2007 Chicago Marathon
I finished the 2007, LaSalle Bank 30th Anniversary Marathon with a time that will go unmentioned, except that it was somewhere between four and five hours, and about 1.5 hours longer than I anticipated it would take me. However, with the 88 degree, unseasonable weather (hottest October 7th in history...hottest Chicago marathon in history), and ridiculous humidity, I'm just glad I was not one of the 300+ sent to hospitals for heat exhaustion, or the one person that died on the course.
I started walking somewhere around mile 18, if my heat-warped brain recalls correctly. I was going to just quit, since it was obvious I would neither make my goal time (3:30), or make a personal record, but I continued on realizing no one was going to make a PR that day. I was going to begin running again after mile 22, when I had cooled down, but my legs had stiffened and I was walking as fast as many people were running. Then, the police helicopter flew overhead, officer stating over the bullhorn that the race was cancelled, and to stop running. I was more than happy to oblige, although many people continued to run.
This was the first time they ever cancelled the race with thousands of people still on the course. I finished just before they forced everyone that was left running (or walking) onto buses. I had to walk across the finish line it was so backed up. The area after the finish looked like a scene out of the Civil War, with runners collapsed all over, mounds of trash and debris from water and food packages.
After training relentlessly and dropping twenty pounds of fat, just to have Mother Nature kick my a*#, I'm probably going to stick to half-marathons from now on. Thanks for everyone coming out and supporting the first annual Trail of Tears Marathon...I promise not to make you, or me, do this again!
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