Column Stuff You Might Have Heard
Guy who didn't train for Boston Marathon takes huge lead, slows, dies

A man who friends say didn't train at all for the Boston Marathon was the surprise early leader in the race, taking a 200-meter lead near the quarter-mile mark, but he quickly tired, fell back in the pack and then dropped over dead some 100-feet from the Mile 1 marker. "He started way too fast," said a friend of the fallen runner, Jeff Carson. "I told him he couldn't run this without training." Carson, 34, had been telling friends that he was "still in great shape from high school sports" despite his noticeable paunch, and that he could win the prestigious event "if he could get a nice lead." The Boston Marathon was Carson's first athletic endeavor since he tried to throw 95 mph in the Speed Pitch at a minor league baseball game last summer. He only hit 62 mph, telling friends that the "radar obviously isn't working."