The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon October 7, 2007
Attention Participants and Spectators:
Due to the rising heat index and higher than expected temperatures, LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Executive Race Director Carey Pinkowski and Medical Director Dr. George Chiampas, in cooperation with city officials, have implemented a contingency plan, as a precautionary measure, to effectively close the Marathon course at the halfway point. Runners who have not reached the halfway point by approximately 11:30 a.m. will be diverted back to Grant Park via Halsted and Jackson. Jackson will be closed to automobile traffic and the participants will be provided with additional support along this route. Participants who crossed the halfway point prior to the shut-down will continue to be fully supported along the standard course to the finish line. Participants are asked to take advantage of medical personnel, cooling buses, runner drop out buses, water, Gatorade and other means of support en route back to Grant Park.
One dead in heat-shortened marathon
302 runners hospitalized, officials say
By Andrew Wang, Josh Noel, Shannon Ryan and Neil Milbert |Tribune staff reporters- 4:55 PM CDT, October 7, 2007
A Michigan man who collapsed during Sunday's heat-shortened LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon has died, authorities said.
A spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office said the victim, identified as 35-year-old man from Midland, Mich., was picked up near the intersection of 15th Street and Ashland Avenue.
The man was taken to West Side Veteran's Administration Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:50 p.m.
With temperatures soaring to 88 degrees, city and race officials closed the course for runners not past the halfway point at about 11:30 a.m.--three and a half hours after the start.
Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said 302 runners were hospitalized with what he described as heat-related conditions.
Marathon officials report 24,931 runners completed the full distance with about 4,000 finishing in under 3.5 hours. It was the hottest day in the 30-year history of Chicago's marathon.
The news of the race's early ending was met with disappointment and relief as many had succumbed to the heat.
"It's a blessing, man," said Nestor Benanidez, 40, of Maryland. "I'd have liked the opportunity but it's brutally hot." Benanidez, who trained 18 weeks for his first marathon, said he had already started walking when the race was called.
"Why did they cancel it at Mile 20? Couldn't they cancel it at Mile 5," said Arzu Karimova, 28, a market researcher from Chicago. "I put my entire summer into this. My entire marathon is gone. I'll never have another first marathon experience."
At around 12:10 p.m., near the 20-mile marker at Halsted Street and Cermak Avenues, a Chicago firefighter announced over a public address system: "Attention runners, the marathon has been canceled. You can stop running, now."
Runners' efforts were applauded with a sporadic "good job" as another firefighter stood in the middle of the street hosing down participants.
Most people heeded the advice but a few stubborn runners continued down Archer Avenue, which was littered with cups, water, sponges and bottles. The fire hydrants along the route were also open.
The decision to halt the marathon was based on the slow times of runners. Those who had passed the halfway point around noon were permitted to continue and had access to all aid stations and medical assistance.
Some runners said there were problems with water and fluids at the race stations, but others said water wasn't a problem. It was just the heat.
"I'm a school teacher. I don't like dropping out," said Joan Berman, 70, of Ann Arbor, Mich., who called it quits at the 8-mile mark. "But I know when to take a recess."
Berman has run 17 marathons, seven in Chicago, all since turning 60.
*****
"Brutally hot day" brings Chicago marathon
to an early end
By Josh Noel and Andrew L. Wang
Chicago TribuneCHICAGO — For the first time in its history, one of the world's pre-eminent races was cut short Sunday before thousands of runners crossed the finish line.
During Chicago's hottest marathon on record, one runner died and more than 300 were taken from the course by ambulance in the scorching heat and high humidity.
About 10,000 of the 45,000 registered runners chose to not race in the heat, while 10,934 started but didn't finish, officials said.
Though many runners complained of a lack of drinking water on the course, Shawn Platt, a senior vice president of race sponsor LaSalle Bank, said race officials found no such problem.
"We checked with all the aid stations, and the amount of water was adequate," he said. "We had thousands and thousands of gallons of water."
He said there might have been distribution problems as runners created a bottleneck at the tables dispensing water and Gatorade. People may have been grabbing two or three cups of water, he said.
Patrick Ivuti, of Kenya, competing in only his second major marathon, won with a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes, 11 seconds, leaning at the finish line to edge Jaouad Gharib of Morocco by 0.05 seconds.
Ethiopia's Berhane Adere defended her title with a time of 2:33:49.
About an hour later, with temperatures soaring to 88 degrees, city and race officials decided to end the race, which was marking its 30th anniversary.
Race director Carey Pinkowski said organizers were concerned that emergency medical personnel wouldn't be able to keep up with heat-related injuries.
"We were seeing a high rate of people that were struggling," Pinkowski said. "It was just a brutally hot day."
Runners before the halfway point were diverted back to the start, while the rest were told by police and firefighters that the race was over and that they should walk the remaining distance to the finish.
Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said 312 runners were taken from the course by ambulance with what he described as heat-related conditions.
A spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office identified the runner who died as Chad Schieber, 35, a police officer from Midland, Mich. He collapsed in the 18th mile of the 26.2-mile course.
It was not clear whether the death was heat-related. An autopsy was scheduled for today.
The news of the race's early ending was met with a mix of disappointment and relief.
"It's a blessing, man," said Nestor Benanidez, 40, of Maryland, who had already started walking when the race was called.
"Why did they cancel it at Mile 20? Couldn't they cancel it at Mile 5?" said Arzu Karimova, 28, of Chicago. "I put my entire summer into this. My entire marathon is gone. I'll never have another first marathon experience."
About 12:10 p.m., near the 20-mile marker, a Chicago firefighter announced over a public-address system: "Attention runners, the marathon has been canceled. You can stop running now."
Runners' efforts were applauded with a sporadic "good job" as another firefighter stood in the middle of the street hosing down participants.
Most people heeded the advice, but a few runners continued down a street littered with cups, water, sponges and bottles. Fire hydrants along the route were open.
"I'm a schoolteacher. I don't like dropping out," said Joan Berman, 70, of Ann Arbor, Mich., who called it quits at the 8-mile mark.
"But I know when to take a recess."
Chicago Marathon numbers
3 ½ hours - How long runners had been on course when race was called
88 - The temperature in Chicago during the race
312 - The number of runners taken from the course by ambulance with heat-related conditions
10,934 - The number of runners who started but didn't finish (35,867 began the race)
*****
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-071007marathon,0,3967650.story?coll=chi-unitednav1-misc
Marathon cut short for first time ever
By Josh Noel, Andrew L. Wang and Carlos Sadovi |Tribune staff reporter- October 8, 2007
- The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon was cut short for the first time in its history Sunday as hundreds of runners laboring across ovenlike streets were treated for heat-related illness.
The stoppage happened about 3 1/2 hours after the start gun on an abnormally sweltering autumn day, amid complaints of insufficient water for more than 35,000 runners who had come from around the world to compete in one of its pre-eminent marathons.
One runner, a 35-year-old Michigan police officer, died after collapsing in the race's 19th mile, but it was not clear whether the death was heat-related.
Chad Schieber of Midland, Mich., collapsed about 12 p.m. at 1500 S. Ashland Ave. and was pronounced dead on arrival at a West Side hospital at 12:50 p.m., the medical examiner's office said.
An autopsy will be performed Monday.
Despite the heat, executive race director Carey Pinkowski said race officials never considered canceling the race before it began because they believed the number of people running was manageable and that they could be cared for.
"In most cases they have trained for 25 weeks," he said. "Marathon runners are tough people. They train in difficult conditions."
Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said about 315 runners were taken from the course by ambulance with what he described as heat-related conditions. He said city and suburban ambulances took 146 people to hospitals, most in good condition, and the rest were taken to hospitals or medical aid stations along the route by private ambulances.
Five people remained hospitalized in serious or critical condition Sunday night, Langford said.
Runners described chaotic scenes of racers throwing up, passing out or being carted away on stretchers.
"There were people falling all over the place," said Rob Smith, 40, of Naperville, who was running his first marathon.
Though Schieber's death was not the first fatality in the race's 30-year history—the last was in 2003—it was the first time the event was cut short. Of 35,867 runners who started the race, just 24,933 finished, and by Sunday evening, the marathon's message board, along with Chicago hotels and restaurants, was buzzing with dissatisfaction.
"It was poorly done," said Mike Katz, 61, who has run 31 marathons, as he sat in the lounge of the Congress Plaza Hotel. Chicago officials "just didn't have it together," he said.
With temperatures heading toward an Oct. 7 record 88 degrees, officials enacted a contingency plan about 11:30 a.m. to end the race early, Pinkowski said. He said there was precedent for such action. In April, officials at the Rotterdam marathon in the Netherlands cut that event short, also because of warm weather.
Runners who had not reached the halfway point were diverted back to the start at Grant Park while the rest were told by police and firefighters that they should walk to the finish. Some racers simply went home and others caught rides, but the majority walked on, some with bags of ice on their heads or dousing each other with the contents of their water bottles.
A few stubborn competitors kept lumbering along.
Some runners chalked up the aborted race to bad luck, but many others seethed about a lack of fluids along the way.
"I had no water until Mile 8," said Blayne Rickles, 57, of Denver.
The most welcome relief came in the form of spectators buying bottles of water near Mile 13 and handing them to exhausted runners, she said.
"The city was fabulous, but the race was horrible," Rickles said.
Those complaints were echoed again and again, especially from the slower racers. They also said that on such a hot day, drinks should have been made available every mile along the 26.2-mile route, instead of only at the 15 stations sprinkled in every mile or two.
"The water stations were really depleted," said Nestor Benanidez, 40, of Maryland. "As much as they might have planned, it wasn't enough."
Erin Johnson, 24, of Kansas City, Mo., said the first several water stations "were out or really low" and that she ran with her wax cup because competition for fluids was so fierce.
"You're running thinking, 'Oh my God, I really need this water to get through this,' " she said.
Runners also said stations were not ready when runners came through; even if there was water or Gatorade, runners had to serve themselves.
"I had to open a bottle and pour my own," said Karen Orner, 42, of Minneapolis.
But race officials said they found no such problems. Each of the aid stations was outfitted with 50,000 to 70,000 servings of water and 37,000 servings of Gatorade, said Shawn Platt, a senior vice president of LaSalle Bank.
"We checked with all the aid stations and the amount of water was adequate," Platt said. "We had thousands of thousands of gallons of water."
He said there might have been distribution problems as runners created a bottleneck at the tables dispensing water and Gatorade, with runners taking two or three cups at a time, faster than volunteers could fill new ones.
Many runners learned of the race's stoppage about noon, near Mile 20 at Halsted Street and Cermak Avenue.
As firefighters sprayed runners, a paramedic repeated through the speaker in his ambulance, "Attention runners, the marathon has been canceled. You can stop running, now."
Most competitors heeded the advice amid streets flowing with water from open hydrants and littered with cups, sponges, bottles and discarded T-shirts.
Stephen Blight, 43, of Ware, England, costumed head to toe as the "Star Wars" character Yoda, said he had raised $22,000 for children back home with leukemia. He had also learned the previous night that his father had died of lung cancer.
"It's been a very emotional experience," he said. "I'm so very disappointed, but they have to look out for the safety of the runner. That's most important."
George Chiampas, the race's medical director, said Schieber was apparently unresponsive after falling.
"It sounds like he lost his pulse very fast and died on the racecourse," he said.
Schieber's father-in-law, Ken Dodge, said by phone from Midland that Schieber had been a police officer there for about 10 years and was named officer of the year this year.
He and his wife, Sarah, had three children and led a marriage ministry in their church, Dodge said.
"Just a wonderful man," Dodge said, his voice wavering. "He was more of a friend to me than a son-in-law."
Schieber had trained with his wife for six months, following a strict program. Sunday marked his first marathon, which he ran with his wife, brother and sister-in-law.
"Shocking is not the word," Dodge said. "I just cannot imagine this."
Related linksCNN - Runner dies, 300 treated as heat ravages Chicago Marathon
NEW: Heart condition blamed for runner's deathBlog Search - The Chicago Marathon in the Blogs
