Is this a serious article? (Chicago Marathon Related) (Read 616 times)

I think that guy is the voice of people who don't understand runners at all. Of course, it is one's choice as to whether or not they'll run a marathon... that's why we sign waivers before the race even starts. But this guy pretty much just spits in the face of the police officer who died during the race. I read a CNN.com article earlier today in which the race organizers stated they thought they had enough water, but they didn't expect people to use the water to cool themselves when mist or ice wasn't available. That sounds like minor league thinking, to me. 200,000 extra cups for 45,000 registered runners? They planned for less than five extra cups per person over 26.2. They had to know those were going down the back of someone's neck. In the writers defense, however, I think that of the 250-300 people treated for heat illnesses, most were runners who were not very prepared for the race. I could be very wrong about that, though.

He's a typical sports beat writer that has no more business writing about running than I do writing about Chicago's beloved Cubbies. My guess is that a significant number of entrants in the race were from outside the Chicagoland area. They planned for this race in advance, paid their 110.00 (non-refundable) entree fee, booked a hotel and possibly a flight, trained their butts off and ran the race--period. We do what we do come rain or shine. Unfortunatly, by it's very nature the marathon can be a crap shoot. No matter how well we train there is always a chance that we may get blindsided by something that we have no control. That's what makes it alluring.