Quote of the Day

"I wanted to run in Chicago, not in hell." - Anonymous Runner, 2007 Chicago Marathon.

Those words were spoken to me Sunday afternoon as I leaned against a construction barricade at the 25-mile mark of the 30th Annual Chicago Marathon while waiting for my wife to enter the final stretch of the race.

The anonymous runner was jogging along the side of the street when he looked directly at me and uttered those words. He laughed, I laughed, then he poured a bottle of water over his head and kept going.

Sunday's marathon, which was my wife's second in two years, featured temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s with nary a breeze in the air. Needless to say, my wife didn't have much fun this year.

Once runners hit the half way point, they were no longer running in the shade provided by Chicago's downtown skyline. Instead, they were running on exposed asphalt with the sun heating everything around them while doing its best to fry their noggins at the same time.

Runners who were doing fine at mile 13 were devastated by the heat by mile 17, my wife among them. It was ugly.

In fact, so many runners were dropping like flies in a Raid factory that the race organizers called off the event and made everyone walk back to the finish line.

Unfortunately, one 35-year-old runner from Michigan, Chad Schieber, died during the event. Although the exact cause of death won't be known until the autopsy is conducted this week, no one will be surprised if it was heat related.

In addition, more than 80 runners were transported to hospitals, and several hundred were treated on site. According to my wife, several aid stations along the route were standing room only, so I'm sure the number of treated and hospitalized runners are higher than what's been reported so far.

The worst case I saw was a man being carried into the medical tent by three others while his wife walked beside him holding his hand. My wife saw one woman on a stretcher visibly shaking from the effects of heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

From a spectator perspective, it was difficult to tell what was louder, the shouts of encouragement from family and friends lining the race course, or the screaming ambulance sirens which didn't stop until an hour after the race was called off.

Overall, it was a tough day for a marathon and I think race officials made the right call by shutting it down.

On a personal note, I am very proud of my wife for her accomplishment, even though I think she and all other marathoners are freakin' nuts. Even so, she trained hard all year, she ran the best race she could, and she finished.