Running Man

If you've checked out my Posterous blog, you've seen the photo evidence of the Chicago Marathon and Special K's participation therein. This was Special K's 8th marathon (yes, EIGHTH marathon) and the Gods really made him work for this round of 26.2 miles.

For the second year in a row, Chicago set records in the heat department with temperatures skyrocketing to nearly 90 degrees. (You would think there would be more risk of driving rain and even an early snow in Chicago in October -- not that the city would have a heat wave that Phoenix would be proud of.)

The marathon organizers raised the event "alert level" to red, meaning that it was a set of extremely high risk conditions for runners. The next level would have been "extreme" where the event would have been canceled or stopped midway through. Some runners dropped out of the race due to the heat, many completed the final miles of the course at a walk, and the organizers actively encouraged all participants to slow their pace and take it easy. The fire department even opened up fire hydrants at various points along the course so that passing runners could be sprayed down.

The marathon itself is an event of epic proportions and I thought these stats offered a great snapshot of its size and depth:

• Over 45,000 registered runners


• 10,000 race day volunteers


• 6,800 charity runners looking to raise more than $12 million


• More than 100 countries represented


• Over 1.5 million spectators


• The course snakes through 29 of Chicago's neighbourhoods

I witnessed this at the NY Marathon a couple of years ago and it continued to amaze me in Chicago that people could focus on anything other than just putting one foot in front of the other for over 26 miles, but here's a selection of some of the fun (crazy?) things people ran in/as/doing:

• A guy was dressed as Minnie Mouse with full polka-dotted dress and mouse ears. (No giant Minnie Mouse high heels, however.) He ran the entire race dressed like that.


• Another guy was dressed as Elvis, complete with wig, sideburns, bejeweled disco jumpsuit and giant sunglasses. Imagine how hot and sweaty that get-up was!


• Two buddies ran the entire race dressed as Batman and Robin. Sweaty part deux. And trois.


• And most impressive, I saw one guy running near the finish line while juggling three small balls. The two girls next to me said they saw him miles earlier and he was juggling then, too. I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time!

But the coolest apparel item we saw was a t-shirt with the simple slogan "I run this town" emblazoned across the chest. Of course we bought Special K one of those!