A sumo wrestler who tops 400 pounds and a guy from Illinois who ate almost nothing but McDonald's food through his last month of training set new marks in the Honda Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday.
Anybody else think the torrential rains that fell might have been a sign?
First the Fat Man: Kelly Gneiting is the former US sumo wrestling champion who considers himself "one of the best athletes in the world." He does have a Guinness World Record to provie it: "Heaviest Person to Complete a Marathon".
Gneiting jogged the first eight miles of the marathon, then walked the rest. He finished in 9 hours 48 minutes 52 seconds, and dropped a few pounds on the way. He was down to 396.2 at the finish, and talking of swimming the English Channel.
The McRunner guy: Joe D'Amico, from Illinois, landed a bit of fame on the national running scene by preparing for the marathon on a strict McDonald's diet, for the last 30 days of his training. He went out and ran a PR 2:36:14 in Los Angeles, without stopping for McNuggets. The end of the carbo load.
The winners: Markos Geneti, of Ethiopia, snuck in ahead of Gneiting by roughly 7 hours 42 minutes and set a course record in his first marathon. He finished 2:51 ahead of second-place finisher Nicolas Kamakya of Kenya - the second-largest margin of victory in marathon history - and 6:37 ahead of third-place Laban Moiben of Kenya.
On the women's side, Ethiopia's Buzunesh Deba, 23, won in 2:26:34. She beat American Amy Hastings - who led for much of the race - by 29 seconds. Hastings, 27, posted the fastest marathon time (2:27:03) by an American woman this year and became the eighth-best American performer all-time. It was her first marathon.
The Rain: The Los Angeles Times reported that thousands of runners were evaluated for hypothermia and 26 were taken to hospitals for treatment.
By 6 p.m., when an estimated 95% of runners had crossed the finish line, about 2.05 inches of rain had fallen in Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles, and 2.30 inches of rain had fallen in Beverly Hills.
The city of Santa Monica parked 10 to 12 of its buses at the finish line for runners seeking warmth and shelter from the deluge, and about half a dozen small hotels along Ocean Avenue opened their ballrooms to runners, race officials said.
About 1 p.m. at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows, hundreds of runners sat in the hallways wrapped in towels, shivering.
One woman waiting to use the bathroom said the marathon should be moved to April as she tugged at her bright yellow poncho. The women in front of her nodded as her teeth audibly chattered.
The MTA had four buses following the remaining runners in case anyone was unable to complete the race and needed refuge from the weather.
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