2007 Chicago Marathon Trainwreck
Disclaimer: I wasn’t there. This is entirely my opinion.
After reading about people’s accounts of the Chicago Marathon this year, I have come to the conclusion that the Megathons have had their day and its over.
40,000 runners and 1 MILLION spectators may sound like a great party. I’m sure its fun when the weather is cooperating. I’m sure its like being at a giant football game where’s there’s only one team and everyone is cheering for them.
And then the stadium catches on fire.
The simple truth is that despite the Chicago Marathon officials trying to blame the runners for “using up all the water”, the officials knew damn well that the temps were going to be exceptionally high DAYS before the race. They could have provided more water. As far as I know there is no water shortage. Ofcourse, that would cost MONEY and nobody wants to go over budget. Why were there no water hoses? That might have helped cool runners without them having to resort to pouring water over their heads.
The race officials would like to blame the runners. They’d like to say all the slower runners went crazy and took all the water. But given the number of years this race has run, and given that they have had this many runners every year with little if any variation in the paces, try and tell me that they could not have anticipated the need for more water when temps hit record highs. Either they were incredibly incompetent or grossly negligent.
I suspect that they knew full well the temps were going to be very high. And that they knew they may run dangerously low on water. I suspect that they brought in as much water as they felt they could bring in and not cut too deeply into profits, with the plan that if the situation got too bad, they would cancel the race once the winners and folks hitting a BQ had crossed the line. Think about it, from all accounts they were out of water in the first two hours of the race. If they were THAT concerned with the runners, then they would have called the race at 10:00 AM. They didn’t. Because the elites would have screamed louder than the “back of the pack runners”.
There difference between 5000 runners and 40000 runners in not merely 8 times as many runners. Its more like 20 times. The interactive effects of having that many more runners (and spectators) increases the number of issues in a non-linear way. There is crowd psychology at play here. The larger the crowd the more psychological issues that are for tired runners, especially when they see crowds scrambling for water.
I think the time has come to end this crap. The Megathons have just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger to bring in more and more money. Unfortunately, they cannot control the situation. Chicago was actually lucky to have only one death and 300 medical problems. When all the conditions are perfect it can be a glorious time, but a marathon is not a 5K and people are pushing physical extremes out there, and when you mix in extreme conditions, then everything falls apart and no bean-counter is going to be able to save 40,000 runners without water at the 10K mark.
My advice is to avoid the Megathons at all costs. Its not worth it. You might luck out and get great weather, but you won’t know until the week before if you are in for a problem, and then its too late to switch races. So you either go and risk them not having the supplies they promised or skip the race and waste the training. They are hundreds of fabulous marathons all over the country all year long. They don’t have a million fans, but they do have a manageable crowd and adequate staff and supplies to handle the runners they have.
Now Chicago Marathon officials have been damn silent about all this. And if you look at the website, on the “results” page, they have a statement telling about their contingency plan for the race, worded in future tense as if it was announced before the race. Uh huh. Did they think people were looking at the RESULTS page before the race? I notice plan didn’t appear on the MAIN PAGE. Spin. Its all about spin.
Speaking of spin. Right now they are probably conferring with lawyers about what they should say. My prediction is something like this:
“We (the race officials) wish to extend our empathy to the race entrants and their friends and families who were disappointed with the events of Sunday October 7th. In all honesty, we were also. We are not just race organizers, we are runners too. This Chicago Marathon is more than just a race to us, it is a celebration of a pastime we hold very dear in our hearts. Stopping a race like this is the last thing we would ever want to do.
However, more important than the marathon are the lives and health of the runners. Knowing that the heat index might have created serious health issues, we created an emergency contingency plan to set into motion should the situation warrant it. At approximately 12:00 noon, by consensus of the race officials we decided to stop the race for any runners who had not yet crossed the half marathon mark. Although this was a great disappointment to many of the runners, we felt it was in the best interests of the health and safety of entrants.
It is easy, in hindsight, to point blame at individuals and say “shoulda woulda coulda”, but race officials and the City of Chicago need to move past that and move on, while learning from this unfortunate situation and moving onward to a better race next year in the fine tradition of the Chicago Marathon.”
There it is. You’ll see. I say there will be no apology (that being one that has the words “apologize” or “sorry” in it) This is exactly what I expect them to say. Now, don’t go copying this and saying it IS what they said. This is just a prediction and I made it up entirely. Then again, the race officials are welcome to cut and paste as they desire as long as they pay me the consulting fee. I’ll take $1000 and one of those extra space blankets you’ve got lying around.
October 12th, 2007 15:24
Well my comment may be long, but hopefully worthwhile. I agree with you about the huge numbers for marathons, or any event for that matter. While my first marathon was Chicago (I do live in the Midwest, so its a popular choice), numbers were down that year because of extreme COLD temperatures. The next year, they moved the race up on the calendar by 2 weeks and ran into warm (75*) weather. Still, nothing close to this past weekend. Since then, watching the numbers in that race climb, I have never had a desire to go back. The 5,000 or so I ran with was plenty. And I have avoided as much as possible other mega events mainly because I hate the hassle of the crowds. And the expense is a factor too, with Chicago not being a cheap place to stay. I have purposely looked for smaller venues in doing race distances I am interested in. Same with triathlons. Even the Ironman events have a cap at 2000-2500, and for good reason. It is a number that can be managed well under any conditions. (That and you just can’t put more people in a body of water at one time and still be safe.) And then there is the other factor for me. I am often last at events, meaning there will be nothing left at the finish for me to eat or drink. So I come prepared and always bring everything I think I will need. And when they run out, do you think anyone cares? No. Just as more than likely no one really cared about the unfolding events at Chicago–until there was a disaster. Then there was the usual scramble and the blame game later. I actually read one article that blamed the whole mess on the slow, fat, untrained runners, blaming them for trying to take on something that was out of their league. What most races are starting to recognize is that the average finishing time for most marathoners, particularly women, is in the 5 hour range, and have extended their cutoff times to reflect this. When I ran Chicago, the cutoff was 5 hours, and remained at 5 hours until (I think) close to the year 2000. And while I ran a 4:10 marathon, I was terribly worried about not making the cutoff. And then to add insult to injury, my 4:10 was scoffed at by several people I work with (who ran faster marathons on a regular basis) and by a guy at the gym who ran a 2:35 the same day. Was there any comparison between him and me? No way. He was a 29 yr. old male, close to elite male; I was a 40 yr. old first time marathoner. It took me years to get over feeling inadequate for that performance, while I would kill for that time now. And that attitude persists apparently and came out loud and clear after the weekend fiasco. I would highly recommend a boycott of the Chicago marathon for a good long time, until maybe they get an attitude adjustment. Its highly unlikely a repeat situation would occur in the future, and to anticipate and prepare for the possibility of something like this happening again isn’t practical. But I would not feel comfortable ever again entrusting myself for however many hours it took to complete that race.
October 15th, 2007 08:32
I think the motive was not bean counting stinginess. Their reputation is more valuable than the moeny, over the long term. A friend of mine ran the race and he relayed to me that he stopped at every aid station and drank whatever was there. That from a guy who trains in Florida heat. He must have taken in 2-3 time more fluid than normal. I think their planners screwed up and under-supplied the route. Same thing happened in Atlanta last March. For a first time race they bit off too much mega-race identity for their ING sponsor and blew it with none or none-left water stations on the hottest day on record in Atlanta for March 25.
October 18th, 2007 10:12
I agree with everything you’re saying. What’s strange is that here in Atlanta where I live, local organizers stage the Peachtree Road Race every year on the 4th of July, which is among the hottest days of the year here. It draws around 55,000 runners, outstripping even the Chicago event. I guess the difference is the distance — the Peachtree is a 10K, vs. 26.2 miles for the Chicago Marathon. Still, they’ve got the logistics down.
October 22nd, 2007 18:13
I’m late to this party, but how can “slow, fat, out of shape” runners drink all the water when there are 35,000 people ahead of them? David’s comment above is probably more to the point - people running faster were doing everything they could to stay hydrated and the supply just gave out. I’m a way back of the packer myself, and the only thing I’ve ever seen “my people” take too much of is time. :-) i’m doing the vegas marathon in a few weeks, so we’ll see if they’ve got their organizational act together.