People don't seem to realize how bad the heat was at Chicago

Sandbox police wrote:

yes it was hot wrote:

And your post is classic.

You, Kevin and Malmo didn't run the race and yet you are all telling the people that were out there that they are wrong.

Kevin and Malmo never said it was perfect. Reading is fundamental.

Malmos words, Kevin agreed: "It was no big deal."

Why is that the people who ran have one opinion, those that didn't have another?

Why is that?

Kevin Hanson wrote:

Malmo is correct. It was not that bad. I was there and had several athletes run. I get annoyed when people expect perfect everything for a marathon.

Here is the check list.

ORGANIZATION. It was excellent.

COURSE. Flat and fast.

CROWD SUPPORT. Excellent energy on the course.

HUMIDITY. Not a factor

COMPETITION. Every American had someone to run with and many had pacers.

WIND. Often a factor in Chicago, but not this year.

TEMPERATURE. About 10 degrees over ideal with 60 at the start and 70 at the finish. Much better than any World Championship or Olympic Games over the past decade.

Races are not run in a bubble and to ask for more than 90% is ridiculous.

For us Davila, Morgan, Young, and Canaday all ran their personal bests.

Malmo said "IT WAS NOT THAT BAD" No one thought it was perfect. Kevin simply pointed out some of the advantages.

I raced Chicago on Sunday. I also raced it last year (as my debut marathon) when it was very cool. I ran 2:28:38 last year and 2:32:56 this year. I have a few things to say about this topic.

1) It was not unbearably hot on Sunday, and I don't think anyone is trying to make the argument that it was. It was somewhat warmer than ideal for running a marathon, and without question it affected people adversely. It was not comparable to the carnage of '07. But like another poster said, that's really what this thread is about. In '07, the heat was very obvious. This year it was a little sneakier and affected different people differently.

2) I was affected pretty substantially by this year's weather conditions, due in large part to the fact that I'm a bigger guy and I sweat very heavily. I was pretty well prepared for the race but fell off substantially in the second half due to severe cramping. I became very dehydrated, despite making serious efforts in the weeks prior to the race and during the race to stay hydrated. In retrospect, I believe I needed to take sodium and potassium tablets during the race. That falls on me. Lesson learned.

3) This year and last year are not even comparable in my mind. They were two different events. Last year was pretty easy. I cruised through the race, running very evenly. I didn't have much soreness or anything after the race. This year, I spent an hour and a half in the medical tent because of severe dehydration and cramping. And I am now more sore than I've ever been in my life. While I take full responsibility for how I handled (or didn't handle) the heat from a nutrition standpoint, there is no question that these things would not have been an issue in more ideal conditions.

4) Some people are heavily affected by warmer weather than others. Period. So while the Hansons did have some runners hit nice PRs (congrats), they also had some drop out or run slower times. Looking back at '07, I think it would be safe to say that almost no one ran well in that garbage because it was so extreme. But this year, when it was marginally bad, it caused some people to really suffer while others handled it ok. I think that's really all that's being said.

It was exactly what they were telling us that the weather was going to be for the previous 3 days. The forecast was 100% accurate. Too warm? Hell yes, but that means that you need to alter your goal. Unwilling to be flexible will always lead to disaster. I went out 1 minute slower than I had previously planned for the first half. This helped me run even and have a good experience. Anyone that was shocked by the weather must have been living in a cave.

Well said, Conto. A few more thoughts. The course was great for providing shade until the turn back toward downtown at ~15mi. From then to the finish, it was 75% sun. Before that it was 75% shade. Part of the body's mechanism for cooling is to shunt blood to the skin where it is cooled. In the sun, this is much less effective. The sun was just reaching a high enough angle at 9am to start hitting the streets directly. The leaders finished just over a half hour later. Most of us were out there much longer in the sun. IMHO - The weather was fine the first half (I don't like cold), but from 15 to the finish, it was detrimental. What did the Hansens do differently from the rest of us? Simply put, they train a whole lot more. Weather conditions affect the highly trained much less than those with less training. I suggest looking at the 50th, 100th, 250th, 500th place finishers compared to cooler years (2002,5,6). That might give a better indication of how much weather affected the masses.

HA, you confirmed my point! You should have prepared better, given your situation and knowing full-well Chicago could be HOT. No sympathy. Heck, Christine Clark, an MD, trained on her treadmill in Alaska to prepare for the 2000 Marathon Trials in South Carolina.

Dew point was in the low 50's. As someone said on a previous thread about dew point, "GO FOR IT"! In 2007, the dew point was in the mid to upper 60's.

A friend who ran closer to 5 hours said it was 86 in the sun near the end for her. I paced a couple friends, the last one finished in 3:48 and it was definitely heating up fast in the end with the blazing sun. I know a dozen people who ran it, and none met their time goal.

Weekend before last, it wasn't hot, but there were 30 mph winds near the lake. That would have slowed people down much more!

I remember the 1994 marathon was on October 30. I'm not sure why they kept moving the date up -- possibly to try to decrease the chance of conditions like freezing rain. Maybe they should consider moving it to closer to the end of the month.

Joan Benoit said she saw the temperature at 20 miles and it was 80 degrees.

I ran Chicago in 2007 and 2008 but not last year or this year. From what i have heard through my runners is that it was pretty similar to 2008.

Chicago is a unique course in that the first half is run through the northern neighborhoods which are quite shady. Even in 2008 when the starting temps were around 66, the first half of the race was pleasant.

When you turn west for the first time around 12 miles you basically head out into the barren landscape and the blazing sun.

Go back and look on the Chicago Marathon forum post on here and someone posted up all the runners who JUST missed qualifying. Look at their first half splits versus the second half splits and you will see almost every one of them blew up in the second half.

The point for many of us is that if you were right on the cusp of potentially running a qualifier, but to do that you really needed ideal conditions, you should have NEVER run the race.

Average_Joe wrote:

Joan Benoit said she saw the temperature at 20 miles and it was 80 degrees.

She has no idea, she wasn't there, right?

Average_Joe wrote:

Joan Benoit said she saw the temperature at 20 miles and it was 80 degrees.

She meant halfway. The bank with the temp reading was around 13.l miles. The reading showed 80 degrees when I reached it, shortly after Joanie did at about 8:55 a.m.

This is the nature of marathoning, and you have to deal with it. Most marathoners at Chicago are racing the clock (qualifier, PB)...rather than racing their fellow competitor.

How they PLACED is insignificant compared to how FAST they ran. You now see this same mindset creeping into cross country.

When you run a marathon you are "putting all your eggs in one basket".

Some people considered skipping Chicago and running a marathon later in Wisconsin. The forecast initially predicted only a high of 71 earlier in the week, so people had hopes for good weather. It's also hard to eat that atrocious entry fee. Not everyone can afford that.

Corner of 18th and Halsted (20mi mark), Chicago Community Bank. I saw it there and I assume that is what she was referencing. Also saw one of the Marathon Alert signs "Yellow" there.

Beaten by Joanie wrote:

Average_Joe wrote:

Joan Benoit said she saw the temperature at 20 miles and it was 80 degrees.

She meant halfway. The bank with the temp reading was around 13.l miles. The reading showed 80 degrees when I reached it, shortly after Joanie did at about 8:55 a.m.

weather insect wrote:

Now 3 out of the last 4 years it's been hot.

I ran it in 2005 and froze my ass off.

Wanjiru 2:06, Shobukova 2:20, Hartman 2:12, Devila 2:26 Solid performances, especially considering Wanjiru's lead up to CHicago. Rewatch the race and Look at the crowd. It was in the 50s at the start and climbing through the 60s most of the race. People along the course wore long sleeves and pants, including me, and were glad they did. Many athletes overdressed because it was so cool at the beginning.

I was there @ 530 am as well, and it was warm. I jogged to the porta potties and to the elite start and sweated my ass off. It was warm, not cold or cool or chilly, it was freaking hot.

I ran 228

I was sweating on the start line. You weren't there.

I agree. It was "cool"? I'd say for spectators more "comfortable". I spectated (ran both 2007/08) and was there before 7 and I didn't see many people in long sleeves and pants. I wore a short-sleeved shirt and shorts and it felt great, even in the shade (I was on the east side of Columbus across from Millenium Park for 1/2 before and all the way until everyone cleared the line). I live in the west burbs and when I was heading to the train station it was 57 at 4:45, and while it is cooler in the city I doubt it was under 60 at any time after the sun came up.

I never felt it got all that "hot", in that I did plenty of walking and never felt sweaty (I'm someone who always sweats like crazy), but once the sun got high enough in the sky you could definitely feel it. It was kind of sneaky, because after all of that walking I got to the train station to head home and actually realized how dehydrated I was. Running it could hit you pretty quickly.