Despite heavy security, ex-priest disrupts marathon

ATHENS — Pheidippides never had to deal with anything this crazy. The original distance runner, the Greek messenger who ran from the town of Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C., didn’t have decent shoes. And the road was a little rockier.

But if he’d had to deal with an idiot like Cornelius Horan, who knows? The Greeks might still be waiting for word on how things turned out in the Battle of Marathon.

The most secure Olympics in history couldn’t prevent one wacko defrocked priest from disrupting the Games’ signature event. Helicopters, AWACS planes and unmarked blimps couldn’t detect a man in a bright red kilt.

The race, run over its original ancient course, was still special, especially for winner Stefano Baldini of Italy and for Meb Keflezighi, the first American man to medal in the event since Frank Shorter in 1976.

Brazil’s Vanderlei Lima was gracious about having a bronze medal around his neck. After building a lead as wide as 46 seconds, he had begun to fade a little when madness struck.

Horan ran onto the marathon course some 22 miles into the race, shoving Lima toward the curb on his right. Lima disappeared into the crowd of spectators for a few seconds. He re-emerged and gamely continued racing.

Horan did not re-emerge, and one hopes the mob knocked some sense into him before the police arrested him.

The episode probably cost Lima 10 to 15 seconds. But it certainly knocked him out of the groove he was in and disrupted his focus.

“When I saw the man who was jumping on me I was scared,” Lima said, “because I didn’t know what could happen to me, whether he was armed with a knife, a revolver or something and whether he was going to kill me.”

“It was a very difficult incident because I was very concentrated, knowing I was going to win, and it cut my rhythm.”

Brazilian officials filed an appeal, but it was immediately denied. There are no rules that cover demented Irish nationals. That’s a shame, because there’s no way to be sure what would have happened if Lima had been able to run uninterrupted.

It’s always a special moment when the first marathoner appears in the Olympic stadium for the final leg around the track. On this night, it was truly spectacular. Baldini was first to enter the stadium. He got about halfway around the track when Keflezhigi entered.

Then, in an odd moment, Baldini was running side by side with Lima. The winner was on the inside part of the track, running the final straightaway toward the finish. Lima was on the outside part of the track. A fence separated the two.

“It was an isolated incident,” Lima said. “It was something that can happen anywhere. I didn’t expect it to happen, but it happened and it happened very quickly. I’m not going to blame anyone.”

And that’s a fittingly Olympian place for these Games to end. Lima walked around the infield as other runners continued crossing the finish line. He smiled and waved to happy Brazilian fans.

He’d done his best. He had a medal. Let the Games be gone.