Oct 9, 2007 12:40 pm US/Central
Three Questions Hanging Over Chicago Marathon
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Officials canceled the Oct. 7, 2007 Chicago marathon due to extreme heat. One runner died and hundreds were treated for heat-related illness.
CBS
The executive director of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon has been taking a lot of heat for the heat and the decisions he made, or failed to make during Sunday's race.
CBS 2 Chief Corresondent Jay Levine reports, it comes down to three key questions.
Question #1: Should they have started the race at all?
"In the morning, it was 71 degrees. It was a low heat index. It almost appeared we got a little bit of a break," executive race director Carey Pinkowski said on Monday.
But with the temperature, humidity and heat index rising quickly, the sound of pounding feet and cheering crowds was replaced by the wail of sirens.
More than 300 runners were transported by ambulance. More than a hundred were admitted to hospitals. Tens of thousands were not. Some of them are asking question number 2, why stop the race?
"There's people out there today, grumpy, [saying] I wanted to finish that race, but I think for health reasons for the city of Chicago it was the right decision," three-time Olympian Jim Spivey said the day after the race. "It's also not unprecedented because Rotterdam, this year, they cancelled their marathon as well. They were running it and halfway through they stopped it," he added.
Question #3: Were they prepared?
Most complaints about a shortage of water and Gatorade at aid stations came from runners who were well back in the pack.
"They were just telling us to move on because there wasn't any water. People were very aggravated and almost fighting over water at times," runner Tracie Bain said.
Did organizers fail to realize how much they'd need? They had nearly two million cups of water on hand, but that wasn't enough for those who wanted to drink it and many others who used several cups of water to douse themselves with it to cool off.
"That's something we haven't seen in any of the history of the 17 years that I've done this," Pinkowski said.
Even though this story is getting worldwide attention, and may not be the best thing for the city's image, few feel it'll have much impact on Chicago's chances for the summer Olympics. Those games include a much smaller group of much higher caliber athletes who will present a very different challenge. We'll get an idea of how Chicago deals with that, at the world boxing championships here later this month.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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SLIDESHOW: 2007 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon
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