I started training for the Chicago Marathon in June, four months ago, just six weeks after Ironman Arizona. Many of our training runs were before 5am to try to shield ourselves from the Houston Summer heat. If I had a dime for every time I told myself “just think how great it will be in Chicago” when things were getting tough, hot, or just way too early, I’d be rich now. However, I am now trying not to dwell on that prospect since weather is something I just have no control over. I’m not telling myself I wasted four months of training and sacrifice to go out and run over an hour slower than I wanted to. I’m trying not to remind myself I was in better shape for this marathon than any other and that I have trained harder for this one than any of my previous five marathons. I’m not telling myself I failed either, because on that day I did the best I could given the circumstances that presented themselves. I (along with Karen and Charmaine) happened to make several right decisions about the race that enabled us to even be allowed to finish, and for that we are incredibly grateful (and just plain lucky). At the time though, we did not know how valuable our decisions were going to be.
My "super secret" goal going into this race was 4:45, but I would have been ecstatic with anything under 5, and still happy with a PR (under 5:12). The super secret goal went out the door when the weather reports started looking like they weren't changing, but I will still hoping to come in between 4:55 and 5:10 or so.
I had two running buddies with me (Karen and Charmaine) and we stuck together the whole time - thank God. The day would have been absolutely awful by myself. We did end up making a good time of it all despite what was going on around us. We had decided beforehand that we would start close to the front of the open corral which was for runners without a qualifying time less than 4:00. There were seeded corrals ahead of us. We lined up almost at the front of the open corral, and saw people with 3:40 pace bibs on near us. We crossed the start line in just over 5 minutes and were in good company (i.e. weren't getting run over by "fast" runners). We lined up early on purpose, so we wouldn't have to fight as big of crowds at the aid stations, etc, but looking back it was one of the best decisions we made for the day. Had we lined up with the 4:45 or 5:00 pace group, it would have taken us 15-20 minutes to get to the start line. We also decided to try to stick to a 4:45-5:00 hour pace as long as possible, and to try to cover as much ground as fast as we could since we knew the conditions were only going to get exponentially worse as the day went on.
The first few aid stations were crowded, but still stocked. I carried a 24oz bike bottle with me, so I didn't need anything from a station until about mile 8 or so when the bottle ran out and I threw it down (note to self…next time don’t throw down valuable means of carrying fluids). There were two 2.6 mile stretches between aid stations in the first 10 miles. That isn't the best when the race started t over 80 degrees. I knew our goals were slowly going out the door, but that we would still finish. We reached the halfway mark at 2:30. It was definitely safe to say no negative splits were going to be happening, but we were still in decent shape. By this point we had already started to see people go down left and right. There was an ambulance on every corner and sirens were all you heard for hours.
I do not remember much about the actual race course except that the crowds and volunteers were awesome. We finally saw Karen’s husband right before mile 20 and he had water and Gatorade so I grabbed a bottle of each and shoved them down my top. That was also right around when we saw the sign saying the temperature was 92. Lovely! At one point we walked through what had been a banana station (there weren’t any left when we got there) and the road was sooo slippery! Charmaine and I both almost ate it. I’m not sure which sounds better: a)”I didn’t finish the race because I slipped on a banana and broke my tailbone” or b) “I didn’t finish the race because it was cancelled for the first time in history.” My biggest complaint through most of miles 10-20 was that I was just plain thirsty. Although the aid stations were well stocked when we reached them, they were just too far apart on a day like that. We would drink 3-4 cups of fluid at each aid station and then it would just sit in our stomachs and we’d feel awful. But, we didn’t want to drink any less because we knew the next aid station was going to be a long way away.
We made it to mile 20 right at 4 hours (which would have been 12:05pm). This is when we heard the race was cancelled for the first time. Police were announcing it on their loud speakers. There was a fire truck hosing off people and we just laughed at what was becoming nothing but total chaos. The police were ordering people to walk the remainder of the race. We did hear of the option of taking a shuttle back, but never saw anything to that affect. If we had wanted to get back to the finish at that point any way other than walking the remaining 6 miles, we would have had to go to a medical tent and wait in line.
They opened the fire hydrants on a few corners and had water shooting out. We saw sponges on the ground, but apparently we were too slow to get the iced sponges. We continued to walk, and did the entire course. We finished in 5:54. I missed my PW (personal worst) by 1 minute. I’m not sure if that is any goal I should have been aiming for though!
It is what we learned afterwards that told us we made a "good" decision by starting as far up in the corral as we did. Apparently the "hacker" as we were calling "him" was not far behind us after mile 20 at all. I had friends with about the same chip time for the first half as us that were forced off the course. Those were people though who crossed the start line 10-15 minutes after we did. Apparently they parked a bus in the middle of the road blocking the course, and made everyone go back to the finish line, cutting it short. We did not see any of this, so it apparently happened right behind us. Also, I have heard that many people just behind us did not get any water and/or gatorade until several aid stations had passed. We did not experience any of this either. It got hard to get our hands on water at some stations, but they were never flat out empty.
Any runners that were forced to cut it short were diverted to the finish line, mostly on foot, and most crossed the finish line, on foot (not by choice, this is the way they were told to go). Thus, they have a finish time, but that time is for some distance less than 26.2. If you look at the results you will see many runners do not have times between the 25k and finish mark, but do have a finish time. So I'm not sure how they determined the number of "official" finishers. Some people were diverted very close to the end so they did cross all the timing mats, but still did not complete the full distance. I would guess that less than 20,000 completed the full distance, as opposed to the nearly 25,000 (of the 35,000 that started) that the race management is claiming finished the race. This piece of information is just one of many about the day that was reported, but not necessarily accurate.
Many people say "we're from Houston, we train in this weather all the time." I don't know about everyone, but most of my training runs were complete by 8am, not starting at 8am. It was definitely hot in Chicago. I think we probably would have finished between 5:10 and 5:20 had we not been told to walk the remaining 6 miles (which we did at a stiff 18:22 min/mile pace). It was all a bit surreal, especially since we thought someone was making a cruel joke when they first announced that the race was cancelled. Two members of my Houston Fit group were pulled from the race at med tents, but they are safe and ok now.
I can't say I necessarily learned many lessons...I started out with 24 oz of water in my hand and that still was not nearly enough. My biggest complaint the whole time was that I was thirsty. They only had 15 aid stations, apparently reduced from 18 in past Chicago Marathons. Shoot, I guess I should wear my 72oz camelback next time! A majority (10+ people) of the group I went to the race with were not given the opportunity to complete the full distance. They are all just as fast as or faster than I am. For the most part, they all just started where they were supposed to, with the 4:45 or 5:00 pace group, as opposed to way up front like me. I feel for them, as they were denied the opportunity to finish what they had started, and recognize how lucky we were to be able to finish, albeit nothing like we had expected. I do think cancelling the race was the right decision to make at the time, but I also think a number of things went terribly wrong because of poor planning.
Here’s to Houston 2008. We’re all due for a good one!
My "super secret" goal going into this race was 4:45, but I would have been ecstatic with anything under 5, and still happy with a PR (under 5:12). The super secret goal went out the door when the weather reports started looking like they weren't changing, but I will still hoping to come in between 4:55 and 5:10 or so.
I had two running buddies with me (Karen and Charmaine) and we stuck together the whole time - thank God. The day would have been absolutely awful by myself. We did end up making a good time of it all despite what was going on around us. We had decided beforehand that we would start close to the front of the open corral which was for runners without a qualifying time less than 4:00. There were seeded corrals ahead of us. We lined up almost at the front of the open corral, and saw people with 3:40 pace bibs on near us. We crossed the start line in just over 5 minutes and were in good company (i.e. weren't getting run over by "fast" runners). We lined up early on purpose, so we wouldn't have to fight as big of crowds at the aid stations, etc, but looking back it was one of the best decisions we made for the day. Had we lined up with the 4:45 or 5:00 pace group, it would have taken us 15-20 minutes to get to the start line. We also decided to try to stick to a 4:45-5:00 hour pace as long as possible, and to try to cover as much ground as fast as we could since we knew the conditions were only going to get exponentially worse as the day went on.
The first few aid stations were crowded, but still stocked. I carried a 24oz bike bottle with me, so I didn't need anything from a station until about mile 8 or so when the bottle ran out and I threw it down (note to self…next time don’t throw down valuable means of carrying fluids). There were two 2.6 mile stretches between aid stations in the first 10 miles. That isn't the best when the race started t over 80 degrees. I knew our goals were slowly going out the door, but that we would still finish. We reached the halfway mark at 2:30. It was definitely safe to say no negative splits were going to be happening, but we were still in decent shape. By this point we had already started to see people go down left and right. There was an ambulance on every corner and sirens were all you heard for hours.
I do not remember much about the actual race course except that the crowds and volunteers were awesome. We finally saw Karen’s husband right before mile 20 and he had water and Gatorade so I grabbed a bottle of each and shoved them down my top. That was also right around when we saw the sign saying the temperature was 92. Lovely! At one point we walked through what had been a banana station (there weren’t any left when we got there) and the road was sooo slippery! Charmaine and I both almost ate it. I’m not sure which sounds better: a)”I didn’t finish the race because I slipped on a banana and broke my tailbone” or b) “I didn’t finish the race because it was cancelled for the first time in history.” My biggest complaint through most of miles 10-20 was that I was just plain thirsty. Although the aid stations were well stocked when we reached them, they were just too far apart on a day like that. We would drink 3-4 cups of fluid at each aid station and then it would just sit in our stomachs and we’d feel awful. But, we didn’t want to drink any less because we knew the next aid station was going to be a long way away.
We made it to mile 20 right at 4 hours (which would have been 12:05pm). This is when we heard the race was cancelled for the first time. Police were announcing it on their loud speakers. There was a fire truck hosing off people and we just laughed at what was becoming nothing but total chaos. The police were ordering people to walk the remainder of the race. We did hear of the option of taking a shuttle back, but never saw anything to that affect. If we had wanted to get back to the finish at that point any way other than walking the remaining 6 miles, we would have had to go to a medical tent and wait in line.
They opened the fire hydrants on a few corners and had water shooting out. We saw sponges on the ground, but apparently we were too slow to get the iced sponges. We continued to walk, and did the entire course. We finished in 5:54. I missed my PW (personal worst) by 1 minute. I’m not sure if that is any goal I should have been aiming for though!
It is what we learned afterwards that told us we made a "good" decision by starting as far up in the corral as we did. Apparently the "hacker" as we were calling "him" was not far behind us after mile 20 at all. I had friends with about the same chip time for the first half as us that were forced off the course. Those were people though who crossed the start line 10-15 minutes after we did. Apparently they parked a bus in the middle of the road blocking the course, and made everyone go back to the finish line, cutting it short. We did not see any of this, so it apparently happened right behind us. Also, I have heard that many people just behind us did not get any water and/or gatorade until several aid stations had passed. We did not experience any of this either. It got hard to get our hands on water at some stations, but they were never flat out empty.
Any runners that were forced to cut it short were diverted to the finish line, mostly on foot, and most crossed the finish line, on foot (not by choice, this is the way they were told to go). Thus, they have a finish time, but that time is for some distance less than 26.2. If you look at the results you will see many runners do not have times between the 25k and finish mark, but do have a finish time. So I'm not sure how they determined the number of "official" finishers. Some people were diverted very close to the end so they did cross all the timing mats, but still did not complete the full distance. I would guess that less than 20,000 completed the full distance, as opposed to the nearly 25,000 (of the 35,000 that started) that the race management is claiming finished the race. This piece of information is just one of many about the day that was reported, but not necessarily accurate.
Many people say "we're from Houston, we train in this weather all the time." I don't know about everyone, but most of my training runs were complete by 8am, not starting at 8am. It was definitely hot in Chicago. I think we probably would have finished between 5:10 and 5:20 had we not been told to walk the remaining 6 miles (which we did at a stiff 18:22 min/mile pace). It was all a bit surreal, especially since we thought someone was making a cruel joke when they first announced that the race was cancelled. Two members of my Houston Fit group were pulled from the race at med tents, but they are safe and ok now.
I can't say I necessarily learned many lessons...I started out with 24 oz of water in my hand and that still was not nearly enough. My biggest complaint the whole time was that I was thirsty. They only had 15 aid stations, apparently reduced from 18 in past Chicago Marathons. Shoot, I guess I should wear my 72oz camelback next time! A majority (10+ people) of the group I went to the race with were not given the opportunity to complete the full distance. They are all just as fast as or faster than I am. For the most part, they all just started where they were supposed to, with the 4:45 or 5:00 pace group, as opposed to way up front like me. I feel for them, as they were denied the opportunity to finish what they had started, and recognize how lucky we were to be able to finish, albeit nothing like we had expected. I do think cancelling the race was the right decision to make at the time, but I also think a number of things went terribly wrong because of poor planning.
Here’s to Houston 2008. We’re all due for a good one!
Comments