Marathon Saturday

One of the great things about Chicago is there is always something going on. This weekend, there isn’t just some thing going on, it’s an amazing thing! The 2011 Chicago Marathon may not begin until 7:30 Sunday morning, but the entire weekend is full of marathon excitement.

Helping out at McCormick Place handing out runner packets gave me marathon fever, so I decided to take a walk down to Grant Park where the run starts and finishes. I was hoping to see some interesting things/people and I wasn’t disappointed. Here’s a link to a map of Grant Park to get an idea of the layout. http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/docs/4fbe599a-f2fe-439c-92ec-9f83dccbc923_document.pdf

Being such a beautiful day, there were lots of pedestrians meandering around. Half the people I saw were wearing some sort of marathon attire, whether it was a brand new Chicago Marathon 2011 t-shirt, a previous marathon tech-shirt, or a shirt simply stating “26.2”. I was becoming envious of this marathon club. The longest race I’ve run is the Butte to Butte, in Eugene, which is a 10k, or 6.2 miles, about half of a half-marathon.

I walked from the apartment on Cullerton, down Indiana Ave. (the map doesn’t show it, but it’s one block east of Michigan and ends @ Grant Park). I took a left at Roosevelt to Michigan, turned right and walked along the park for a bit. The Finish Line was off to my right so I cut through the park to take a look. The street leading to the finish was blocked off because of all the set-up in progress, but I got close enough for a picture. Bleachers lined the chute and I could just imagine the exhausted runners pushing a little harder as they made their way to the line with the crowd cheering them on. 

Working my way around the finish, I headed east toward the lake then went north through Lower Hutchinson Field. This is a great, big open field with lots of baseball diamonds. There is somewhat of a berm around it and every so often wide sets of steps lead from the walkways down to the field. I did some extra walking in this field because there was a fence all the around it that normally isn’t there. I tried to cut across, but ended up walking the perimeter inside the fence until a found a way out, almost back where I went in. So much for trying to take a shortcut.

There were white tents set up for hospitality, medical care, gear check, sponsors, and who-knows-what-else, throughout the park, as well as a few hundred port-a-potties. These were lined up in perfect rows of about 40 in several places. Somehow, with 45,000 people running, and 1.2 million people watching, the marathon, that just doesn’t seem like enough toilets.

Finally, I made it to Buckingham Fountain, where I treated myself to an iced coffee. It was warm out there, around 80 degrees. It’s going to be fairly warm Sunday for the marathon too. Yellow banners were on display warning the runners of the moderate weather conditions for the race. If the weather gets too extreme, the race can be stopped. Also, if the wind blows too hard, any times, record or otherwise, become unofficial.

Around the fountain were gear check tents. These covered an area about the size of the local food-booth strip at the Lane County Fair. Each tent held gear for about 1,000 runners. I cut through this area to Columbus Drive where the Start Line is located. The finish was neat to see, but the Start, well, it’s hard to describe. Even with cars still driving on the road, it was easy to imagine a giant mass of people lined up, ready to run. As I approached the street, I noticed the signs marking the mile pace starting areas. The slowest pace allowed is a 15-minute mile. At that pace, however, it will take a little over six and a half hours to finish.

Walking closer to the start, I came up to my normal pace. I ran a little under 11/mi in the B2B this summer. This still would put me about three blocks from the official Start Line. Continuing north, the pace gets faster until I came to the VIP corrals. These are the sections for the runners who can really move. These people are serious and to keep them from having to climb over the backs of slower runners (like me) they have reserved starting areas that put them ahead of the rest of the pack. There is one Open (where the majority of runners start) and five Closed corrals: A thru D (A being fastest), and then the Elite. The Elite are the gods of the marathon. These are the people who actually have a chance at winning the $100,000 First Place prize. Expect them to come in around two hours. That’s a pace of sub-five per mile.

There are so many runners that it takes about 20 minutes from the time the Elite runners start to when the Open runners get to the starting line. Here is more information on the pace required for the corrals and how to qualify for them: http://www.chicagomarathon.com/CMS400Min/Chicago_Marathon/runner_information/index.aspx?id=4217

Several people were getting pics taken of themselves at the pace markers, so I had to join in. Since it’s not likely I’ll ever be assigned an Elite starting location, I decided that’s where I wanted my picture taken. A group of ladies who are running the marathon together were kind enough to offer to take my pic for me after I took theirs. They were so excited to be running! Like I said earlier, I’m jealous of this group of marathon runners. Next year, I will be one of them.

This year I will be a supportive spectator somewhere around the 21 to 25 mile mark. Here is a map of the course: http://www.chicagomarathon.com/CMS400Min/uploadedFiles/Chicago_Marathon/Runner_Information/11%20Course%20Map%2009-26-11.pdf. I live a couple blocks east of the 25-mile marker. I imagine by this time, the runners need all the encouragement they can get.

It would be wonderful to run with people I know. Half the fun of accomplishing something this big is being able to share the experience of training, and the joy of finishing. Registration opens in February. Let’s RUN together!