The Chicago Marathon: A Firsthand Account!

This weekend my sister Dale woke up very early in the morning in anticipation of the annual Chicago Marathon. She had run many times in the Boston Marathon, the St. Louis, Marathon, the Maui marathon,the London Marathon and even the Kiawah half marathon. She ran in the Chicago marathon every year for the past 14 years, but she was left completely unprepared for the events that took place this time around.

When Dale began the race early Sunday morning, she said that "it was somewhere around 73 degrees Fahrenheit, not all that hot really" and that was fine. She knew that the weather forecast had predicted the heat to climb up into the 80s by mid-day, but being a seasoned runner at 48 years of age, and having run for more the 16 years, Dale didn't think twice about participating in the race. She had run in many races throughout her lifetime and this one was to be no different then the others.

As she started out the race Sunday, everything was going exactly as she had planned, but then as she got just past her 11th mile, she began to notice that there were some people who had started to slow down. She stopped at the usual stations for water for a drink, and commented to me later on that day, that "they seemed to be ill prepared for this race because they just didn't have enough fluids for everyone. They were not only short on sports drinks such as Gatorade, but they did not have enough water either. It was surprising so early in the race that they had so little supplies for everyone!".

As she continued to run, around the 14th mile she passed several people who were sitting by the side of the road, and apparently they were too exhausted and perhaps dehydrated to continue.

"It was downhill from around the 14th mile and on" she stated. "It seemed like about every quarter to a third of a mile I would see people stopped and obviously overheated and exhausted".