St. George Marathon and Chicago Marathon Oct. 6-7, 2007

My take on Chicago is that some of the sub-4 hour runners ran too fast for the heat and caused the cancellation of the race. I found news stories about 3 of the 49 that were hospitalized. All three were running under 8 minute miles. A lot of runners who were seen collapsing may have fainted from stopping suddenly - their blood pressure was already low and blood pooled in their legs when they stopped.

A separate issue was that the race organizers guessed wrong on the allocation of 1.8 million servings of water/Gatorade among the 15 aid stations. Demand on the early ones were greater than the guess.

Here's my weekend race reports:

#89 Oct. 6 - St George Marathon 3:25PR temps 39 to 54 #90 Oct. 7 - Chicago Marathon 4:04 temps 73 to 88

I had dinner with Jim's group Thursday evening to celebrate Jim's birthday at Chipotle. I had a burrito and birthday cake. That was my last real meal till Sunday lunch.

I flew into Vegas Friday and drove 2 hours to St. George. Phil had dinner reservations at a country club. I chose to pack light to avoid checking luggage and did not have the required formal attire. Instead I had a chicken sandwich and fries from Wendys for dinner.

Sat morning - 6:45am race start.

I was busy socializing and staying near the fire pits to keep warm. It was 39 degrees and my toes were going numb. So I did not start moving till 35 minutes before the race. I warmed up less than 2 miles. The race started while I was still stretching.

My calves and shins tightened up for the first seven miles - I had a very short stride. I took 4 Advil -- knowing my calves and shins would tear up running through the tightness.

At mile 2, I shed my 2 long sleeve throwaway shirts; my eyeglasses came off too. It was before sunrise and everything was a blur. There was no way I would find my eyeglasses on the road. After a moment of anxiety, I found them dangling on the sleeve. Whew.

The scenery was beautiful especially running through Snow Canyon.

After 10 miles, I felt no discomfort and my legs reached their full stride. My half-marathon split was 1:48:32. There is no way I would qualify for a 3:20 for Boston. I asked other runners how much of a negative split I can expect -- several runners said you should expect even splits. One runner said if you push it you can get 5 minutes. I ran my fastest second half in 1:37:03 -- a 11 minute negative split but I needed a 16 minute negative split to qualify for Boston. I probably could have shaved off 2 more minutes if I tried harder but I just wanted a decent PR at 3:25:35. For Boston, I needed a 7:03 pace in the 2nd half but ran a 7:24 pace. My quads, calves and shins were beat up from the cramps and 3000 feet of downhill running but I wanted to save something for Chicago. I skipped my 6 minute mile sprint for the last 0.2 and cruised in at 7:18 mile pace. My shoulders that normally go into spasms from sprinting were just fine.

Dean, you're right, there are a number of uphill "bumps" after mile 14 that you are not expecting and the net downhill course is not as easy as I expected.

The weather was considered one of the best race days in the past 21 years. Temps started out at 39 and rose to 54 degrees. I had a trickle of sweat when I ran through a sunny section close to the end of the race.

The St. George finisher's medal is the coolest - it is made of sandstone. Also we were allowed to keep the special edition Championship Chip.

I ended up running 2 marathons this weekend because the St George lottery results were not announced until after Chicago closed. I registered for Chicago in case I did not get into St. George. Last year, I did 3 marathons back to back but the first two were at an easy pace - around 4 hours, the last one in New York was 3:35 on the 3rd day. I am doing this double in reverse with the faster race on the first day. I didn't know what to expect.

The original plan was if I did not qualify for Boston, I would race Chicago. If I had qualified, Plan B would be go to every Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts along the course and wait for George, who was trying to qualify for Boston in the 75-80 age group, to catch up.

At the St George finish line, I grabbed an ice cream cone and checked out the massage line. The line was at least 30 runners long. I hopped in the car and drove to the Vegas airport. I got there in time for the 12:30pm Southwest flight to Chicago. I asked to go on standby but Southwest wanted to charge me full fare. Instead, I got a chicken sandwich and fries from Burger King and waited 2 hours.

I arrived in Chicago at 9pm and got my packet from Marty. I checked in to the Four Points Sheraton which I only booked on Tuesday. I realize now that the reason rooms were available was because 10,000 runners decided to stay at home due to the heat.

It was too late for dinner - so I drank a bottle of water with a Succeed capsule. I did not drink my standard Gatorade carbo-load. For my pre-race food - I basically subsisted off Southwest snack boxes, powerbars, fried chicken sandwiches and french fries.

Sun. Chicago Marathon.

I hedged and went to Starbucks to top off my Starbucks card. I also a carried a cellphone camera, a $20 bill and a Visa card for Dunkin Donuts.

I brought a new bottle of 100 Succeed capsules to the Team tent where the Orlando runners gathered. There was no official meeting per se so I didn't see an opportunity to hand them out. Most of our runners did well and ran the appropriate pace for the heat.

I asked for a pre-race massage - which is really a post-race St George marathon massage. They were happy to practice on me and found a lot of the muscle tightness which released as they worked on me. This gave me confidence.

Thank you Ray for bringing my bag to Gear Check. I got a 50 minute warmup in and did not cramp up. I ran back and forth in front of the preferred corrals among the seeded elite runners. Some of them didn't look that lean.

The Chicago marathon weather forecast on Thursday called from 71 to 86 degrees. The actual weather was only 2 degrees warmer than expected, it was 73 degrees at 8am with a 80% humidity. I actually had sweat on my face at the start.

As the humidity dropped from 80% to 52% - I had no visible sweat. I felt chilled from my own running breeze around mile 9 or 10. That always freaks me out since I am never 100% positive that it isn't heat exhaustion.

The race strategy was to bank the miles before it gets hot - basically a deliberate positive split. I was running 8:15 - 8:20 miles, figuring I was on pace for a 3:35:00. I ended up with a 8:21 pace at the half marathon mark. I did not factor in the rising temperatures or cumulative effect of heat.

Temps topped out at 88 degrees with a heat index of 90. I've done most of my training before sunrise and below race pace but I also squeezed in 30 minutes a week at race pace in the evening sun.

This marathon was hot, but I ran 3 other ultras this year that were hotter for longer periods in less shade. At the Northface 50 miler in VA in August, temps rose to 98 degrees with a heat index of 100. At the Old Dominion 100 miler in VA over Memorial, it got up to 90 degrees officially and 102 degrees at the parking lot at the turnaround. At the cross-Florida Sunrise/Sunset 170 miler, I DNFed after 65 miles when it stayed at 91 degrees at Lake Okeechobee for several hours.

Basically you cut back the pace to stay in your comfort zone and patiently count the miles down.

At mile 14 my mind told me to slow it down. I reset my sights on breaking 4 hours. I reminded myself that I was happy to have done a marathon PR the day before.

I saw the 3:30 and 3:40 groups pass me. I never saw any 3:50 or 4:00 bibs. At around mile 20, I saw the 3:50 group leader race by me carrying a large lollipop 3:50 sign and I wondered if he was trying to make his goal pace. He was running alone and wasn't pacing anyone.

What pace should the pace leaders have run given the conditions? If the pace leaders maintained pace, did they help create the heat exhaustion cases that lead to the race closure? Jim Harding the 3:40 pacer, maintained a perfect 8:23 pace past the 30k mark (18.6 miles) before his DNF.

I ran 10:18 pace in the 2nd half and finished in 4:04. It was a pretty easy race except between mile 25 and 26 - my slowest mile @11:16 - that mile in the sun seemed to take forever.

One policewoman shouted right before mile 26 that the race was cancelled. I asked another runner if that's what she said but he was nonresponsive.

When running past several Starbucks, the thought of an ice cold coffee was tempting, I am glad I didn't switch to Plan B because I could have been caught up in the race cancellation.

Once I saw the finish line and knew I didn't have to worry about heat exhaustion, I ran in at a faster but leisurely 7:30 pace -- saving both my quads and shoulders.

I went to sign up for a massage. They said they could take me right away. I thought that was odd. There was a 25 minute wait last year when I ran a 3:27. In another year when I ran a 3:45 Chicago, the wait was closer to 45 minutes. Where is everyone? Probably out on the course.

After the post-race massage, everything felt fine. Last year I was hobbling. I think the slower pace really helped with the recovery from the previous day's marathon. The only ill effect this weekend, was a bloody nose from the dry air in Utah and a sooted filled nose from the air pollution in Chicago.

Maybe eating salty french fries helped. I ate sandwiches for my first real food since Thursday night at the tent. I went back for a second bag of potato chips but they were all gone. Apparently, everyone else was craving salty chips. There were plenty of pretzels left. I am still working off the water retention weight from taking in large amounts of salt last weekend.

49 runners were sent to area hospitals One runner died after the race was cancelled due to a heart valve problem - there were no indications he had a elevated body temp at this point. Five runners remained in the hospital Monday night. How could 7 area hospitals be overwhelmed by just 49 ER patients? It is a holiday weekend.

I would be interested to know the average profile of the runners who were having medical issues 2 1//2 hours into the race. The race director met 3 hours into the race to discuss calling it off. My guess is that it is the sub-4 hour runners going for PRs that caused the race closure. It pretty difficult to accumlate enough body heat in 2 1/2 hours unless you are fast and heavy. Matthew McQuality is one of the 49 runners hospitalized. He collapsed after the 1/2 marathon mark averaging a 7:44 pace with heatstroke. He previously ran a marathon averaging a 8:22 pace. Dawn Dowell blacked out and was hospitalized after reaching the 30k mat. Her average pace was at the 1/2 marathon mark was 7:46. Dave Schwantesran a 7:56 pace in the first 1/2. He has averaged a 5:43 pace in a 5k. He collapsed at mile 19 with heatstroke and received 4 liters of saline.

Those runners ran too fast for the conditions. It seems that everyone is blaming their troubles on hydration. Dehydration and heatstroke are different problems. You can be fully hydrated and still overheat. If you lose 5% of your body weight - it puts you at risk for heat exhaustion. 10% of your body weight - puts you at risk for heatstroke.

Can runners sweat that much of their body weight in 2 1/2 hours? The faster runners had plentiful access to gatorade and water.

Jeffrey Sankoff, an emergency room attending physician and an experienced triathlete, told ABCNews.com. "What happens in a lot of these races [is that] people get focused on their time. It's often more of a problem for the experienced athletes than the novice runners." "It's not the amateurs, the newbies that get in trouble. It's the people that are sort of in that middle ground," he said. "It's that middle ground who are trying for personal best, who are clearly out of their element when you get into those conditions that you don't recognize. … You always need to pay attention. You need to be completely in tune with your body."

To paraphase Dean, some runners will stick to a plan even when conditions change. Emotions override logic. Their legs may be used to running only fast. On the other hand, the slower runners are not creating as much body heat. Although some of them would probably have suffered from hyponatremia had the race not been closed.

There was plenty of water and gatorade in my 4 hours of running. While there were a lot of runners walking, I didn't see anyone laying on the ground in need of medical attention. I saw only one ambulance on a call. It seemed like I ran an entirely different race than those an hour behind me. In those 4 hours, the course was largely shaded - especially if you made the effort to run on the shaded side of the street. It was pretty sunny in the last several miles as it is most years. Runners behind me would get more overhead sun.

If I am doing the math right - there were 1.8 million cups for an average of 30,000 runners (25,000 finished, 10,000 DNF). That works out to 60 cups per runner or 4 cups per runner per aid station. 120,000 gallons of Gatorade and water works out to be 16 quarts per runner.

Most runners cannot absorb more than one quart per hour especially in the heat. In hot weather, Gatorade and gels can be harmful if they sit in your stomach not being absorbed and drawing vital water from your body. Electrolytes tablets may be better.

In the 2nd half of the race, I did take 1 cup of Gatorade and 3 cups of water at many aid stations - some of the water was used on my head, neck, back and arms. The race officials expected greater water demand towards in the 2nd half. Instead, runners responded to the heat early on, and used up the fluids in the first 1/2 of the marathon course. I wonder if it was the 4 to 5 hour group who put excess demand on the water supplies, creating shortages for the 5+ hour group. Even though the bulk of the heat began at 10am, the race director probably did not factor in the behavior of runners who already felt warm at the start. The random distances between aid stations might encourage runners to hoard fluids because they were unsure about the distance to the next aid station. There are only six aid stations in the first 13.1 miles compared to 9 on the second half of the course. I rather have fewer aid stations evenly spaced 2 miles apart at the mile marker.

Also, there was probably some panic effect after one aid station is empty, the next one would be overwhelmed by runners trying to stockpile fluid - which could create escalating shortages for those runners behind them. Maybe the initial water shortage was caused by runners imitating other runners who were grabbing jugs of water and pouring over their heads. I know I didn't pour a cup of water over my head until I saw a lot of runners do it --- I was only pouring it on my neck after taking a sip.

I can emphasize with the fear and anxiety over not getting enough water/Gatorade. At ING Georgia, one aid station was missing early on and there no Powerade at any aid stations but one. My poor 4:08 finish time was due to the heat rather than fluid shortages. I've run in full sun in 95 to 100 degree heat with an emptied water bottle 3 miles away from the next aid station. I've been lost in the woods, out of water and lost in a small town at 3am with no stores open and deserted streets trying to find my way to the finish line.

Chicago hospitals did report cases of hyponatremia from drinking too much fluid or not enough electrolytes. While the slower runners complained about lack of water --- I am not convinced that it is a bad thing. A little thirst may keep them from running harder and risking heatstroke.

Unlimited fluids could have increased the cases of hyponatremia. "There are no reported cases of dehydration causing death in the history of world running," Maharam said. "But there are plenty of cases of people dying of hyponatremia." A study of runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon found that 13 percent who finished the race had hyponatremia.

The cutoff at the 1/2 marathon mark at 3 1/2 hours seems fair. The runners would not have made the 6 1/2 hour course limit. There were some runners on a 5 1/2 to 6 hour pace that should not have been cut off after 16 miles. It was unfair to force the runners who would have made the 6 1/2 hour cutoff to walk. Maybe they should get a coupon for next year. I figure about 16,000 finished normally, 9,000 had slower finishes (5:30 to 6:00) by maybe 20 minutes do the the enforced walk and 10,000 DNFs.The race director should take responsibility for not re-distributing the water supplies fast enough. The runners who got sick should have known better.

Despite a PR in St George, I felt I ran a better race in Chicago. I made a mistake in St George by failing to warm up adequately.The negative split was just gravity doing its thing. In Chicago, the only lesson learned is that I may have done better with less sugar in hot weather. Besides being a physical challenge of shedding heat and recovering from a downhill marathon, Chicago was a logistical challenge of catching flights, carbo-loading and arranging for packet pickup. There were 200 more runners that finished faster than I did compared to last year but as a percentage of entrants (top 9%), I improved slightly over last year. In ultras, Ironmans and adventure racing ( I haven't done any of the last two), often times, conditions are difficult, so you can only compare yourself against what everyone else did, how well you carried our your plan and responded to changing conditions, rather than an absolute time for the course.