Reflecting on the Chicago Marathon, I see that everyone's made a big deal of it.
Over the past five years, there have been three participants have died in the wake of this race. This year a police officer from Michigan died as a result of his effort at the marathon.
The Chicago Sun-Times even told the city and the race director to apologize. At times during their editorial, they made hints to some blame to be put on the runners as well. The Sun-Times seemed to sum up what many members of the media were whispering in news meetings when the subject is brought up.
It was a big deal and the strenuous conditions were reported immediately after I crossed the finish line. Without a doubt, I like telling the good story about how everything unfolded that day. During that time, there was water at every station. Ice was being handed out and sponges were offered at mile 20.
Locals & store owners sprayed water hoses. Dozens of people had water spritzers (where did they get them all?) that they sprayed at you whether or not you wanted it. Water and Gatorade were pretty prevalent in the Chicago Marathon for us. My friend Stephanie and I weren't exactly burning up the track. We hit the finish line at 5:13.
The water/Gatorade stations were long stretches that went for about three blocks. Bottlenecks occured in the water stations during the first 3-5 tables. Then in the back part of the station, there were volunteers just standing there with water. Most of the time, volunteers in the front five tables were scurrying to keep up with demands while the back table volunteers were bored.
It was a difficult race to finish and many people were collapsing. Many more people were being helped. A lot of people weren't happy with their performance and felt let down by organizers. It's tough to train for 18 weeks and drop hundreds of dollars for a race and receive weather like that. I can sympathize with the frustration.
The attention the race got for the heat was peculiar and reactions over it were even more peculiar. Any recreational sport is going to deliver good days and bad days. Organizers put their best foot forward from my point of view and runners got confused from misinformation from the cops on the street. The most frustrating part of the day occured when spectators would spray their water at runners whether they wanted it or not. It was a chaotic day for everyone and it didn't seem like there was anyone to blame. Nor do I want to blame anyone.
I got my medal, so I'm good.