Posted by Monetta Roberts on October 09, 2007 at 21:15:30:
In Reply to: Re: Chicago marathon posted by Leif Irgens on October 09, 2007 at 18:58:27:
I'm siding with Leif here: impaired judgment is one of, if not THE very first sign(s) of dehydration and heat exhaustion. I know, I've been there in training, and the REAL problem is, you don't even know you thinking crazy----it all makes perfect sense at the time. I don't know what the ideal solution would've been in Chicago, but I've been told race waivers are worth the paper they're written on. Do you really think a dead runner's family is going to say, "oh well he signed a waiver so he knew there was a chance he might die, alright then!" Probably not.
Maybe the race was not as prepared as it could have been (which seems to be the case) and/or maybe a lot of the folks entered are from parts far from the deep south and don't have the thin blood we have, and didn't have the training conditions we endure year after year after year. Still, I am not without sympathy and tons of empathy for this year's Chicago Marathoners. If things seemed to reach critical mass in the minds of the race organizers, they were well within their right to call it off in the hopes of saving the health of the masses. It had to be a tough decision to make. And travel expenses aside, there are ALWAYS more marathons just around the bend.
Let's just count our blessings that we never have to wonder if our marathons are going to be warm---we KNOW they are!
Mo