Tom Longboat

By: Cameron C

Tom Longboat was born on June 4^th 1887 and he died on January 9^th 1949, aged 61. He was 5 foot 7 inches. He weighed 146 pounds. He married 2 people. He had four children and one of the people he married was named Lauretta Maracle. In 1940 he developed pneumonia. A disease where water builds up in your lungs and you have a very hard time breathing. His full name was Thomas Charles Longboat. His parents name where George and Betsy Longboat. Tom had a native name, and it was “Cogwagee” which means “everything.”

In 1905, Tom entered his first competitive race. He placed 2^nd in that race. After that he entered the Boston Marathon, which he placed 1^st, and won by three minutes. Tom set a massive record; the record time he set was 2:24:24. In 1908 Tom entered the London Olympic Games. Sadly, during the race, Tom collapsed to the ground and he did not finish the race.

Tom’s favourite sports were lacrosse and running. Tom’s longest race measured 30km long. Tom was able to win lots of his races because he saved his energy until the last part of the race. Tom was a really fast runner. Faster than most of the runners at that time.

Tom had a racing career in 1905. In February 1916, Tom stopped running because he wanted to run messages in World War 1. He was a dispatch carrier in with the 107^th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. When he was running the messages, Tom was only wounded twice out of all the times he carried the messages.

Tom’s dad died when he was only 5 years old. They all pitched in with chores. Toms brother was sent out to get him one time and they raced back home. Tom won that, of course. Tom died because of his pneumonia, too much water got into his lungs and he couldn't breathe at all. Shortly after that, he died.

THE END.