Media Mishaps: The Chicago Marathon

I don't know if anyone has been paying attention to all of the media coverage on the Chicago marathon. I have, and a LOT of it really angers me.

When I turned on the TV in my hotel room Monday morning, there was a short little blurb on CNN Headline news about the whole thing. The gist of the story? It was too hot, many runners had not trained for warm weather and were not ready. Also? Runners need to stay hydrated when it's hot out because their blood can't get to their skin properly.

Really?

I kept waiting for them to say: and this was difficult since the marathon ran out of water.

And I don't know about anyone else out there, but there was absolutely NO WAY for me to train in cooler temperatures this summer. Therefore, I trained in hot temperatures. Therefore, I feel like I was prepared. That's why I was walking when I got too hot. That's why I assume other runners were doing the same thing. We knew to walk because we had experienced conditions like this. Let's stop blaming the runners.

Quotes like these have been peppering articles:

"Some experts now wonder whether a more critical look should be taken of the runner, who in the face of the brutal conditions may have lacked a little 'common sense.'" – ABC News, Experts: Mind Over Matter May Have Played Part in Chicago

"In the Stuart Smalley division, race organizers decided to end things for those not at the halfway point by 11:30 a.m." – The Suburban Chicago News, Ending marathon early was right call

And the worst article I read? Mike Downy's No One Forced Anyone to Run...where he says "This is a professional competition that the public sometimes confuses with a company picnic."


I can't count the number of articles I read that are blaming non-elite runners for not being smart about their race. Editorial after editorial says that we should not run. Obviously, these people do not understand the sport of marathoning. A lot of the non-elites were probably better prepared for the marathon. We weren't pushing ourselves and we knew when enough was enough. I sat in countless clinics listening to what I should be doing and how to prepare myself for training. Needless to say, my training group was extremely helpful in this. I seriously felt like I was well-prepared as I'm sure everyone else in my training group felt. I know some people are stupid, but I'm not thinking it is enough to make a sweeping generalization. After all, how could the rest of us have finished if that was true?

Of course, Jeff Galloway understands. He was quoted in an article called Does Marathon Need Stricter Entry Requirements? as saying: “[Marathon runners] are adults and they have to be expected to take responsibility for their health and safety,” Galloway said. “But if you put a cap on it, you’re going to keep a lot of people who have the opportunity to improve the quality of their life from participating and gaining this wonderful set of experiences along the way.” Thank goodness Gary Cohen had the decency to interview a true running expert.

Do I think they would prevent non-elites from running next time? Personally, no. The $110 entry fee from 45,000 runners is too tempting. Not to mention all of the revenue we bring into the city from our hotel rooms and restaurant bills.

And bravo to Time! Of all of the articles I've read on this whole thing, they have the most true account. It's called When a Marathon Goes Wrong and you can read it here .

To Run or Not to Run

After much deliberation I have decided not to run. :(

See, a bunch of people in my running group are doing Columbus next week to make up for Chicago. I really really want to. I mean, I KNOW I could have kept the pace if I had water and it wasn't so darned HOT. I would probably have done a 4:45 and that would be a 30 minute improvement from my first marathon.

HOWEVER, I want to continue this whole 2 marathons a year thing. I figure with my knee already a little sketchy (if it still hurts by December I have to talk about surgery), it might not be a good idea. Besides, I got to finish the race, so its not like I didn't do 26.2 miles. Even if 8 of those miles were walking. So I don't know if my body would be up to it.

It makes me kind of sad and kind of angry though, because I want that time so badly.

I am trying to be smart about it all though.

I am definitely planning on the Pig this May! Let's hope that their 10 year anniversary is better than Chicago's 30th!

I have been having nightmares about the marathon every night. The whole thing just keeps replaying in my head. It has been EVERY NIGHT SINCE THE MARATHON. Yuck. I would like to just get back to a normal sleep/dream cycle. I'm hoping that just getting back into running this weekend will help that all go away.

Tomorrow I am running with my marathon group again. My mini-group is going to be there too, and we are going to go out to breakfast afterwards to exchange stories. I am looking forward to it! But it's funny, now that the marathon is over an 8 mile workout actually seems like a lot :)

Chicago Marathon: Miles 19-26.2

I first heard the marathon was over by one of the volunteers at the water stop. He said "The marathon is over. From this point on it's just a fun run." That I kind of had to snort at. I have never heard of a "fun run" being more than 2.5 miles. Running 26.2 in the heat (or 19 at that point) is NOT fun. I almost didn't believe him.

Then another volunteer said the same thing a little down the road. "The race is over, folks. Just treat it like a training run." I know I had heard it twice at this point, but really I was having a hard time believing it. I mean, come on, not only is it one of the World Marathon Majors , but it was also the 30th anniversary. Then I guess I realized how many sirens I was hearing throughout the marathon, and the police presence that was suddenly everywhere (like the guy in the middle of the road telling us to start walking). Then, at about mile 20 I actually did see more policemen. This time they had bullhorns. They were telling us the marathon was over. There was no more water. We needed to stop running. We should report to the next aid station to board buses to go back. It was crazy and no one knew what to do.

It was a little creepy, because people were still celebrating and cheering us on.
The cheerleaders at Charity Mile were still doing a routine to "Mickey", the dancers were still dancing in Pilsen. I mean, I was still enjoying it, but it sort of had a creepy "national disaster" type feel to it. The helicopters overhead yelling "The marathon is over. Please stop running." did not help.

Everyone around was just asking "Do you think we're going to get our medals?" I turned around and said "we'd better." Then we talked about how pissing off thousands of runners who have trained months for this and had to walk the rest of the way, by not giving them their medals would NOT be a good idea.

At some point, the firemen opened the hydrants. I was SOAKED. And I suddenly realized "Wait. This is the coolest and most hydrated I've been during the entire race..." And I was being directed NOT to run. Forget it. I was running. I ran off and on, making sure I felt okay and was hydrated.

Everyone was STILL cheering. I feel like it was with even more intensity.

When I got to mile 22 it was blocked off by a bus and some barricades. They were rerouting people. I saw some girl go through the barricade. I followed her. There was NO WAY I was not finishing! They kept yelling at us to stop. Everyone started chanting "BULLSH*T! BULLSH*T!"

I just kept thinking, 'if they think we're going to stop, they do NOT understand the mentality of people who run marathons'.

Finally at mile 24, a cop told us we could finish if we wanted to, we should walk not run, and we WOULD get our medals. Actually, the police and firemen were great. They were just trying to help everyone. One cop car came by and the cop said into the bullhorn "Dr. Phil says stop running." That also made me laugh.

The crowds were treating us like we were heros.
People were still soaking us, and offering us water, and wet sponges, and ice and even wet papertowels. It was so cool.

When we made it back to the Loop I was like "OK. I've got to run this." Especially since I JUST got misted by the huge misting firetruck. I probably would have walked faster at that point, but I had to do that last .25 miles.

I finished at 5:50:11. Ha! So much for my 4:45! But I was proud of myself anyway. And I wore my medal all day.

Chicago Marathon: Miles 8-18

It was soooooo hot! I was seriously starting to count how many miles I had left, which was pretty bad, seeing as that I was only at mile 8. The only redeeming thing was that I knew I was entering Boy's Town and I had heard that this was one of the really great spots on the course. I was already looking for the drag show. This year, they had a bunch of men with toy guns dancing to RuPaul's "Supermodel". It was AWESOME! It made me laugh and smile which made me forget how I wanted to stop, which was good.

By this point though, there was already a lot of talk about missing water at the aid stations, so I vowed to get water whenever I could.

I still had 3 miles to see my family.

At the next water stop I saw lots of Gatorade but no water. I ran past the Gatorade. The volunteers kept saying "the water's down that way". But I kept running and all I saw were empty tables. No water.

Luckily there was a girl who showed up next to me with a water bottle. She asked if I had gotten any at the last stop and when I said no, she handed it to me. I thought that was so nice, and passed the bottle onto another guy who didn't get any after I had some.

At mile 11 I see Bill and my family. I was glad that just Bill came up to me. I didn't want to freak out my family...I told him "they don't have any water for us!" I think I sounded kind of more desperate than I wanted to. He gave me a water bottle. He said they knew about it. He had gone to Walgreens and bought a bunch of water and was handing it to the runners. How sweet! I also told him I was walking a little bit of every other mile because it was just too awful. I also told him that I was "Plan C-ing it". My goal now was just to finish.

I later realized Bill was not the only one being kind. The spectators were wonderful. They were bringing hoses into the street to hose us down, bringing us water from their houses and restaurants and bringing us bags of ice. Not to mention they were cheering us all on. I was so glad I wrote my name on my shirt. Everyone who read it cheered me on by name. Even when I was walking. One lady cracked me up when she said "Come on Emily! It's okay to take a break, girl, it's okay. Just don't take too long of a break. Get back to running, Emily!" If you walked by the bands playing and they saw your name, they worked you into the song they were singing. :)

Surprise! I saw my family at mile 16! I was so glad! I didn't think I would see them until 25, so it was a really great surprise. Bill said I looked a lot better. I felt better at that point. I was much more hydrated because the last two water stops had water AND people were passing around bottles by that point. I was back running again!

I have to admit, I did feel a LITTLE dizzy a few times. But every time that happened I stopped, and walked, and rehydrated. It was not really that different than my training runs this summer. As long as I had water and paced myself I was okay.

At the next water stop they had cups but no water.

Sometime between mile 18-19 I heard someone talking about them shutting the marathon down. I also saw a cop standing in the middle of the road. He was yelling at us. I thought he was saying "STOP WALKING! STOP WALKING!" and it was making me mad because I kept thinking 'Hey buddy, you try running 18 miles in this heat without walking.' In light of everything that happened afterwards I think he might have been saying "START walking!"

Chicago Marathon: Mile 1-7

OK, one of the big perks of running for a charity is that you get a special tent. Team CdLS' was the "Trophy Tent". This tent has free food and beverages, their own masseurs, and (most importantly) their own port-a-lets. Totally worth it! It was nice to get ready in a fairly calm environment where you don't have to worry about those things. I had prepped myself by cutting out red meat and alcohol for the past two nights. I was coated in Body Glide. I had taken my secret weapons: Immodium and Tylenol 8-hour (to reduce my core temperature and prevent inflamation). Most importantly, I was well hydrated.

The one thing I forgot?
Tums.

Yes, the Immodium helped tremendously, but I think all my nervousness was then diverted into my stomach. Luckily my team captain, Beth had an extra.

We took our team photo and made our way to the starting line. I felt really bad about not being able to meet my Roncker group. But I had no way to get in contact with them. I parted with my family and lined up behind the pace leaders for the 4:45 group. Then I hear my name being shouted. It was Lindsay and Sarah! Hurrah! We chatted about all of our nervousness. Funnily enough, a man standing next to us was also from Cincinnati! They decided to run with the 5:00 pace group because of the heat, so they headed back. I had my ipod with me, but just as a security thing. I didn't think I would use it.

It took 18 minutes for me to get to the starting line. I was a little nervous because in the glacial-paced moving I got pretty far behind the pace leaders. It ended up not being a problem because I caught up with them once we started moving.

It was SO CROWDED!!!! I was right up next to one of the pace guys. He kept weaving, and it was kind of hard to track him for awhile. I was concentrating on staying with them so much that I didn't really enjoy the sites. :( Mile one. I looked at my watch. 10:06. Uh, thought we were supposed to do a 10:52. Then I realized that they had to make up a lot of time because of the water stops.

I had no idea how they were going to do these. Well, at the first one they blew a whistle and we all walked through it. Apparantly the pacers were amazed at how crowded and crazy they were. They started freaking out about keeping the pace. They said we lost a lot of time there. Despite the fact that we were pacing fast, I felt great. I even felt like we were going a little slowly.

Next water stop. No water.

WHAT?

People were outraged. My paceleader (Ken) said they had never seen anything like this before and hoped this wasn't a foretelling of things to come. They figured that people were taking 2 cups instead of one and that no one had expected that.
(Ha! Then why did I get an email on THURSDAY saying: * Be sure to stay hydrated during the race. Make note of aid stations and prepare to utilize them. You will need to drink more to compensate for the rapid depletion of your body's fluids in the heat...they KNEW it was going to be hot. Come on!) Some man was like "I'm going to write a mean note. This is ridiculous!" and the lady by him was like "I'm sure you will be one of 30,000.")

The thing that almost made ME cry though was a little clink I heard and then a smashing sound of electronics being trampled. My ipod was gone. I know, I know, I've gotten my use out of it. But really it was more of a sentimental thing. My husband got it for me as a present when I started seriously running and had it engraved with a message and everything.

OK. I was now extremely hot.
The sidewalks were swamped with spectators. It was so cool! Everytime we went by a big group they yelled "GO 4:45!" and we cheered back.

We ran by a clock at 9:30 and it said "89 degrees." Ugh.

By Lincoln Park (mile 7ish?) I was having a hard time keeping up with the pace group. I think other people were too, because our group had diminished a LOT. I dropped back.

Hardly any water at this stop. I think I got one of the last cups.

It was tough because there was a little uphill and it was just so hot! It was a really beautiful part of the course though...a little oasis in the middle of the city. People were jumping into the fountains and lying down in them before continuing on the course.

I didn't feel too bad about dropping back at this point. I saw a lot of people from the 4:30 pace group, so I knew I was in good company.

I was dying to see my family again, but knew I had 4 miles to go.

Chicago Marathon Weekend: Saturday

Saturday was so hot! I (kind of) slept in, ate a huge breakfast at the hotel buffet (still fat-loading), and went for an easy 1-miler at 9:00 just to shake my leg-antsyness off. I'm glad that I did, because it ended up being a LOT hotter than I thought it was, so it kind of mentally prepared me for what I thought I would face on Sunday. Unfortunately, since we waited so long to book our hotel we were all the way out in Rosemont (by the O'Hare airport). So every time we wanted to go into Chicago it was an hour on the blueline. It wasn't THAT bad, but it did eat up a lot of our day.

We went to the expo, which was a lot of fun. They of course had every kind of energy bar known to man that they were handing out. I didn't actually eat anything there because I was being really good about not eating anything I didn't know about. I did however, try the Gatorade Endurance formula that they were going to have on the course, just to see if I would like it. YUCK! GROSS! No Gatorade on the course for me, just water.

When you got into the expo they had a huge video drive through of the course which was really cool. I was getting very excited.

I also found two new companies whose sportswear I loved! One was One More Mile . They had a bunch of funny shirts that said things like "Will Run for Beer", and "This IS my Race Pace", and "Chicago. Been there. Run That." Running Divas also had a lot of cute stuff including "marathongs" which I just thought was funny.

After the Expo, we already had to head out for our early dinner with Team CdLS at Lou Malnati's .

It was so fun to meet the team. They were all very very nice. Beth, the team captain, gave me a big hug when I got there. We had a very nice dinner and everyone introduced themselves. Even though we were a very small charity team (I think there ended up being 21 of us?) we were very very close to our $50,000 goal, and they think that more donations will be coming in. It was also nice to be on a team where everyone was really really passionate about the cause. If I end up doing Chicago next year I would definitely consider running for Team CdLS again!

After dinner I was exhausted. We headed back to Rosemont (with a little pit stop in the middle...come on, I drank like EIGHT glasses of water at dinner). Then I had a ton of pent up energy. My parents came back to our room to make signs and I was running around like a little kid showing them everything I got at the expo. I was SO PUMPED UP.

I did finally get to sleep though.

So Much To Say...So Little Time

Yes, unfortunately, I DO have to actually do real work today. I will probably have about 8 posts about Chicago! After all, how many marathons actually get CALLED OFF in the middle?! So, hopefully I can get some posts in at lunch today. Stay tuned...