pfriese
Cool Runner |
 posted Oct-08-2007 02:51 PM
   
Intro: My running partners and I had decided this spring on Chicago for a nice, cool fall marathon. We had trained through the Oklahoma summer heat for it with quite a bit of moaning and whining. Little did we know that this would be prophetic of how the race would unfold.Prelude: We arrived in Chicago on Wednesday for a conference to dire predictions of record heat for marathon morning. Somewhat disappointed in the weather, we still had Chicago to enjoy. Thursday morning we went for a nice run on the lake front. Temperatures were in the lower 60's, not too bad. Thursday, Friday and Saturday was spent at the conference or the Expo. The Expo was huge and great fun to browse around. I picked up a Nike pace-band (4:15 finish), a few shirts, and a souveneir running hat. Race morning: I actually got a great nights sleep before the marathon. The alarm woke me at 5:00am. After dressing, I went downstairs and caught the bus to the race start. No problems with Chicago's mass transit system. I ate my bagel & banana and drank my gator-aide on the bus. Arrived at the start area at 6:30am, checked, and roamed around a bit as I was a bit ahead of schedule (I really expected delays getting to start and such). About an hour before the race, one last stop at the loo, then I staked out a position in the start area and just sat, stretched and relaxed as the other runners arrived. ~20 minutes before start, one of my running partners found me, never saw the other two at the start. Race announcements were made warning us of race day conditions, Star Spangled Banner sung, wheelchair start , and everyone moving forward for the actual start. Just guessing, temperature was mid 70's with high humidity. The plan for the race had been scaled back from a 4:15 marathon to a 4:30 marathon. The race: Race started promptly at 8:00am. With the number of runners, I was suprised by how fast we actually made it to the start line (~10 minutes). We got up to a nice pace with not much problem. Runners actually seemed to have lined up very well according to pace, so there was not much dodging, jostling, or passing. A very smooth start! Large crowds downtown with lots of noise and cheering. It was amazing. The run through the downtown area went by rapidly. I had planned on skipping the first water station, but with the heat precautions I decided to grab fluids at each station. At this point I was separated from my running partner. I thought he was ahead of me, so I sped up to catch him. As it turned out he had also gotten water at the aide station and was behind me. We didn't see each other until after the race. I really had no problems and was maintaining my pace well through Lincoln Park on up to Wrigley. Heading south from there with the sun and lack of shade, you could really feel it starting to heat up. I made sure a got plenty of fluids at every aide station. My average pace at 5K was ~9:40/mile. At 10K, ~9:45/mile. At the 15K marker the temperature was rising rapidly. A bank sign had the temp at 85 degrees at that point. Even though I felt great, I decided to ease off a bit more. Also, about this point in the race I started seeing runners having some difficulty with the heat. At the halfway point, I really started seeing folks on the side of the course receiving aide, so I slowed up a bit more. I had been taking in fluids well, maybe too well as I needed to find a porta-let pretty soon. At mile 16, I detoured for the loo. As I got back on the course, I went by the medical tent and noticed that all cots were occupied with either runners being cooled with ice packs or receiving IV's! At that point I knew that this was going to be a tough race and that to finish would require a very conservative run from here on in. As I heard one runner put it after the race, "I was in survivor mode from mile 16 on". It wasn't that bad for me, but you get the point. I resolved myself not to be disappointed in finish time & such and to enjoy the Chicago neighborhoods I was running through. The crowds were fantastic. Folks had there garden hoses out spraying runners on the course. Cheering and helping runners along the route. The neighborhoods were great and the crowds, WOW, they lined the course for the full 26 miles. It was amazing. At mile 17, I saw a bank sign that had the temp at 94 and I started thinking of this RR and how I would have to pay spareribs a hugh fine for gritching about the heat. As I went on there were more and more runners in distress. At mile 18, another of my training buddies caught up to me during a walk break. I asked what he was doing behind me as he is the fast runner in our training group. He said that he had run out of gas at around mile 16, that I had passed him around mile 17, and that he only caught me because I took a walk break. I extended my walk break with him until he was ready to run again. We ran until mile 20 and walked through the aide station. He told me to go, that he needed to walk a bit more, so I started off again. Just a few blocks past the 20 mile aide station there was a course official telling us the race had been cancelled and that we would be catching busses to the finish area at the next aide station. Needless to say everyones mood worsened. When we reached the next aide station, we were informed that busses were coming but they did not know how long until they would arrive and since we were less than 5 miles from the finish we could walk on in if we felt OK. Someone asked if we would still be timed and we were told that the clocks had been turned off but that we would still get our medals for finishing. I still felt good, so I decided to walk to the finish and just enjoy the neighborhoods and the crowds that never left. Some folks were still running but there were police and other emergency officials on bullhorns ordering people to walk. At mile 24, I saw DW and told her what had happened on the course and she told me what they were saying on TV. From here to near the finish it was just a nice albeit hot stroll down Michigan Ave to the final turn to the finish. At the final turn to the finish alot of folks broke into an easy jog for the final 300 meters to the finish. The finish area was chaos, but how could it be otherwise with so many runners coming in. I was able to get through, get medal, get water, chip removed, and something to eat in less than 5 minutes. Since I was a bit pressed for time, I made my way over to State Ave and caught a bus back to within 4 blocks of my hotel. The bus driver would not let any of the marathoners who were getting on pay, I don't know if this was CTA policy or if we just had a real nice driver. Even though I guess it's not an official time, my result was 5:15:23. Just a little off of my goal of 4:15. Fashion report: Uh-oh, I'll be in trouble here, not a very coordinated running outfit. Maroon Loyola New Orleans technical shirt (worn for youngest DD who is a student there), black Adidas running shorts, Thorlos socks, New Balance 826 shoes, MCM souveneir running hat, and Garmin with HRM. Impressions of race: I know there will be lots of discussion about how things went wrong for this race and how they should have done it. Alot of this is 20/20 hindsight. At my time-frame for the race, I had no problem with gator-aide or water running low at any of the aide stations. They were having trouble getting cups filled fast enough, but there were fluids present. From what I hear runners behind me did have problems getting fluids at the aid stations though. I also thought the point where they called the race was appropriate. If you weren't done by noon it was too brutal to continue running especially for the recreational runners. With hindsight and the weather forecast and the early October date; maybe they should have had an earlier start time. Since the logistics of a race this size (or any race for that matter) are quite problematic with staffing and road closures and such, a last minute (or even few days) change in the start time may be impossible. If they could have moved up the start to 6:30am or so, I'm sure that it would have gone much better. My thoughts are with the family of the young man who died. I feel for those that struggled with the heat and race problems. I know that there were many disappointed runners who were counting on this race for BQ's and such, but there will be other races. Thanks for reading, Paul Edited to fix formatting errors. [This message has been edited by pfriese (edited Oct-08-2007).]
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Coastwalker
Cool Runner |
posted Oct-08-2007 03:47 PM
Hi Paul,I've been looking for a good assessment of the race from someone who was there, so I appreciate the report. And I'm glad to see that you read the situation well, adjusted your plans and pacing accordingly, and thus avoided the weather-related stresses that affected so many other runners. It was a challenging day all around: It was very tough for those of you who raced (I'm so glad I wasn't in your shoes!); and it was probably very scary for the race organizers who had to try to deal with everything as it was happening. No matter what the decision that the organizers made, some people would have been upset. But they had to act to protect the people on the course, so they made the right call to cancel the race. Maybe rather than move up the start of the race, they should change the date to sometime in December... BTW, I heard at lunch today that the death of the runner in the race was caused by a heart condition, and not (exclusively) by the heat. Jay
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