Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 07:13 PM

I'll start off by fore-warning everyone, this is a LONG and extensive
report, with much commentary and analysis (personal opinion) throughout,
so to skip to the race day info move further along....

My first-ever trip to Chicago started off poorly, a late start on Thursday
and a speeding ticket on Highway #6 in Guelph, so I wasn't exactly in the
best frme of mind heading into the weekend of what could be the biggest
(U.S.A.) and fastest-ever marathon (world-wide) all on one day.

A quick stop at the offices of Do It Sports in Yipsilanti, Michigan and my
wished-for arrival in Chicago of 5pm would really be 8:15 pm, at the
McCormack Convention Centre (must be the world's largest). I was setting
up a display on behalf of AIMS (Association of International Marathons
(http://www.aims-association.org/) and had to contend with a very
organized and strong union at the convention centre, and getting by these
guys without proper forms and paperwork would be like trying to get across
Canada - U.S. the border in a business vehicle without the right forms
(hey wait, I did that...(:)

Despite my best intentions and full 100% use of the "force", I was forced
to return the next morning at 7 a.m. to get ready for the 9:00 am Expo opening,
a tough task for sure. Now I needed to get to my room and chill out after
a long week and even seemingly longer day. Chicago is at least not as
congested as New York or even Toronto, and the proximity of the downtown
hotels and the Convention Centre is good, so before long I was checking
into my room at the Cass Hotel, when the front desk had me in-correctly
arriving Sat - Wednesday, not Thursday - Monday, and of course they were
"sold out" along with most of the other hotels.

Great I thought, it's now 10 p.m. (did I mention that I failed to notice
or record the 1-hour time change to Central Standard Time?...), the city
if packed, I'm exhausted and have no place to stay. Fortunately, one of
the sold-out hotels I dropped into gave me a phone number to call,
toll-free, where you could possibly find a last-minute free room at a good
price, so after 30-minutes on the phone, wating patiently (where else
would I go?), I found a room around the corner from the Cass Hotel at the
Hilton Homewood Suites, $99 for a big suite on the top floor. Yahoo! Of
course, I hate the top floors, but that's another story...

Even better, free and 24hr access to the business room, a free breakfast
the next day, BUT not so free was the VIP parking - $35 U.S. - I could buy
a car for that price I thought, so I parked 2 miles away and rode my bike
back (one of the few smart decisions I would make this long-weekend,
packing my mtn. bike with me) to the hotel. Very smart, at least so I
thought...

The next morning, up at 5:30 a.m. (but really 4:30 a.m.), I just now
realized I have more time than I thought due to the time change thing, so
after working in the business office I got on the bike, loaded up with my
knapsack and the clothes on my back to wear ALL day, I venture outside and
it's pouring rain. Super, what a start to the day, could it get any
worse...

Well, actually, yes, when I head to where my car was parked and notice that
all of the cars are gone - NO Parking from 11pm to 7 am - so, it's dark,
raining, I'm in a strange city and in just over two hours the race expo
opens (my first time representing AIMS, and it's one of the biggest shows
in the sport of running) and my car is GONE. Ever had that feeling in the
pit of your stomach?

Fortunately, if this word is even appropriate, my car was just below this
spot in the city pound, so 20 minutes later (and $160 U.S. - plus a
ticket) I was on my way to the expo, and luckily I set-up everything just
after 9 a.m. as the first few runners were making their way to this
section of the massive room, exhibit #261, how will I ever forget this
number...

The weekend would prove more or less uneventful, I attended the Running
Network schmooze-party Saturday nite at the Hilton, and scouted the Media Room here to pick-up some nice freebies and tasty delicasies. Saturday morning I was biking to the expo and ran into Bruce Raymer, so I showed him to the expo and we passed Frank Shorter out on a run, "hey Frank, I said", Raymer not realizing we just passed a double Olympic Medallist - that's the neat thing about these big races, always a full complement of ex-stars in town on assignments and sponsor trips.

I decided on race day that I would try and get a long-run in to kick-start my training for the Rome Marathon in March, but I also wanted to find a t.v. along the course to check the action of the men's race where a possible world-record run was in the making...

At the start line, being 10 minutes late of course (Chicago is very
confusing if you're from Toronto, with our lake-front at the south end of
the city and this one at the east-end, very disorienteering...sleeping in
doesn't help either) I proceeded to "bandit" with the walkers and slow
joggers, and it was 15 minutes after the race started and we were just
crossing the start line. I actually had a race number to use, given to me by a runner not able to run that day, but it was awol in my mess of papers and entry forms from the expo.

After 2 very slow miles, weaving around the many back-pack runners and walkers wearing charityshirts, I realized I wasn't enjoying this and couldn't fathom another 10 -12 miles at such a slow pace, it was tough to pass so many people on
narrow streets. I decided to return to the Hilton Hotel and catch some of
the race in the media centre, which is a great place with the free food
and such. So, I was able to watch the record-setting attempt unfold with
multiple screens, writers and reporters from all over the world, and a
full complement of fresh coffee, juice, muffins, croissants,
fruit.....hey, La Salle Bank can afford it, right?

Actually, it was my original plan to stop along the course at some of the local coffee shops (Starbucks was a sponsor) and catch updates of the men's race.....

We had trouble connecting to the web-site to monitor progress of the athletes during the race, so I couldn't find out how Bruce Raymer, Nicole Stevenson or Matt McInnis, the three elite Canadians entered in the field, were doing as the race was in progress. I was eventually seated next to the web-site staffer for the race, so I felt good introducing myself and knowing that last week my traffic went over 1200 visitors for a one-day time-period...until she mentioned that over 1 MILLION visitors would be on the Chicago Marathpn web-page that day!

It was exciting to watch the races unfold, with many screens in the room, and constant updates, every mile that was passed they wrote on a huge board the splits and leaders, and the host was being fed up-to-the second information from the lead vehicles.

Despite all the money and hoopla, world records were not to be on this day, a combination of the wind and lack of support for eventual winner and defending champ Evans Rutto - he went alone after 19 miles as all 6 pace rabbits dropped out by this point. It was not without a lack of trying though, with a 10km split of 29:17 (10 runners went thru in 29:20 or better). At the half, Cherigat was in front by a few seconds, in an astonishing 1:02:18 - a time that would win outright any 1/2 marathon in North America...

They even had the Boston Marathon winner, Timothy Cherigat, as a rabbit, and $300 000.00 (U.S.) was on the table for a sub - 2:04:55 world-record run (Paul Tergat, Berlin, September 26th, 2003 - same day that Ed Whitlock and Fauja Singh broke their age-group records at Scotia Bank, "the marathon's greatest day" according to Runner's World. If that wasn't enough, $200 000 was on the table for a course record run (Khalid Khannouchi, 2:05:42 - 1999). All told, with bonuses and such, a world-record run here on this day could have been worth $925,000 to the winner, as first place prize money alone was $125,000 to each male and female winner.

Yes, that was still a wide smile on Rutto's face as he left the Hilton later that afternoon...

After watching the races finish, I proceeded back outside to finish my run, heading 1-mile to the 17-mile mark and jumping in, with the mid-packers and throngs of runners, the crowds were thick but nowhere near what you see in New York or Boston, even on a perfect day to spectate. The best shirt I passed belonged to Scott from Cincinnati, his shirt read "I survived the Travelodge", so of course I assumed he meant a dirty, crowded and maybe noisy hotel?

Turns out that on Friday nite, a fire broke out at 3:00 am, the entire hotel was evacuated, mostly runners, and after spending 2 hrs. on the sidewalk, guests returned to their rooms only to be awoken again and dispatched at 6:00 am for another body check....wow, how's that for a welcome to the marathon weekend!

Another funny moment was when I passed a sign held by a young female spectator, and it said "Nothing Important on this Sign"...

The contest between Kerry and Bush supporters was in full force throughout the race, many runners with stickers and markers lending their support to either candidate, and if this "poll" is accurate Kerry wins in a landslide....

Other notes from the run included very narrow streets for the crowd size and what would appear to be too few course marshalls and barricades along the route (Race Director Carey Pinkowski would make a note of this in Monday's papers) and not a really exciting course lay-out in my opinion...some of the Toronto runners thought that Scotia Bank is a faster course.

The finish area and party zone was excellent, one of the best I have seen, clearly the race organizers were prepared for 30 000+ runners and their families.

Overall, the Chicago Marathon is a big spectacle, and if you're from Toronto you will feel right at home, only we have a pretty lousy waterfront compared to this city, this alone is worth the visit.

Stay tuned for a report from New York.