The Odyssey--Darth Vader, Santa Claus, & That Japanese Eggplant

What amazed me was that my brother and I took pains to make sure we had the lightest, most comfortable running gear and yet I was running next to people in some of the most bizarre costumes. The playboy bunny that I ran with for a while got lots of attention, believe me. My brother said that he ran next to the giant Japanese eggplant that we saw at the start. His sightings also included men dressed in full Darth Vader and Yoda costumes, complete with capes and masks. I saw various incarnations of Santa Claus as well as someone dressed as Pikachu, two Japanese men wearing what looked like sort of cloth diapers that left nothing to the imagination as far as their posteriors were concerned, and the Statue of Liberty.

Best of all is a man my brother saw who ran the entire marathon in traditional Hawaiian garb, carrying a huge wooden paddle, and barefoot. I never saw him, but he must have passed me at some point because I saw his picture in the paper the next morning along with his finishing time. He beat me by five minutes. Hmm, maybe next time I'll have to try training barefoot...