Runner dies, 300 treated as heat ravages Chicago Marathon

Source: CNN



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CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Organizers shut down the course four hours after the start of Sunday's Chicago Marathon because of 88-degree heat and sweltering humidity that left one runner dead and sent at least 49 to area hospitals. Another 250 were treated at the site.
Chad Schieber of Midland, Michigan, 35, collapsed while running on the South Side and was pronounced dead shortly before 1 p.m. at a Veteran's Affairs hospital, the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.
The Chicago race was run in record temperatures, topping the mark of 84 degrees in 1979.

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Helicopters hovered over the race course while police officers shouted through a bullhorn and warned runners to slow down and walk.

Lori Kaufman, a runner from St. Louis, said she was told to start walking at mile 14. She said the fire department turned on hydrants to hose people down along the course.

Paul Gardiner, a runner from England, said the weather made for a "brutal" run.

"We were at about 18 miles and we heard they canceled it and that kind of sent a little bit of concern through the crowd," he said. "It's just it's impossible to run."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/07/chicago.marathon.ap/index.html

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How these people do it I'll never know! It was HOT today! I was miserable walking across a parking lot let alone the Chicago marathon!

So sad to read about the young man who lost his life today. :(

I just talked to her on Skype. She said they stopped it after they ran out of ambulances to carry people to the hospitals. My stepson wasn't one of those carried off, at least.

running in heat: S T U P I D

a ninny. Try the HOUSTON marathon. Then you can gripe about heat.

A/C for me babe

AC needs to reinvent itself.

way decent, "run-able" weather in October.

I was there (on the sidelines) and it was brutal. I'm a daily, all weather runner, but this was really bad - even for walking.

We saw them around the 7 mile mark and they were suffering, especially the "over 40" crowd. I ran into my friend, age 53, and she was soaking wet like she had just come out of the ocean. One woman was walking and crying her eyes out. It means so much to people who are participating for a variety of personal reasons.

I always see people running on the hottest, smoggiest, most humid days. What's the sense in that?

but I just don't get this. I have enough pain in my life without asking for more.

Do you start fights at funerals for kicks?

:shrug:

Don't you have puppies to kick or something?

:dunce:

The heat and humidity can literally kill you. I do not know why people jog in Houston for six months out of the year, for it is too hot and humid to do so.

The advice from diet doctors to "go for a walk every day" is obviously for people who don't live where it's extremely hot or extremely cold. You have to do your walking indoors in air conditioning during those hot humid months.

"Gee, is it really a good idea to undertake a grueling 26-mile race in this heat and humidity?"

The whole point of training for a marathon is to become well enough conditioned that you don't need to think. Otherwise, you'd spend the entire race asking yourself, "Why the hell am I doing this?"

I'd be extremely pissed if they cancelled the race for any reason. That's part of marathon running - doing 26.2 miles no matter what the weather.

...for five straight years. The highest temperature I ever ran in was 64 degrees (2001). The marathon is always held toward the end of October and if temperatures remain close to where they were today for the Army 10-Miler I think the sponsors may reschedule it due to the possibility of a massive number of heat injuries.

A side sad note, there was a death today at the annual Army race, here's the link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR2007100700868.html

that was when I was a lot stupider than now.

I am so sick of the news media talking about this
"beautiful weather" and how much we enjoy it.
This is symptomatic of a diseased planet.

I blame chimpy!

I'm still needing to use my AC, or walk around drenched in sweat. What the hell is going on?

:sarcasm:

and won't receive a free t-shirt.

(snip)

CRAWFORD, Texas - The temperature topped 100 sweaty degrees at President Bush's ranch on Wednesday — a fine day for a three-mile run.

Forty White House staffers, members of the military and Secret Service gathered at a starting line and took off running. Their secret hope was to be inducted into the "President's 100-degree Club."

"You have to run for three miles. No walking. And then you get a T-shirt," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said about the event, which has become an August tradition at the ranch.

It was grueling. The runners poured water over their heads as they ran, each at their own pace. All 40 made it.

"The air temperature was 104, but with the humidity it felt like 109 degrees," Perino said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20288064/

Three miles is nothing.

This kind of heat was just too brutal to run this type of event. But event organizers seemed damned if they do and damned if they don't for these events in thinking of cancelling.

Shame that Chicago scheduled this in October and instead got July/August type brutal heat.

I know runners train hard for this, but some forget common sense. No shame in dropping out or dropping out part way in such brutal conditions.

Sorry, but I don't think this is worth dying for.

I spent over a year and logged more than 1000 miles to prepare for my first marathon. Three weeks before the event, my heels felt like they'd been pounded with sledgehammers. Plantar fasciitis. Both feet. I ran the damn marathon anyway. The first mile wasn't bad. The other 25.2 hurt like all hell. I finished but two years later I'm still paying for my stupidity.

I finished marathons thinking "I can't believe I'm doing this to myself".

I learned from my first marathon that I'm not built to train for that distance.

If I ever get rehab'd from the plantar fasciitis, 8-10 miles is probably the longest I'll ever run again.

I couldn't believe it when I stepped outside--it was like mid-August.

The temperature wasn't that high, but coupled with the humidity, it was BRUTAL. I had a house guest who came here from California expecting cool autumn weather. I had to lend her clothes.

In my book, crisp October weekends are what living in Minnesota is all about. Global warming is screwing with my favorite season. Garrr!

It probably won't be too many years that they'll have to schedule the Chicago marathon in January to avoid the extreme heat.

denial this is an example

First, let me express sympathy for the person who died, and the others who may have compromised their health by running a marathon in that kind of heat.

But I recall as late as last winter all kinds of "ho-ho-ho, what's all this about global warming" reportage during the winter storms. What happened to all the happy denial talk? Or is it now okay to make serious comments about global climate change on the popular media?

just pissing around, doing nothing, and i was covered in sweat

A lot of runners are complaining that the water stations were out of water and gator ade. Stories of runners stopping at gas stations to buy their own water, drinking from fountains, picking up used cups to get water. Race organizers deny this and say there was plenty of water.

Maybe this marathon was too big for the logistics! 35,000 runners. Originally had 45,000 registered but 10,000 never showed - bet many because of the heat.

I ran Chicago 12 years ago and I think there were around 10,000 runners. I had to quit running marathons 10 years ago. I can't imagine how they'd manage a race with that many runners.

experienced for themselves what was going on and they kept going to death? (shakes head). I must be missing something, not me, thanks.

to adopt a "finish or die" attitude. I use to tell my friends that if I didn't cross the finish line to go down to the coroner's office and start checking toe tags.

in any sport that has an ambulance waiting at the finish line or the bottom of the hill. :-)

I stayed inside.

Running a marathon? No fucking way.

The temperature and humidity were about the same. It was hot, but runners were well prepared.