The Historic Chicago Marathon

This year’s race made the news all over the Chicago area…record-breaking high temps, cancellation of the marathon almost 4 hours into the race, 1 death, 320 sent to hospitals, a call –in phone # usually reserved for disasters to see where missing loved ones were, 3 still in critical condition the day after the marathon, running out of water and Gatorade at aid stations later on in the race, runners threatened with arrest by police if they did not walk (after the race was cancelled), runners dropping like flies… shall I go on?

Let’s start from the beginning. The morning started off warm, so warm that 10,000+ runners were a no-show (all-time high). Runners from two other neighboring clubs already decided to cut their run short (run 16 miles) and sign up for the Grand Rapids Marathon in 3 weeks. One was Laura who is way faster than me and in my age group, so I was pretty happy about that. Dave, the leader of the Hard Core Running group that I belong to, was a 3:30 pace leader in corral C. I was starting in corral B along with my running friends Ben and Matt. We were towards the back of the corral so that we could eventually meet up and run with Dave. The 3 of us had the same goal, and that was to finish in 3:28 to 3:30. Ben and Matt are much faster than me, but they factored in the heat and had a conservative goal. The starting gun went off, and slightly over 2 seconds later, we passed over the starting mats. We are on our way!

Matt dropped back right away to look for Dave. Ben and I continued on figuring that as long as Dave didn’t pass us, we would make our 3:28 goal. About another 2 miles into the race, Matt caught up with us and decided to run with us because Dave was too far back. Unfortunately, he had to do 7:30s for 2 miles to catch us. He paid the price later on. I know my body pretty well. My legs didn’t feel quite right which meant that I was going too fast. We were averaging 7:45 to 7:50 for a while there. We all agreed that we were going too fast, so we dropped back a little. We began to wonder if maybe the miles were not correctly marked because one of our miles was an 8:20, and we weren’t going that much slower. At the 10K mark, so far so good, 48:59 which was right on.

I walked at every aid station to drink my Gatorade because I didn’t want it spilling all over me. Ben and Matt would keep running, so I always had catching up to do. After the aid station at the half way point, I caught up with Matt but didn’t see Ben. That was the last time I would see Ben until the finish. My half time was also right on, 1:44:10. I was feeling great.

Everyone I talked to felt good up until around mile 18. The beginning part of the race had lots of shade, and the temperatures were cooler. From mile 16 we were pretty much running in direct sunlight. I looked over at the temperature displayed on the corner…it read 91 degrees. Wow, that’s hot! There is a wide street we are running along with a small strip of shade on one side. The entire street is empty, and we are all running along the shade. My feet were beginning to cramp, and the cramping was moving up to my calves. Matt also complained of leg cramping. He was really feeling the heat. I lost Matt after mile 18 and ran alone after that. Around this time Dave and the other 3:30 pacer passed me.

I knew I was slowing down but couldn’t help myself. Every time I tried to speed up, my legs would cramp up. Leg muscles I didn’t even know I had were cramping. Around mile 22 I saw another temperature displayed at a bank. It read 96 degrees. As it turned out, the high was “only” 87 degrees. It sure felt a lot hotter than that. Along with the high humidity, the heat index was much higher. It’s so disheartening when the 3:40 pacer and then the 3:50 pacer passed me. Later on who do I pass but Dave! He was really having problems with the heat. That didn’t last long because I really slowed down the last 4 miles. He caught up with me and ran the last couple of miles in with me. Karen and her fiancé Ed also ran with us (they jumped in as spectators). My nephew Chris was also there as spectator. I saw him a couple of times during the race. Last year he was there to run the last 5 miles with me, but I was going so slow this year that he thought I passed him up, so he went to the finish area instead of waiting around for me to pass.

All I hear around me were sirens from emergency vehicles. I see some people lying on the ground off to the side. So many runners are struggling. When I reached 25-1/2 miles, I saw police officers walking through the runners in the race course. As I approached them, they told me that the race was cancelled and to please walk. I was sure confused about that. Since we only had a half mile more to go, we just continued on. I finished the race together with Dave with a 3:54 time, very disappointed. As you finish you walk a while, getting your chip removed, getting your finisher’s medal, water, and food. All of a sudden there are tons of runners coming to the finish area from the opposite direction. Where are these guys coming from? They sure don’t look like they ran a marathon. Maybe there was a 5K or something. Then I hear an announcement from the loud speaker that the Chicago marathon has been cancelled, and that this is just a “Fun Run”. Later on I read this online:

Due to the rising heat index and higher than expected temperatures, LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Executive Race Director Carey Pinkowski and Medical Director Dr. George Chiampas, in cooperation with city officials, have implemented a contingency plan, as a precautionary measure, to effectively close the Marathon course at the halfway point. Runners who have not reached the halfway point by approximately 12:00 p.m. will be diverted back to Grant Park via Halsted and Jackson. Jackson will be closed to automobile traffic and the participants will be provided with additional support along this route. Participants who crossed the halfway point prior to the shut-down will continue to be fully supported along the standard course to the finish line. Participants are asked to take advantage of medical personnel, cooling buses, runner drop out buses, water, Gatorade and other means of support en route back to Grant Park.

So it turned out that these runners were those diverted back to the finish from the half way point. In talking with slower runners who actually made it to the halfway point and passed it before the race was cancelled, this statement was completely false. They actually closed the race course around mile 18 to prevent runners from going on. Police were more forceful than they were with us to make the runners walk. Some were threatened with arrest if they ran. Runners were told to take the bus back to the finish area. Those that did were dropped off prior to the finish so that they can step on the timing chip mats. After that they received their finisher’s medal. Is that meaningless or what? These runners witnessed much worse than I did the effect of the heat on runners not used to running in these conditions. So many runners lying on the ground suffering from heat stroke. The city was not prepared for this. Ambulances from neighboring suburbs were called in to help out.

My running partner Lauren was running Chicago with her dad (his first marathon) to help him break 4 hours and qualify for Boston. They were at mile 20 when they first heard the marathon was cancelled. Police was standing in the middle of the street on a median announcing the cancellation and to please walk. They were going to be redirected or bussed to the finish at the next aid station. They couldn’t believe this. Her dad’s calves were cramping and seizing and he began to feel dizzy so they were run/walking anyway. They walked waiting to be redirected, but they never were and they didn’t see any busses. It turned out that there weren’t enough busses for all the runners, so those left behind had to fend for themselves. When they passed the 35K mark, the clock had been turned off. They couldn’t hear the chip timer working either when they walked over it. It was then that reality set in that the race really had ended. Her dad didn’t want to keep walking the entire course if they weren’t going to be allowed to finish, so they decided to take the quickest way back to the finish area. They jumped back into the race course with a mile and a half to go. When she looked back at their times, they had two 5Ks that took an hour to complete, but the one from 35K to 40K where they took the short cut took only 22 minutes. They finished with a 5:18 time, so those chip timers must have been working after all.

They did have water on the course, but those unlucky people after them had no water. I had no idea they would run out of water. I saw runners dumping entire gallons of water on their heads. I only took one cup to dump on my head. They should have had a water hose just before the aid stations for us to wet down so that the water could be saved for drinking. On the other hand, had there been water hoses, they could have refilled the water from that.

I feel like I was part of history. I now don’t feel so bad about my time after hearing about what everyone else went through. Ben wound up finishing in 4:03 and Matt a little after that. It’s now Grand Rapids for me. I decided on that instead of the 50K. Lauren will still run the 50K.