Passing Train Stalls Iowa Marathon Runners
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The leaders in the Des Moines Marathon could see the finish line — they just had to wait a bit.
A passing freight train forced the two leaders in the 26.2-mile race to wait for about a minute Sunday just 400 meters, or about a quarter mile, from the finish line. When the train finally passed, Kenyan Simon Sawe sprinted to a win in 2 hours, 24 minutes, 50 seconds. He won $3,000.
Race director Chris Burch said Monday it was an unfortunate circumstance beyond the control of race organizers.
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"It's one of those things, when I heard through our communications — what can you do at that time?" Burch asked.
Sawe said he was shocked when he made a turn onto the final stretch and saw the freight cars.
"Nobody is prepared for that scenario," Sawe told The Des Moines Register. "I couldn't believe it. It was a long train."
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As he waited, fellow Kenyan David Tuwei caught up and the two could do nothing but wait before sprinting the final stretch. Sawe won by about 5 seconds.
Mick Burkhart, Iowa Interstate Railroad vice president, apologized via e-mail. He said the railroad was aware of the race and had agreed not to operate in the area during the marathon.
"Due to some miscommunication, a train was allowed into the race area before it was supposed to," he said. "There is no excuse for this happening."
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Race organizers notify the railroad each year of the date of the marathon and the time runners will come through the area. Sundays are usually a slow day for the railroad in downtown Des Moines, Burch said, and he said the whole thing was a miscommunication.
There are no plans to change the route of the marathon.
"It would be hard to run a 26 mile run in Des Moines without going over tracks," he said. "We will try harder to work with (the railroad) so this doesn't happen again."