With just a quarter mile left, the lead runners came up against a train crossing the road. By the time it passed, almost a minute later, the pack was set for a sprint to the finish. Thank goodness Sawe ended up winning anyway, or we'd have a full-fledged controversy on our hands instead of a cute little story about those bush league Iowa marathons.

So who's to blame?

The train apparently was operated by Iowa Interstate Railroad. Tom Bernau, the president of the company that puts on the marathon, produced an e-mail thread from Sept. 15 that showed race director Chris Burch had detailed the course map and marathon dates to the railroad.

Mick Burkart, vice president of the Iowa Interstate Railroad, responded to Burch that "this should not be a problem."

Burkart responded in an e-mail Sunday night that his company was at fault.

"I sincerely apologize for this happening," Burkart wrote. "We were well aware of the race and our agreement to refrain from operating through this area during the race. Due to some miscommunication a train was allowed into the race area before it was supposed to. There is no excuse for this happening.

I'd actually be in favor of more of these things. Marathons are boring. People running? C'mon, this is the 21st century. Let's make it more like Legends of the Hidden Temple. Let's not just have trains blocking the way, but also Temple Guards popping out to drag runners off the course.

D.M. Marathon: Train Turns Men's Race Into All-Out Sprint [Des Moines Register]

Cassie Peller won the race on Sunday, but was DQ'ed shortly after for accepting a water bottle outside the designated water stations. (Dehydration is secondary to following the rules.)

That made Jennifer Goebel the winner, until photos surfaced online of her listening to an iPod while running. That is, like everything else, against race rules. After a hissy fit on this bulletin board, she was disqualified yesterday.

The crown and the $500 top prize then fell to Corina Canitz, who promptly donated the money to charity, wary of the Lakefront Marathon curse. So as of now, the fastest woman in Wisconsin is a 42-year-old mother of four. Until she's disqualified for, I don't know, breast feeding or something.

Second Lakefront Marathon Winner Disqualified For iPod Use [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

We're not sure how we'd respond either after our field reporter tossed that puppy out there. We probably would have just let it hang too.

Stupid darkie Kenyans, ruining our marathons. As Frank Drebin said, "never bet on the white guy."

The Longest Uncomfortable Pause In Sports Announcing History [FanIQ]

(UPDATE: As pointed out, the white guy did, in fact, lose.)

Like the rest of the planet this godforsaken, sweltering month, it's freaking hot in Chicago, and apparently the race organizers didn't have nearly enough water. One man, the father of three, died.

All told, ambulances were called to help more than 300 runners as temperatures reached a record 87 degrees. Besides Schieber's death, at least five runners were in serious to critical condition at area hospitals Sunday night.

Runners toward the back of the pack complained of water tables being flipped over and stacked at mile 2 — a complaint organizers disputed. In Lincoln Park, runners drank water from a decorative fountain, a participant reported. Other runners said they phoned friends and asked them to bring them water on the route. Some stopped at gas stations to buy their own.

It turned out being one of the slower marathons in years, and a third of the racers didn't even finish. Last year, winners crashing at the finish line, this year people desperate for water ... next year, we're fully expecting someone to drive alongside the racers, whacking them with a shovel.

Marathon Had "People Dropping Like Flies" [Chicago Sun-Times]
Chicago Marathon By The Numbers [The Final Sprint]

Here we have Lloyd Scott, who completed the London Marathon on Sunday while dressed as Indiana Jones, raising a bunch of money for charity in the process. (Note to teenage boys: Dressing like this while manning a hand crank over long distances pretty much guarantees that you will never, ever have sex). Now, here are some additional Lloyd Scott facts:

• Recently visited Australia where he traveled 2,700 miles from Perth to Sydney on a penny farthing while dressed as Sherlock Holmes.

• Has divorced his wife because she was caught sleeping with two of his friends. "By the time Mr. Scott completed the London marathon in May, dressed as St George in a suit of armour and hauling an 8ft dragon, the couple, who married in 1986, were going through divorce proceedings."

• Drove a Mini with flat tires from Land's End to John o' Groats on the 8 May 2006.

Well, OK, who hasn't done that third one.

London Marathoner Ready To Roll [Evening Standard]
Lloyd Scott Wikipedia Page [Wikipedia]
Indiana Scott Finishes Marathon [ITN]
Divorce Heartbreak For Charity Fundraiser [Daily Mail]

Duluth, Minn. Grandma's Marathon organizers disqualified the 2006 women's winner after she tested positive for an anabolic steroid.

Halina Karnatsevich, 36, of Belarus, tested positive for a banned substance, marathon organizers said in a news release Thursday. The International Association of Athletics Federations Web site indicated the substance was stanozolol.

OK, OK, she's not really a grandmother — unless they start 'em REAL young in Belarus — but in fact the winner of the yearly Duluth Grandmother Marathon, sponsored by a quaint local restaurant called Grandma's, a name that has now been soiled by the scourge of stanozolol. But if Grandma Luge ends up testing positive, we're moving to Canada.

Grandma's On Steroids [Steroid Nation]

One thing we didn't see? This awful photographer woman, who apparently made it a habit to jump right in front of runners, almost knocking a couple of them over in her quest for, we dunno, bleeding nipple shots, maybe.

Check out the link for some more rude photographer goodness. The best part about this, by the way, is that the woman would not only stand in the way to take the photo, she would then pause, look at her camera, see if she got her shot and then do it again. We think people who do this should be forced to run the rest of the race.

Giving Photographers A Bad Name [Flickr]

He also ran in the Chicago Marathon last weekend — and unlike some people, he didn't fall on his head while crossing the finish line — and decided to decorate his uniform (what do you call marathon garb? A uniform? Nipple bleeders?) with Deadspin paraphernalia.

Kapellas says: "This was my fifth marathon and typically like to iron on something for the crowd to yell at me as I run by. So I chose this." The notion of people yelling "Carl Monday!" during a marathon is making us giggle a bit.

We'd like to say that Kapellas is an outstanding citizen of this little Deadspin collective enclave, but, frankly, we're rather disturbed that anyone around here has run in five marathons.

More pictures after the jump.

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the so-wrong-it's-right video of the Chicago Marathon winner crossing the finish line in the least glamorous way possible.

A Little Slapstick At The Chicago Marathon [Dejuiced]