My Dear Friends at the Chicago Marathon

Well, that Sunday morning I lay down on my bed with my laptop just in front of me and searched the net for Chicago’s local weather. It was going to be a hot one. I was a little surprised and concerned for all my running buddies who flew in for the run.

So, excited to see everything and anything about the Marathon, I found the CBS site online that was covering the race live. In another window, I opened the marathon site to start the tracking. I must have loaded 15 names to keep up with my buddies with a couple of elite runners to boot.

From the very start the elite were not off very fast. By the end of the first 5k it was clear that no record would be broken this day. I was keeping up with my friends too and was not shocked when even some of my fastest folks fell well off their mark after 20k or 25k. It was not until later that I learned of the tragic death, the insidious riot at the water tables and the thousands of runners who were not allowed to or able to finish. What a disaster!

Since then I have heard that folks are looking to sue the marathon because they weren’t able to complete the race, or something. That’s the most ridiculous thing that has come out of this fiasco. It’s a marathon people. Things go bad. Things go terribly bad. But that is the sport. Better they pull you off the course “kicking and screaming” than they carry you off the course “too proud to speak”.

Now, since all my buddies are deep south runners, they have grown used to the heat and humidity. They all have great experience in these circumstances and simply slowed their paces and opted to finish with modest times. I do feel bad for them though, because they are such great runners and they were counting on the flat, fast course of Chicago to do great things. One friend was a first-time marathoner who will certainly qualify for Boston in the near future – just couldn’t happen this time. Another friend will be running in the U.S. Olympic Trials in April and was going to use Chicago to earn a higher standard before the trials. A married couple friends-of-mine trained so diligently this year. They have two little cute babies that they often had to push in a double stroller during their long runs. They are some warriors for sure. This was not their first marathon but, their second and they were certainly on par to best their times. Yet another friend is a former collegiate distance runner who is known in our crew as one fast chick. She was running Chicago for fun but, wanted to get a faster time before going to Boston next year.

I have not done a great job expressing the emotions of these folks journies to Chicago and there are many more stories to tell, all of them just as touching. One thing is for sure though, they all agree that marathoning is genuinely a challenging sport. For the elite and the middle packers, equally. They all face their demons on the 26.2 mile course. But, none of them have given up their hopes and dreams. That hot day in Chicago did a lot of damage to the sport, to the Chicago marathon committee, and to many runners out there but, it did not break the spirits of my Chicago Marathon friends. They have already returned with renewed goals, plans and agendas all of which include running another marathon. They continue to pursue the perfect one that results in a PR, A-standard for the Olympics or simply the best run of their lives. Never, never stop running.