The annual LaSalle Banks Chicago marathon kickoff news conference is always a big celebration. I've been to most of them over the last 13 years since LaSalle has owned the race, and I've seen the race, and prestige grow dramatically over that time. It's really an impressive story.
Race director Carey Pinkowski has done an amazing job of growing the race, and also of identifying emerging international stars. He really 'discovered' Khalid Khannouchi and other stars like Felix Limo and numerous other winners throughout the years. This year, Limo has withdrawn and many of the established stars are running in New York, and Carey's talent-discovering skills are being put to the test again. After the news conference today he told me he believes there are several relatively unknown runners who could win the race and emerge as stars on the world stage.
One of the established stars who has done exceptionally well in Chicago is Constantina Tomescu Dita. The Romanian is her country's record holder at virtually every distance longer than 5k. She has won Chicago once and finished second twice. She is one of the favorites to win again on Sunday. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to her during lunch about her hopes. She believes she is in shape to run under 2:20, but the weather and race conditions will be the determining factor. She has the reputation of going out hard and challenging other runners to respond, and she plans to follow that strategy once again this weekend. It should be fun to watch her and the other elites.
Our meteorologist, Mike Caplan, offered a bit of good news today about the race. The forecast has improved a bit. As of today, he's calling for a high of 49 degrees and mostly dry skies. No word on the wind, but at least it's a bit warmer and drier than he was forecasting a couple days ago. Maybe the forecast will improve even more in another day or two!
Anyway, If you are running this weekend I hope you are enjoying the relaxation for another day or two. It's almost time to get excited! And if you are spectating or volunteering, THANKS. It's going to be a lot of fun as it always is.
GOOD LUCK, John! We'll be thinking about you.
Posted by: Charlie and Simon P | October 20, 2006 at 10:24 AM