It was a perfect day to run a marathon in Chicago. It was a pretty chilly day to watch a marathon in Chicago. For me, it was a busy morning that had little to do with running. That's because my wife was working at the marathon while I had the job of getting our kids up, fed, dressed, and ready for Church. I watched as much as I could of the race on TV, but our kids, ranging from 7 months to just under 5, require a lot of attention!
So I sat this one out. There have been and will be plenty of others where she has done the work at home while I get to have fun at the race. I was, however, cheering from afar for my friends who were running. And for Sammy Wanjiro and the others elites to run fast times. My friend Rick Staback gets the photo credit for the shots of the leaders as they passed him at about the 12 mile mark on the course.
My own marathon weekend was pretty eventful even without running the race. It began with the kickoff press conference on Thursday, where I got to interview the nine runners who have completed every one of the 32 Chicago marathons. Each has an amazing story to tell. They have all witnessed many changes in the race, and the city in their three-plus decades of running the race. I was struck that for many of them, the Chicago marathon was their first race, 32 years ago. The oldest in the group is 81, at an age where I hope to still be walking without a cane, much less running a marathon!
Thursday was also the day to celebrate race director Carey Pinkowski's 20th year as race director. Carey has overseen, with the help of Mike Nishi and others on the staff, the tremendous growth of this race from being nearly extinct to it's present status as a major international race. Carey and Sue Pinkowski posed for pictures with the honorary street sign the city installed on Adams and Columbus at the starting line of the race. And then to help him celebrate, after a couple rough years with the weather on marathon day, Carey was blessed with great running weather Sunday. And a new course record, as well as the fastest time ever run for a marathon in North America.
Thursday evening a former American record holder, Joan Benoit Samuelson, was in town for an event at Niketown. She was reflecting on the marathons she has run Chicago. She ran a record at the time of 2:21:21 here many years ago, before winning the Olympic Gold medal at the 1984 Olympics. I asked her about her plans to run New York in a couple weeks. She is hoping to set an age group records (for 50 and older). She says she is ready and hoping to run fast. I also asked her about Lance Armstrong's desire to run part of the race with her.
The rules state if he jumps in the race part-way through, and paces her, she would be disqualified from any record she might set. But if he starts with her it's ok. He could then drop out any time, and she would not be penalized. She told me, however, she's not sure she wants him to start out with her, because he might take her out too fast! I thought that was interesting, because she is a notoriously fast starter anyway.
Saturday morning brought the regular weekend long run for the guys I run with. None of us were doing the marathon, so we were excited to have the Lakefront path almost to ourselves on Saturday morning. Normally it's packed with large marathon training groups, but on the day before the race, most people were sleeping in, and doing very little running. So we enjoyed our own little preview of the race, albeit we only ran 10 miles. The weather might have been even better on Saturday than Sunday, so it was one of our best runs in a long time.
And making it even more memorable was the fact that it was my friend Tom's 40th birthday! He is pictured in the red shirt, next to Rick. We runners like to point out that he officially entered the master's division Saturday. And he also gets an extra five minutes to add to the time he needs to qualify for the Boston marathon! Tom has run it a couple times already, but as we get older, it's nice to have a little more cushion!
So happy birthday Tom, and congratulations to all the marathon finishers! Great job!
See you on the roads....
nice.
Posted by: tim | October 12, 2009 at 11:12 AM