By now I'm sure everyone has heard all about this year's Chicago Marathon, it was hot and humid and horrible. But, It was also incredible well run despite the conditions. i've been hearing alot of critism about the amount of water on the course. I think this critism is extremely unfair. teh race organizers stock enough water for each of participants at each of the aid stations, they even double stocked them when they were sure the temps were going to be unseasonably high. When runners are taken 4, 6, even 8 glasses of water at each aid station, when they would normal take 1 maybe 2 max, it is difficult to fill water fast enough.
I think the race organizers did the right thing in shutting down the course. I was about 400 meters from the finish when they called the race. The only issue I had when i heard the news was with the police officer who was yelling at me to walk in. When a fat police officer demands that I walk the last 400 meters, when i can see the finish line in front , I take offense. But, I understand where he is coming from - still, even at that point I had some pride, so I ran it in (what's he going to do? Arrest me?).
Here are some pics...
4 comments:
the first picture looks like a scene taken from "My Giant"
Marathon runners, organizers at odds over race preparation
Story Highlights
Sponsor: "We did feel we had more than adequate water supplies out there"
Marathon run in record 88-degree heat, high humidity
At least 50 people taken to area hospitals for heat-related ailments
Patrick Ivuti won by a fraction of a second, coming in at 2:11:11
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Some increasingly desperate runners in the brutally hot Chicago Marathon elbowed other participants out of the way to get to scarce water. Others detoured to nearby convenience stores in search of the hydration they say they couldn't find along the course itself.
Others gave up, sat down and cried.
Organizers on Monday defended their preparation for Sunday's marathon -- during which one man with a heart disorder died and scores went to hospitals -- even as runners told stories of a tough, sometime scary battle to stave off heat exhaustion during the 26.2-mile race that organizers ultimately cut short for many.
While some wondered if the disturbing spectacle of so many runners fainting or vomiting by the roadside raised wider issues -- including whether it might hurt Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics -- the focus on Monday remained the anger and frustration of many of the event's 35,000 participants.
"I ran six days a week for 10 months so they could not provide water?" said Brian Mabee, 43, of Shelby Township, Michigan, who waded into a public fountain to cool off after passing one depleted aid station after another. "I thought if I could prepare, they should be able to do it, too." Watch as a runner describes what happened »
Organizers insisted they adjusted their plans for the heat and boosted the number of drink servings at the race's 15 aid stations to 1.8 million from 1.6 million, as well as adding misting areas, extra ice and water-soaked sponges.
"We did feel we had more than adequate water supplies out there," said Shawn Platt, senior vice president of LaSalle Bank, the marathon's sponsor.
Platt said planners did not anticipate runners would use drinking water to cool themselves when misting stations and sponges weren't available. He acknowledged many stations and sponges were set up toward the end of the route instead of early on when runners first started showing signs of fatigue.
"Probably we should have been a little more proactive about that," executive race director Carey Pinkowski said. See photos of the marathon »
Many runners said they scrounged for sustenance themselves. Sympathetic spectators along the route pulled garden hoses to the street, spraying runners as they passed.
Signs of trouble came early.
"By the first or second water station, they were out, and they were apologizing, saying, 'Just run a mile or two and there'll be more water,"' said Merrie Ann Nall, a 59-year-old writing coach from DeKalb, Illinois.
There was speculation the death of 35-year-old Chad Schieber, a Midland, Michigan, police officer, was due to temperatures that reached a race-record 88 degrees within two hours of the 8 a.m. start.
But Schieber, whose wife also ran Sunday, had a condition known as mitral valve prolapse and did not die from the heat, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
"It sounds like he lost his pulse very fast and died on the race course," George Chiampas, the race's medical director, said Sunday.
Hundreds of others were treated along the route for heat-related ailments. Organizers announced they were stopping the race about 3 ½ hours in, even though hundreds of people kept running for several more hours. Runners who had not passed a certain point were barred from going further and directed to buses traveling back to the starting area.
Organizers told participants who had gotten further along the course they could continue -- walking -- to the finish line.
Helicopters with bullhorns blared out instructions for runners to stop. Some refused to heed the warnings and kept running.
"Runners are a very unique breed and they're very determined and they want to push themselves because of the all the time they put in preparing for the race," Platt said.
Also Monday, organizers of Chicago's Olympics bid said the problems should not hurt the city's attempt to host the 2016 Summer Games.
"The very unusual circumstances around the Chicago Marathon were unique and unfortunate," Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky said Monday. "It is important to note that the Olympic Games' marathon, with fewer than 200 elite athletes, is a very different event than yesterday's race of nearly 40,000 runners."
At least 50 people were taken to hospitals, with another 250 treated along the route, officials said.
Five remained at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Monday evening, all in good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
One runner's body temperature had reached 107 degrees when he arrived at Northwestern, said Dr. Martin Lucenti. Several runners were stuttering incoherently, unable to say their names or where they lived. Treatment included piling ice on them and setting up fans, Lucenti said.
During a typical Chicago Marathon, 96 percent of runners who start complete the course. On Sunday, about 70 percent of the runners -- or just less than 25,000 -- were able to finish.
One runner who dropped out of Sunday's race said he'd consider running another marathon, but Walter Simpson said it wouldn't happen without first checking the weather forecast.
"I'd want to be sure I knew what the weather was going to be like," he said. "I'd probably run another one but not like this one."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
now it's like 45 degrees here.
How does Nick run marathons and still have a gut from college?
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