he had not quit in the Berlin Olympics earlier that summer. 1939 Boston Marathon victory In 1939, Brown was the first runner to break the 2:30 mark on the post-1926 Boston course. According to official data from the Boston Athletic Association, many runners prior to 1926 finished the Boston Marathon in times under 2:30 (see List of winners of the Boston Marathon). Those runners competed on courses known to be shorter than the IAAF-defined marathon distance of 42.195 kilometers. After the 17-mile mark in the 1939 race, Brown also broke every checkpoint record. He would later qualify for the 1940 U.S. Olympic team but the games were canceled due to World War II's outbreak in Europe. Other notable moments in the Boston Marathon In one of his earliest appearances as a runner in the 1935 race, he arrived in an outfit sewn together from one of his mother's old dresses by his sisters and worn sneakers that were falling apart. It was just two days after his mother had died. Approximately 21 miles into the race, Tarzan removed his sneakers, threw them into the crowd and ran the rest of the race (approximately five miles) barefoot, finishing 13th. This act etched him in the memories of Boston Marathon fans and endeared him in the hearts of many more. By 1938, he had officially become a fan-favorite as perhaps the most exciting, unorthodox and colorful character in the Boston Marathon's history. In the 1938 Boston Marathon, Tarzan was leading on what was an unseasonably warm day when midway through the race, he ran off the road, waved to the crowd and jumped into Lake Cochituate to swim and cool off. After a while, he returned and ran the rest of the course, though other runners had already long since passed by. Most notably, fellow Rhode Islander Les Pawson (of Pawtucket, Rhode Island) won that year. Pawson was one of Tarzan's top rivals and friends. Tarzan was also seen arriving shortly before the start of the 1939 Boston Marathon eating hot dogs and drinking milkshakes just before the race; he claimed that he had missed breakfast. Incidents like these led members of the media to write harshly about Brown. Most sports writers of the time period when Tarzan first started running competitively would use racist language and described him as a "penniless redskin who would rather fish than work". Personal life In