Chicago Marathon

On Sunday, October 7th, I ran the Chicago Marathon. It was the 30th anniversary LaSalle Bank run. I have been training for the race since February and was really pumped to run it. The race is known for it's ideal temperatures (high 40's- low 60's) and its flatness. However, when I ran the race on Sunday it was 90 something degrees and high humidity. It set a record for the hottest race ever in Chicago. It was miserable. When I reached the 21-mile mark, policemen came on loud speakers saying, "the race has been cancelled, we have no more paramedics, you must walk from here on out..." It was not the news anyone wanted to hear after training for so long and running so hard for. Many of the runners did stop to walk, but there were a few of us, myself included, who decided to keep on going. We were forced to walk at some points, but we did manage to keep running. The heat was so bad that people were dropping right and left, they were running out of water, and there were no more aid stations with medics to assist the runners that needed them. After a while, the spectators started dumping gallons of water on the runners to cool them off. People also brought out hoses that you could run under. The fireman even started using their huge fire hoses to drench the runners. It was quite the run.
I am proud to say I finished the race in 5:35:07 (not bad considering the heat and the forced walking). I would have liked to come in under 5 hours, but I am happy with my time. I also found out that 10,000 of the 45,000 runners dropped out due to the heat, 350ish runners ended up in the hospital, and one man died. I did see the man who died go down and that was a terrible sight, He fell about 60yds in front of me on the south side of the run. A few runners stopped to help him and take his pulse, but it was not there. I believe that it was after that incident that they cancelled the race.
I don't know if I will ever run a marathon again, but it was a great experience (minus the weather) that I would recommend for everyone. It really is amazing what the human body can be pushed to do. It also lets you know how much you can handle mentally and physically.