This time of year is always a hotbed of road races, and with cooler temperatures it is also marathon season. Those who have been reading my drivel for awhile know that I’m not a big marathon fan.
Don’t get me wrong, I have great respect for those who run them well, but the marathon is not necessarily the holy grail of our sport. And too many people view marathons as something to achieve – a one-time experience – rather than part of one’s overall running program. Also, too many runners do too many marathons, leading to injuries or over-training syndrome.
That said, I volunteer every year at Mile 18, on Taylor Street in Little Italy, as a member of Oak Park Runners Club’s aid station. We’ve been doing this since 1989, and are proud to be part of the big show. It’s always exciting to see the press truck appear in the distance, flanked by Chicago Police motorcycles, marking the approach of the lead pack of runners. Usually it’s a group of maybe a dozen skinny guys from Kenya or Ethiopia (plus two guys from Japan this year) whose feet seem to barely touch the ground as they speed past our group. These guys are running at a faster pace for 26 miles than I have ever been able to run a single mile.
After the lead pack, there’s a lull, with a few semi-elite runners, or those who have dropped behind the leaders. Then the larger crowd of runners builds into a throng; 45,000 people sign up for the Chicago Marathon every year. If it’s a warm day, the demand for water and Gatorade is huge, and volunteers hand out beverage cups at a rapid rate. But this year was pretty much ideal weather, cooler for the runners but not too cold for volunteers.
Then as the crowd of runners begins to ebb, we see more people walking, some even talking on their cell phones. These are some of the folks who are “doing” the marathon rather than running it. Okay, even walking for 26 miles is nothing to sneer at, but somehow, it doesn’t seem right when participants don’t seem to be taking it seriously. And all us volunteers have to be there to take care of everyone.
The Chicago Marathon is one of the “Marathon Majors,” one of only six premier marathons around the world which have formed an association awarding prize money to runners who score top finishes in these events over a 2-year span. Note that the top runners can only run one, or perhaps two, quality marathons a year, since the event takes a significant physical toll.
That’s one reason why I worry about some of my friends who have run three, four or even more marathons in a year. So I always recommend races up to the half marathon as less likely to cause injury while still keeping you in top physical condition.
Nevertheless, our marathon is a huge revenue generator for the city, with runners, their friends and family members travelling here from all over the world to stay in hotels, visit restaurants and spend their money. It’s a huge sports and financial asset for Chicago.
So if you have to run a marathon, fine; train carefully, but keep competing at those shorter distances, too. And congratulations to those who ran the Chicago Marathon, or any other marathon this fall.