Chicago Area Local News

CBS 2's Derrick Blakley and Mike Parker contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Marathon organizers say they're reviewing all aspects of Sunday's operation and their response to the unseasonably hot and humid conditions. But they defended their decision to begin the race, as well as their decision to call it off, as CBS 2's Derrick Blakely reports.

"I think it could have been a lot worse," executive race director Carey Pinkowski said. "If we would have allowed 12,000-15,000 people to be out in those conditions for another four or five hours, I think we would have had our hands full."

Pinkowski is standing by his decision to call off yesterday's LaSalle Bank marathon after scores of runners began to succumb to the hot, humid conditions. But despite forecasts, he admitted, organizers didn't fully foresee such oppressive conditions.

"At 7:45 in the morning, it was 71 degrees," he said. "It was a low heat index. It almost appeared we got a little bit of a break."

But as temperatures rose, so did runners' concerns about a lack of water at some spots along the course. Tracie Bain noticed a shortage after mile nine.

"They were just telling us to move on because there wasn't any water," Bain said. "People were very aggravated and almost fighting over water at times."

Organizers concede that many volunteers couldn't pour water fast enough to keep up with demand -- as runners poured it over themselves to keep cool, instead of drinking it.

"That's something we haven't seen in any of the history of the 17 years that I've done this," Pinkowski said.

Still, while many runners complained, others, like Mary Jo Witt, said ultimate responsibility lies not with the organizers, but with the participants.

"I went in understanding the heat and I needed to be hydrated," she said. "I carried two water bottles with me from the start."

Marathon authorities tell us in response the heat, they increased the amount of available water to 1.8 million servings, and laid out additional cooling buses, dropout buses, and mist stations. Still, more than 300 runners needed ambulance transportation and 141 were taken to hospitals. In addition to the 2 runners still at Rush (they'll be discharged tonight), there are still 5 runners at Stroger (one is in critical, the others are fair to serious).

Monday afternoon, some two dozen runners are still hospitalized, recovering from heat-related ailments.

Northwestern is treating five runners now in good condition, though two were upgraded from critical. Stroger has five in serious to critical condition. Illinois Masonic has three in serious condition and as many as 10 others are at Rush, UIC and Mercy Hospitals.

A Northwestern doctor says the heat catastrophe nearly overwhelmed the emergency room.

"We had roughly 50 or 60 additional young athletes come in with serious illness but that didn't stop the heart attacks the strokes, the fevers that we see day in and day out," said Dr. Martin Lucenti.

This year's marathon turned put to be a medical nightmare. More than 300 runners were treated for everything from heart problems to heatstroke. At one time more than 50 marathoners were at Northwestern.

There were tens of thousands of bodies taking a pounding on hard city streets in high heat and humidity. Is it any wonder then that so many ended up in emergency rooms?

Walter Simpson, a retired ER physician from Missouri was one of the runners treated at Northwestern.

"After I'd gone back to the hotel and taken a shower, the cramps were getting worse," Simpson said. "Then I started vomiting and feeling real weak. Then I knew it was time to come."

A Northwestern ER physician says one runner came in with a core body temperature of 107 degrees – others were nearly that warm.

"These people will be babbling incoherently, they'll have difficulty answering even the simplest questions," said Lucenti.

Out on the course Sunday, runners themselves were asking the same question again and again: 'where's the water?' In some cases, aid stations had run dry.

Maria Carlson says she managed to finish because she called her boyfriend on her cell phone to meet her with water.

"We trained to run in the heat," she said. "We know how to run in this heat, but we were counting on those supplies.

Simpson said he is not itching to run another marathon anytime soon.

Marathon organizers blame the water shortage on runners who grabbed drinking cups and poured it over themselves to cool off. Carlson says for them to blame runners is, in her words, "astonishing."

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