Train, Train Go Away

If you've ever been late to work or an appointment because you were held up by a train, then you'll appreciate this: the lead runners at the Des Moines Marathon in Iowa this past weekend got stopped by a train. A quarter of a mile from the finish.

The Iowa Interstate Railroad apologized for the incident, saying a miscommunication had allowed a train into the race area early and that it wasn't supposd to happen.

The winner finished in about 2 hours and 24 minutes.

The managing director of the Chevron Houston Marathon says trains are an issue for him in the mayoral race, because they have to hammer out an agreement with Metro to stop all those trains in all that wide area of Houston the morning of January 17. He told me quite frankly that Mayor Bill White has been very supportive of the marathon, and has helped to mediate that situation.

After all, Metro probably just wants the trains to run, because that's what they do.

Steve Karpas told me that of course the race adminstrators and all 22,000 runners would like the trains to NOT run that morning. And he says he's very interested in the election, because the race organizers would like the next mayor to be as helpful as Mayor White.

We'll see. It might be a story, come January.