In Marathon, Colonel Papadiamantopoulos gave the starting signal for the small field, consisting of seventeen athletes, thirteen of them representing Greece. The early leader of the race, which led over dusty dirt roads along which throngs of Greeks had gathered to watch, was the Frenchman Albin Lermusiaux, who had placed third in the 1500 metres prior to the marathon. In the town of Pikermi, Louis is said to have made a stop at a local inn to drink a glass of wine. (Louis's grandson, also Spyridon Louis, has stated that this is incorrect; that his grandfather's girlfriend gave him half an orange and shortly afterwards he "got a glass of cognac from his future father-in-law.") After asking for the advantage of the other runners, he confidently declared he would overtake them all before the end.