Comedian’s quick rise to elite runner

Brittany Charboneau’s sudden ascent to elite status as a distance runner is pretty funny, and not just because she won a race at Disney World while wearing green mermaid tights and toting a salad fork decorated to look like Ariel’s dinglehopper in “The Little Mermaid.”

“The Funny Runner” is as passionate about performing comedy as she is about trying to make the U.S. Olympic team in the marathon.