Runner Dies and 250 Hospitalized at Chicago Marathon

[Hockeychic]

Jim, so glad you and DD are home safe and sound.

Kim

 

[Big Vic]

Jim - Glad you and your DD are ok.

 

[TnTsParty]

Jim - glad to hear you and your dd are back home safe. That stinks that you weren't able to complete the full race. Its awful that the event coordinator's didn't have enough supplies. My thoughts and prayers are with the family of the guy who died and the others that were taken away with heat illnesses. The heat can be brutal and I guess not everyone can be "lucky" enough (ha ha) to train in the heat like we experience in FL or other southern states. Hopefully they can straighten things out so next year's Chicago Marathon is not such a disaster.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Not to be a stick in the mud but if you don't finish the race(cross the finish line), you really don't deserve a finishers medal. I know races where you are not an a "official" finisher because you cross the line after the cuts and you get a finishers medal. That is fine as you did 26.2 miles. Period.

Runners knew the conditions and what to expect. When we did the Goofy this year, I knew it was going to be hot. I carried extra water, hankerchiefs I wetted for my head and neck, and took Endrolyte pills every hr to help supplement. It took us almost 7 hrs due to DW's PF but we finished and earned our medals. If WDW said you had to walk(well that's what I do) to finish the race well that's what I would do. If I had to stop or was unable to finish because of my own issues, I wouldn't expect a finishers medal because I didn't finish.

They are for finishers. Off my soap box.

Please don't shoot me

In that case--they required him to stop running. He probably wouldn't have cramped up like that had he been permitted to continue.

Heat is a strange thing and from what little I know of this race, 88 ain't all that bad..but is BRUTAL in a region or time of year where it is not expected.

And WDW had its own problems--they weren't even prepared for the heat last year with water stations out of water.

I don't know about you--but there is only so much water I can carry that would be able to attempt to make up for that piss poor planning on the race organizers part.

That's my soapbox.