in either his entry, or a list of cross country walkers and runners. But that walk did happen.
https://www.utne.com/community/walki...a-ze0z1503zken