What a great weekend for racing! In my case, it was also a great weekend for watching! Let me explain. Saturday night was the tenth annual Elvis is Alive 5k run in Lincoln Park. More on that in a minute. Sunday morning was the Chicago Distance Classic half marathon. Many runners who are training for the full marathon in the fall used this as a training race. Whatever the reason people had for running, they had a full race! 12,000 runners!
ABC7 has a long history with the race, as the broadcast sponsor for many years. I shot the public service announcements for several of those years, and I've run it many times. I would have loved to run this year, but work called. I was anchoring the morning show, but was able to watch the swarms of runners going by our studio just shy of the two mile mark in the race. I even grabbed my camera during a break and got a few shots. We were also waving from inside the studio. I hear it was a good race, but a bit warm and muggy. Since I didn't run though, I thought I'd share part of the press release they sent out after the race.
TWO CHICAGO RESIDENTS WIN
LASALLE BANK CHICAGO DISTANCE CLASSIC
Half Marathon hosts 12,000 runners in downtown Chicago today
CHICAGO (August 12, 2007) – After an early morning rain, cloud cover and
lower than expected temperatures provided the perfect backdrop for two
Chicagoans to win The 2007 LaSalle Bank Chicago Distance Classic half
marathon. Greg Costello, 26, and Claudia Becque, 31, were the first male
and female runners to cross the finish line today in Grant Park.
Costello was the first to cross the finish line, breaking the tape in
1:09:54. Becque led the women’s field to finish the 13.1 mile course in
1:21:20. Eastman Tiu, 34, of Park Ridge, Ill., won the wheelchair division
as he followed Costello to the finish line in 1:10:17. All three champion
performances were impressive considering the heat and humidity that
challenged the runners.
Complete race results from today’s LaSalle Bank Chicago Distance Classic
are available at chicagodistanceclassic.com.
As for the Elvis run, I was unable to run because I helped emcee the show after the race. It was the 10th annual event presented by Fleet Feet Sports, and they had a bigger, and better show than ever. First, the run though. I always get a kick out of the runners dressed in Elvis costumes. There were many, and some of them were pretty fast. And the non-Elvis runners were ran pretty well also. It's a nice course through the park, with a fast finish on the path in front of Diversey Harbor. It's a good field full of some serious runners, and some who are there to have some serious fun. Congratulations to all!
The race benefits the Rock for Reading charity that was founded by Chicago 
singer/songwriter Alice Peacock. This year Alice was very involved with the event, getting runners started by singing 'America the Beautiful' at the start, and then taking the stage for five songs during the post-race concert. She even got into the spirit by doing a couple Elvis tunes. Elvis performer Doug Church also had the crowd going pretty well.
The event, by the way, marks the one year anniversary of this blog. Last year, I started writing about running in this space right after the Elvis run. I remember the first comment I got 
was from ABC-7 meteorologist Jerry Taft. Jerry is not a runner, but he is a great golfer. In any case, his comment was, "how about more pictures of Alice?". So this year, I made sure to take a few more! Jerry, this one's for you!
Anyway, despite all the run races going on, since I wasn't running any of them, I managed to survive a long run on Saturday morning solo. It was a cut-back week for me, thankfully. The heat is getting to me! Jerry, make it cooler please! I guess it will be fall soon enough, and then we'll be missing all the heat we're getting now. And by then, it will be marathon time!
So with that thought, it's time for me to sign off. Gotta save my energy for a track workout in the morning. See you on the roads....
Love your blog, John. And I'm with you on the weather. It's been a rough summer for running, especially the last few weeks. Though, we can hope, it will only make it that much easier for us once the season starts to get cooler.
I ran the CDC on Sunday, and one of the highlights, besides the finish line, was running past the studio and seeing you anchor the early morning news.
Good luck with the rest of your training. See you at LBCM.
Posted by: Bob W. | August 14, 2007 at 09:02 PM