Chicago was a very surreal experience. A beautiful city full of history, architecture and energy, unfortunately it wasn’t the best of days.
I’ve been coaching Marathons for Team In Training for 6 years, and Race morning, as I always do, I got my people to the race, in their corrals, and then took off before the race starts to meet my participants usually around mile 3. They really don’t need me anymore and don’t need much encouragement until about mile 16-22, but this being my first trip to Chicago and first time at the hallowed Chicago Marathon, I opted to run the course and run with as many of my participants as I could. I didn’t want to miss anything. The weather was forecasted to be the hottest on record for that date and for the Chicago Marathon.
I was hanging out by the first water stop at mile 3, when I saw the first participants on my team and hopped into the race to run with them. I ran with them for about 2 miles and the fanfare was great, the atmosphere was warm, and the mood was exciting. I met up with my next participants about mile 5 and they were frustrated already… “Where’s the water on this course?” was the first words out of their mouth. When I asked why they didn’t get any at the first water stop at mile 3, they informed they that the water had run out before they got there. Fortunately, there was a water stop at the next mile (mile 6) where they could rehydrate and hopefully begin to catch up on their already dehydrated, overheated bodies.
The water had run out again.
As soon as people realized that, once again, there was no water available… there was immediate tension in the air. All around us, runners were popping open their cell phones and screaming to their spouses, brothers, anyone who would listen, to meet them ASAP at mile 7 and bring some water! (There were many creative expletives intertwined in these cell phone conversations.) I knew right then, this day was not going to go well. I ran forwards and backwards on the course trying to find as many of my people as possible to tell them to change their strategy.
At mile 10 I found one of my runners, who was one of the better athletes on the team. He had never walked the entire season of training and he was struggling to keep running. After pushing through another mile running together, he finally had had enough and begrudgingly gave into walking. He was upset with himself and wanted to be alone so I told him that I’d be back in 10-15 minutes to check in on him, and then I ran ahead.
I stopped at mile 15 to begin to watch for my runners again, and I noticed an odd site. Nearly everyone was walking. Then I saw the 4:30 pace runner walking as well as everyone around him. I had never seen this many people walking this early in the race, and it struck me as very odd and out of place. As I was trying to rationalize what I was witnessing, a girl in Ohio State Buckeye garb stopped right beside me to puke her guts out. After a short break I helped her over to the Medic Tent (still dry-heaving) to sit her down. The Medic Tent was full and there was nowhere to sit her down except on the curb in the shade. I went to get her some ice to cool down with but the Medic Tent had run out of ice as well. Right away, however, a store owner ran over a pitcher of ice to her and to the Medic Tent.
I began to notice, that the spectators had begun to realize the severity of what was occurring and were doing their best to help out their fellow man. They were running out of their apartments and stores with Aquifina and Deer Park Bottles of water, they were hooking up their hoses and spraying it into the streets, they were bringing out bags of ice and cold towels, anything to help. While what the Chicagoans did that day truly helped the situation, some were too late to help. As I continued to run ahead, I stopped time and time again to help people to the Medic Tents with locked up legs, with vomiting, with heat exhaustion and who knows what else. All the while I was keeping my eyes peeled for those purple jerseys from Tennessee who were my participants. I knew they should have been by by now, but hadn’t seen any of them.
I took a break to stand in the shade at mile 19 when I saw the Chicago Police Officers begin to walk onto the race course with both hands raised and begin to tell people to stop running. “Stop running, Stop running, the race has been called. You must walk now, the race is over.” The Chicago PD was polite but firm and adamant about not letting anyone run. The race was over. They had stopped the race. The Chicago Marathon, on its 30th anniversary, was called off. I had seen firsthand the severity of the situation, but had no idea the weight of the moment until we were told to stop running and proceed to the nearest Medic Tent to board a bus that would take us to the finish line. My problem still remained… where were my people?
I began to back track from mile 19 through every med tent looking for my participants; however, there was no one around. Soon I was the only living soul on the streets of Chicago. Here I was amidst these tall city buildings, on the race course that supposedly only 20 minutes ago had held 45,000 runners and 1 million spectators, and I was by myself. It was the most eerie feeling I ever had. Finally I saw 2 people walking toward me, and it was a Local News crew from NBC. Walking right up to me they asked, “How disappointed are you in the city of Chicago today?” and then stuck the microphone in my face for my response. I tried to stay positive and remain diplomatic, and soon was on my way to find my people. On my way I would see a runner here and there who was determined to finish 26.2 miles no matter what. I also saw Chicago PD threatening to take those runners into custody if they didn’t “cease from running immediately!” I couldn’t believe it had come to a cease-running-or-go-to-jail kind of day.
After checking every runner filled Medic Tent from mile 19-15 without seeing any of my people, I assumed that they had hopped a bus and were back at the Team In Training Tent where we were supposed to meet. After another 2 mile walk back to the start line, I continue on to the Team In Training tent to see that only 6 of my 14 runners had checked in. Soon after I received the information that one of my runners (the guy I never found) was in the hospital due to dehydration along with 300+ other race participants on the day. Later I learned the reason they stopped the race was because they had run out of ambulances to take people to the hospitals! However, after a few IV’s of fluid, my participant was out in about 1 hour and doing fine.
My people eventually all trickled in and were okay. They were disappointed about the day, and some felt all their preparation they had done was wasted, while at the same time understood the severity of the situation. As well, we have the confidence of knowing that we raised almost $2.5 million for cancer research that race. We’ve all decided to do another race one soon. This is one for the books, and never to be forgotten in my coaching and running career.
1 million spectators; 45,000 runners; 1500 Team In Training participants; 14 from Tennessee; enough water on a race course?… priceless.
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