What became of the runner-up?

Reader evokes, then solves riddle of obscure foot race from 40 years ago

It was, in a sense, next-level What Happened: an email message from a longtime friend, responding to this article about a relic hunter unearthing artifacts ahead of an earthmoving project in Clinton, Mississippi, which introduced an unexpected variable in the form of a phantom runner from 40 years before.

Basically, it was a meta story about what happene…