We started watching the race around mile 3.5...it was close to our condo and we could jump over a few streets to watch mile 11.5 pretty easily and then hop on the El to head out to mile 20. The whole family, complete with matching shirts, lined up curbside. First up was the wheelchair athletes...Morgan really loved those guys. "More chairs! More chairs!" We had cowbells and signs and were ready for the runners. Next up: The fast people. Good for them. I was out running the Boulder Backroads earlier this summer and the Kenyans were out there training...I saw them transition from "warmup" to "race pace" and all I could think was "must be nice to be with yourself."
From that point on it was a sea of runners non-stop covering the entire street. It was fun to cheer for people who had their names on their shirts. One lady had "Jo Dee" written on her shirt and was running right along the curb next to me...I yelled "Go Jo Dee!" Then I went "Hey, your (famous country singer) Jo Dee Messina!" She kind of looked at me like I was a goober and then smiled. Turns out she sang the national anthem before the race...it wasn't oprah, but it was a celebrity sighting none-the-less.Brian saw us before we saw him. He made a quick stop, gave Morgan a wet kiss, took a swig of gatorade and off he went. Morgan cried that daddy left her ;-)
We waiting a while before trying to cross the street for the crowds to thin. Then we started hearing people talking crazy. "They didn't have water at the water stop." By now we are seeing 5+ hour marathoners...the back of the packers and my people. I couldn't believe it. It had to be a fluke I thought...
We hopped over to Mile 11.5 and heard a bit more about the water problems. Jen and I headed to find a bathroom (which was a McDonalds...Chicago is home of McDonalds and those suckers are everywhere) and ended up buying some bottles of water just in case. Good thing.
We saw Brian again and he paused to "change his tires" as Bjorn put it, but he really changed his insoles. He stretched a bit...looked pretty sweaty...but otherwise was ready to go. He took a bottle of water with him. We headed to the El (not before stopping at subway where we were so lucky to meet the SLOWEST sandwich maker on the planet).
Morgan and I chased pigeons on the El platform and we headed out to Mile 20. At first, it looked like everything was normal...then I realized almost everyone was walking. We hadn't seen any pace group leaders go by (we were looking for the 4:30 to know about when Brian would come). We were right by a gas station so I went in and runners were literally in line buying water and gatorade...strange I thought! Then I saw the medical tent...it was overflowing with people suffering heat-related illness.Finally, we heard "crazy talk." "They cancelled the race" people were saying. Everyone was confused...then I got a text that said Brian had crossed the finish line and run a sub-4 hour marathon. Now, Brian is the bomb but I thought "ok, there is no way he went from running a 4:30 marathon pace to like 5 minute miles. Something's up." Turns out he was re-routed. The runners we were seeing had been told to walk because there were no ambulances available. Scary stuff.
We hopped back on the El and Jen and I went to the finish to find Brian. It was craziness down there but I did manage to run into a co-worker friend who had run the full marathon in about 4:20...one of the last really to do so.
I've read some blogs from runners who ignored what they were being told and continued to run the race finishing in 5:30+ hours. I applaud their determination but I'm not sure it was smart to do so...if something would have happened they would have overtaxed a system that was so obviously broken. We found Brian in the Charity Village (nice digs!) and "chilled" for a while. On the way out we passed the medical tent...NOT good.
The Chicago Marathon organizers could have done many things. The most obvious to me was to push up the start. If you were to start at 6 (which is what races in hot places do) you'd avoid direct sunlight for almost 3 hours. They only had 8 cups of water more per person than they would have if it would have been 45 degrees out. They are blaming the runners. Every single one of those runners trained in the summer, but they were promised water every two miles. Without water you get dehydrated...plain and simple. They owe the runners and their worried families an apology. They did try to recover as best they could and calling the race was probably the best decision, its just unfortunate it could have been avoided.
Anyways, GO BRIAN! You rock! I'm watching the Denver Marathon this weekend...where it will be approximately 40 degrees cooler than Chicago.
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