One Thought Too Much

Ah, Columbus Day. I don't know about you, but around here we spend the day in quiet reflection, musing about the fine body of work amassed by movie director Chris Columbus. Okay, maybe not.

What a difference a year makes. Last year, I ran the Chicago Marathon and it was a spectacular experience with perfect marathon weather: cloudy with temps in the low 40s. This year's Chicago Marathon was an unmitigated disaster, with temps approaching 90 and race organizers apparently unprepared to handle the increased need for water and aid. One runner, a 35-year-old cop from Michigan, died and more than 300 others were taken to the hospital for heat-related illnesses. The race was actually cancelled at 11:30, about three and a half hours after the start gun, when it became apparent that runners were having serious problems. Of the nearly 36,000 runners who started the race (about 10,000 never even bothered to start because it was so hot), only 25,000 finished. In the aftermath, many runners have complained that there was no water available at aid stations by the time they got there.

It's a tough situation for the organizers, who certainly did an excellent job last year. But I have to wonder if the race has just grown too big to handle. They opened the marathon up to another 5,000 entries this year, bringing it to a total of 45,000 runners; the race was sold out by early May. I decided not to do it this year because of the expense of flying out and getting a hotel room; turns out it was an excellent decision.

I've certainly run my fair share of overheated marathons, the most recent of which was last year's Vermont City Marathon on Memorial Day Weekend. Temps reached 85 and I was thoroughly hurting by the end. The two New York Marathons I've done were both marked by unseasonably warm (mid-70s in early November) and humid temperatures that I struggled through. Last year's Chicago Marathon was held two weeks later than normal on October 22 because a large trade show was in town earlier in the month and there weren't enough hotel rooms for everybody. Maybe they should move to a later date to hopefully avoid such warm weather.

Of course, they could take a lesson from the Boston Marathon, which has dealt with similar temps (85 in 2004) without the terrible results. And that was when Boston started at noon, forcing runners to head out with the sun bearing directly down on them. I had a tough enough time in 2003, when it was in the mid-70s and I got so dehydrated I was suffering with involuntary muscle spasms in my legs for the last six miles.

Had I been running in Chicago yesterday, I probably would have soldiered on at a slower pace and finished if at all possible. But I'm sure glad I wasn't there.

Congrats to my friends Jon and Kerry, who flew out to Minnesota this weekend and contended with similar heat problems while running the Twin Cities Marathon. They ended up taking it easy and finishing together in 3:26 (a time that I'll probably never come close to); last year, Jon did Chicago in 2:56 or something like that, so you know he wasn't running his fastest yesterday.

As for me, Baystate is next Sunday and the forecast right now looks perfect: "Sunny to partly cloudy with a brisk breeze at times. Highs in the middle to upper 50s," according to the WBZ-TV site. Let's hope it stays that way.