From The Connecting File, Vol VIII, No 1, March 1929:Do you Remember -
When Hans Homer (sic) used to make himself look ridiculous running with ammunition boots on, from the camp to the Garrison pier at McNab Island, but a couple years later won the Marathon Championship of the world at Edinburgh.
(McNab's Island, in the mouth of Halifax Harbour, was used for military training camps and had a rifle range for musketry training.)Following some searching around on the Internet, and realizing that Holmer's name was misspelled in the Connecting File note, the following came to light:
Hans Holmer, born of a Danish father and English mother, had emigrated from Britain at the age of four to New York in 1890 but had subsequently had been resident in Halifax, Nova Scotia and from 1907 onwards, when he won first the Mayor's Cup and then the Natal Day 6 Mile road race, was known as the leading runner in the Canadian Atlantic Provinces. He had failed to finish in the Toronto Canadian Olympic trial in June 1908, but that year won the Round the Bay race in 1:51:16
When the Marathon Craze hit following the Dorando disqualification in the 1908 Olympics, Holmer had quickly turned professional and won six consecutive marathon victories. After losing several races through his excessive initial pace, Holmer had set a world marathon record on the Edinburgh Powderhall track of 2:32:21.8 on the 3rd January 1911. In 1912 he had claimed the world marathon title in Berlin, but lost his world record to the Finn Willie Kolehmainen. Earlier in 1913 he had also won and defended the World 10 mile title.
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