ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Slow train crosses marathon course, damaging finish times

ALLENTOWN, Pa.

A slow-moving train in Pennsylvania might have brought some runners’ dreams of the Boston Marathon to a halt.

Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Via Marathon was in full swing Sunday when a slow train crossed the race course near Allentown, stopping runners in their tracks.

Runner Charlie Young tells Lehigh Valley Live the race was his last chance to qualify for the 2017 Boston Marathon.

Twenty-two-year-old Young says he and more than 100 others were held up for about 10 minutes as the train crossed. He says he missed his qualifying time by 8 minutes.

Video and photos show some runners scrambling between the slow-moving cars.

Registration for the Boston Marathon started Monday, opening first to those who beat their qualifying time by 20 minutes.

Via says runner times will be addressed on a case-by-case basis due to the disruption.

Loser of fantasy football dons pink bikini bottoms

TOMS RIVER, N.J.

The punishment for a New Jersey pizza man who finished last in his fantasy football league included a very public walk of shame and a pair of women’s underwear.

Angelo Boemio, 42, marched down a roadway in Toms River wearing only pink women’s bikini bottoms and sneakers while hoisting a sign signifying his fantasy-football misfortune. The pizzeria owner strolled along Route 9 for 10 minutes on Labor Day, inducing hilarity and horror in pedestrians and motorists.

Boemio told the New York Post that people honked their horns and a woman with four children in her minivan drove back-and-forth five times as the kids laughed at his display.

Police also called his business to say they were getting calls from concerned citizens, he said.

“People were calling to say there’s some weirdo in a bikini walking down Route 9, but the officers knew it was a product of fantasy loss, so they let us have our walk of shame,” Boemio said.

The league is made up mostly of pizzeria owners and adopted the shame-inducing statute two years ago to keep participants from losing interest once their teams had no shot of winning the league.

“Now the league is no longer about winning,” Boemio said. “It’s just about not coming in last place. No one wants to be mortified.”

Associated Press