Chicago Marathon Cancelled

I believe most competitive people try to avoid setting limitations for themselves and instead push themselves as far as they can in order to achieve their goal. Unfortunately one of these people died in that process which makes it a nonhumorous topic in my opinion.

They did bump up the start time. I can see why people still tried, despite the heat. This marathon is famous for being hospitable for first-timers, plus with Chicago being so flat, it is a really fast course. People don't want to give up. They've been training for this for months, they think that they can handle it. The heat was bad today, but the humidity was probably what made it all the worse.

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Originally Posted by Big

What was humorous is that everyone just went along and ran. The herd principle that many say doiesn't exist. Serious runners should know their limitations and not leave their lives in the hands of officials. That is why I figured they must have been amateurs or?..well?.obese.

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CNN said that of the 45,000 registered 10,000 chose not to run.

The autopsy results are in on the young man who died, and his death was due to a heart problem, not the heat.

I heard from my friend who ran today.

He said the police were actually stopping the runners and telling them to walk to the finish.

He said the humidity was bad.

Poor guy had been training all summer for this.

If it was like 4 years ago, hitting the olympic "b" standard got you an invite to the olympic training camp. LaSalle Bank, who was sponsoring, even added a training stipend for anyone who qualified at Chicago and then elected to go to the camp. As was pointed out, fast times were to be had in Chicago, and lots of runners had VERY good reasons for making the effort. The Olympics is right around the corner for those competing in an event that cannot be run everyday (to say the least).

A few years back I remember watching the Bix 7 (miler) on TV when the temp was around 89 degrees. I watched as the leading woman runner wobbled, then collapsed. It was not pretty (p.s. as far as I know, she was okay; she just needed medical intervention).

Nonetheless, I've run when it is 99 degrees or thereabouts, for the sake of not missing the training. You go slower. But, yeah, it's not good to race in heat.

We used to wrestle with rubber suits under our sweats and the heat in the room turned up to the max. Water? You must be kidding.

[Yes, we also walked five miles to school in blizzards - uphill both ways.]

Don't they do the Ironman in Hawaii?