From the Channel 2 website...
"It also brought the race to a premature end with officials stopping all runners still participating as of 11:45 a.m. and directing them to Grant Park because the rising heat posed an increasing risk to runners."
They are pulling everyone off the course?? Half the runners are still out there!
If thats true, its ridiculous.
The race itself was one for the ages.
From another message board....
"My husband is working the race today. He messaged me early that they were having hundreds of ambulance calls. He just messaged me that they called the race at mile 13, Jackson and Halsted. They're instructing the runners to WALK to Grant Park. Ran out of water, Gatorade, and ambulance service because of the heat today. Hope all your loved ones are safe and healthy."
Looks like they have a real mess on their hands.
Tommy2Nuts wrote:
If thats true, its ridiculous.
it is true. and i wouldn't call it ridiculous.
Thats smart....I've seen some sick sights as a result of combining running and heat....its just not worth it. PERIOD
how far into the race 3:45? At that point the people not in probably simply arent prepared to go another hour or more in the heat. In other words, the "serious" (i know debatable term) were probably already in.
So did they just end it for everyone at that point, or only for people a certain distance from the finish?
Good, that's about the time that a marathon should close the course anyway. The actual race was well over by that point.
never mind...
...a good move, I think.
Did these people not TRAIN all summer when it was in the 90's. In Indiana we've a summer of 90's almost every week since June. These muse be the people who train at the local Y on the dreadmill in room with AC
i rather doubt they were TRAINING 4+ hours all summer when it was in the 90's.
they were cutting off those who hadn't even reached the halfway point at 3 hours 45 minutes (or so). you think these people were prepared to go another 4 hours in even hotter weather?
It's the same with the majority of people at Boston or any other marathon, they're typically under-trained for the race, they hope to get away with minimal preparation.
no reason for those "runners" to finish the race anyway. if you don't train properly, don't bother. lesson learned.
you guys are truly hardcore.
everyone else wrote: you guys are truly hardcore.
If they were stopping people halfway at 2:00 or 2:30 into the race, I'd get your sarcasm. But we're talking 3:45, halfway. Seven and a half hour pace assuming - and that's a huge "if" - that these folks ran even splits, didn't wilt from the heat, distance, or sheer duration in the second half.
Where would you draw the line? 24 hours? A week?
just got back--holy crap what carnage. just brutal.
Hopefully all these " Oprah and Al Gore type runners " will get a ribbon and a juice box for their troubles before they head off to the post race buffet .
Short-cut Society wrote:
It's the same with the majority of people at Boston or any other marathon, they're typically under-trained for the race, they hope to get away with minimal preparation.
The Tribune article above quotes a 70 year old female 17 time marathoner who bailed early. Not everyone in the event is a 20 something post collegiate male. That's not to say there aren't a lot of undertrained people running marathons, but "slow" doesn't necessarily equate to "under-trained".
Sounds like a chilly day compared to Boston 1976!
It was bad. This was my first marathon, but even I knew that people were suffering.
Police cars were being used to take runners to hospitals b/c there were not enough ambulances. I saw a women in the back seat of a cruiser crying her eyes out and a set of legs on her waist (guy was lying on the back seat). The cop car was trying to get onto HWY 41, when he did, he was gone.
It really looked bad out there. Good thing they stopped the race.