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* Eric Zorn starts off a blog post with this unbelievably goofy quote from LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon executive director Carey Pinkowski….

Is there anything we could have done better? No. We anticipated the weather. I’m very proud of the way things went

What’s so bizarre about this comment is it was made today. After one runner died and hundreds ended up in the hospital.

Zorn comments…

Sunday’s event was calamitous, as these things go — one runner dead, hundreds hospitalized, thousands angry at what they say was a lack of fluids on the course — and Pinkowski is only making it worse by offering excuses, pointing the finger at others and otherwise trying to spin the story

* Once again, Pinkowski…

“Our participants were not drinking the water, they were cooling themselves with it,” Pinkowski said. “That’s something that, I’ll be honest with you, we didn’t anticipate.”

Don’t runners often douse themselves with water, particularly when it’s a hot day? I certainly did back in the (very long ago) day when I ran cross-country races.

* And what about that claim made by runners and initially disputed by organizers that the aid stations ran out of water (notice Zorn’s hedging on this topic above)?

Over at Illinoize, John Ruberry displays this video about one aid station that clearly ran out of water, which completely contradicts marathon organizers’ earlier assertions that they had plenty of fluids and that nobody ran dry…

Ruberry links to Running Jayhawk, who posts this account of the race…

First water stop?

Nothing.

I took some water from my fuel belt and kept on. The energy from the spectators was great. Everyone was so encouraging and excited for the race. We turn to go down LaSalle…over the river…and to the next water stop.

Nothing.

A few blocks later I run by my parents. I didn’t even stop. All I could do was yell to them “GET GATORADE FOR MILE 11. THEY’RE OUT OF EVERYTHING.”

* Zorn thinks Pinkowski is the right guy to fix things. I can’t understand why. Pinkowski presided over a colossal failure and then claims everything went according to plan.

Then again, Pinkowski’s spin is no different than much of what we’ve seen out of the White House, the governor’s office and the 5th Floor at city hall. Flatly deny that the disaster/meltdown/etc. exists even when everyone can plainly see it with their own eyes and dozens of actual victims/participants/reporters dispute the false propaganda. Then, when finally busted cold claim that, well, maybe some mistakes “were made” but they certainly couldn’t have been foreseen, despite common sense to the contrary.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 12:45 pm

Comments

I have heard people blame the runners themselves–that too many are not prepared to participate in a marathon. Pinkowski blew it, and now he’s trying to backtrack. They knew it was hot. They knew they had a record number of entrants. With a $1100+ entry fee, runners expect hydration.

Comment by Fan of the Game Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 12:55 pm
Rich, did you run XC at KHS?

Comment by DC Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:00 pm
Heh, who was that guy who seemed to act like Saddam Hussein’s propaganda officer. LOL!!!

Comment by Levois Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:02 pm
No. Tooele High School in Utah. As you might imagine, the summer runs were pretty intense. I dropped out of sports by KHS and formed a rock band instead.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:02 pm
Having competed against KHS (I ran at SACHS), I’d say your rock band had a better chance of going on to the next level

Comment by DC Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:03 pm
lol

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:06 pm
Let’s blame the Governor! He is a runner. He knows the score. He could have had Wyma’s health care clients line the route or the Pepsi guys toss out free water.
Then the SpinSisters could have the Boy Toys declare the Gov.’s great effort.

Actually while it is very sad to see all the people suffering, I cannot seem to find the photos showing race organizers putting guns to the heads of the runners.
The organizers botched it badly, but this is self inflicted by the runners.
P.S. there are plenty of reports of Rich Rock Band running all over triple KKK for any number of reasons

Comment by Mr. W.T. Rush Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:16 pm
I have known plenty of people who have volunteered for the marathon over the years. And I think that is the key here. VOLUNTEERS. They work great when things go according to Hoyle. The problem is they needed probably double the number of volunteers as normal and there is no way to dig up that many people with only a day or two notice. Its hard enough to get the amount they do with a year to work on it.
Another problem is that the gatorade is either donated as sponsorship and that is also done way in advance. It is not like they can go out and buy a bunch more and figure out a way get it out to the course, again at the last minute.
I guess what they needed was a contingency plan with gatorade and maybe the fire department or another city agency to step in if the weather is forcasted to be this bad again.

Comment by anon Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:21 pm
Pinkowski has a future in Illinois politics

Comment by lifer Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:31 pm
MWTR, nobody holds a gun to your head when you drive your car to the movies, either. That’s not the point.

And, to everyone else, I think MWTR was using the local abbreviation for Kankakee in that comment. More common is K3, but I remember the first time I saw “KKK” on one of those electronic signs at a K3 bank. It was very weird.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:32 pm
i watched a tv newsprogram last night on which the organizer said they were surprised people doused themselves with the water—then came a commercial for lasalle bank which featured the marathon and—guess what—it showed runners dousing themselves with water from a drinking cup

Comment by publius Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:34 pm
Thanks for the quote, Rich. It was truly terrible out there.

But I’d like to take a moment to do the math, kids.

They bumped water from 1.5 million to 1.8 million, with new sources say approximate another 205,000 cups available on the course. Divide that by the projected 38,000 runners (not the 45,000 that registered) and that’s only another 5 glasses of water per runner over the course of 26.2 miles. In extreme heat you consume about 4 times the amount of water to stay cooled.

Now. Shawn Platt is stating that they had 37,000 cups of Gatorade and 50,000-70,000 cups of water at each station in the beginning. That’s not even enough to cover one cup per person!

There’s no way in hell they can blame this all on the runners. Based on numbers alone they were no where near prepared to handle the athletes.

What gets me is Pinkowski is a runner. He knows you fight off heat by dousing your head. His claims are just like his aid stations…they just don’t hold water.

Comment by Running Jayhawk Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:56 pm
The first post needs to be corrected. I don’t believe the entry fee was that high.

That being said, there is a bit of Katrina in this.

The weather reports were present for at least a week. Why weren’t the race organizers prepared? Everybody knew what was coming. Something like 900 people elected not to run. Imagine if they had?

This is just one more event where Chicago wasn’t prepared.

How long has Mayor Daley been in office? At that point will he start taking personal responsibility for this?

Comment by Skeeter Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 1:57 pm
Anyone know if George Scully ran in the marathon and if he’s ok.

Comment by Huckleberry Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 2:00 pm
$1100 = $110

My original post would have made it REALLY expensive water.

Comment by Fan of the Game Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 2:04 pm
That’s an awful lot of plastic down on the ground there. Isn’t there a more environmentally friendly way to do this?

Comment by Squideshi Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 2:11 pm
I think that the organizers were expecting people to douse with one cup and drink another. Not douse with 5, 6, or 7 cups and drink 1. I have head complaints about 10s of thousands of cups of water at the end of the race, well how did these people this water to make its way to other points of the race?

As to expectations, my understanding is that the weather was hotter than all the weather forecasts. Add to that about 10,000 people didn’t even show up to run, including myself. This would have been my first, but I didn’t want to end up in the hospital next to my friend.

They brought extra water, fewer people showed than expected and there were still shortages. Hmmm. I don’t remember anyone in the week before or even the day before saying that enough hasn’t been done. They had to make a call based on the information they had at hand, some of which may have been incomplete due to communications break down.

I for one do not blame them at all and hope to run my first marathon here next year.

Comment by Anonish Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 2:13 pm
As a cheerleader, I can only say that there were runners grabbing 7-8 cups at a time to douse themselves. The station I was near had lots of water left over, in cups and waiting to be poured. And - most people were already walking.
But — blaming the runners is sooo wrong. LaSalle Bank/Bank of America better figure this part out real quick.

Comment by babs Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 2:14 pm
Am all for fitness and competition but if one has the ” running ” bug so bad that they couldn’t determine it was to hot only heaven can help them . They should have done like the rest of us. CHILL out !

Comment by bluedog demo Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 2:27 pm
The argument that runners doused themselves with too much water does not hold up because they ran out of gatorade as well. I am pretty sure I didn’t see any runners pouring two and three cups of gatorade on their heads. Bottome line, the organizers were unprepared.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:01 pm
God help us if there were another terrorist attack. The Mayor Daley and Governor Blagojevich would flatly deny that the disaster too.

Comment by We get what we deserve Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:03 pm
And Chicago wants host the Olympics.
Hope the Olympic committtee is watching this.

Comment by All on the taxpayers backs Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:12 pm
“Is there anything we could have done better? No. We anticipated the weather. I’m very proud of the way things went…”

Really? Very proud?
OK - so how proud would you be if the Marathon didn’t result in hundred of casualties and one death?

Super-proud?
VERY Very proud?

Bull! How could anyone say this without wearing a straight jacket? Is he afraid if he admits to what everyone else knows he’ll be sued? I can see the television ads for the ambulance chasers now…”Did you run in the Chicago Marathon and feel tired, hot, sweaty, and exhausted? Did your pulse race? If you experienced any of these symptoms you may be suffering from Chicago Marathon Disorder.” “Call us now!”

Just how low did you set the bar to call this marathon a success? What do you define as success?

How many people would have needed to die before you consider this marathon not too successful?

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:13 pm
I’ve been to Tooele a few times. If I am not mistaken, most people living there run.

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:27 pm
Look, no one forced the people to run. I was out watching this race and would venture well over half had no business even being out there. So let’s ease off the race organizers a bit, shall we?

Also, someone who runs with a heart condition knows the risk they’re taking. The hysterics surrounding this race are amazing.

Comment by Jay Byrd Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:30 pm
Being a triathlete (still cool to type that) I would have to say the idea people were pouring water on themselves should not have come as a shock.

Would it have killed the guy to say ‘We learned some lessons’?

Comment by OneManBlog Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:32 pm
Jay Byrd, I agree that some of the coverage is over the top, which is why I held my tongue until Pinkowski made that absolutely inane and, frankly, insane statement today.

In that context, your own comment sounds a lot like some of the people who put all the blame on Katrina’s victims, and it will get you about as far.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:36 pm
The Government should ban marathons. Now, back to munching doritos on the couch.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:39 pm
There are two issues not covered here yet that bear mentioning.

First, the vast majority of the “runners” who are complaining aren’t really runners. They are run/walkers who didn’t/don’t respect the marathon. They signed up because they wanted to do a marathon as a life goal. The vast majority of them (and I say this as a coach of a major running club in town) don’t want to put in the work necessary to really prepare to take on a marathon. They don’t want to run 5ks and 10ks and half marathons in the months (dare I say years) leading up to the actual marathon. They want to run 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes and once for 90-200 minutes on the weekends and that’s it. Sure, that’s a lot more than what they were doing but that’s not enough for the task at hand. They’re simply not ready for anything but optimal conditions race and unfortunately, nature didn’t cooperate with them last weekend. Were runners more experienced ie, qualified to run the race based on an earlier race, they’d have known their limits and either not run when it was 88 degrees with 80 percent humidity, run at a pace that allowed them to finish in those conditions, or run with their own supplemental water. It’s not as if all these yahoos didn’t run all summer, in heat and humidity at least equal to Sunday’s conditions, without water stops. People really like to find someone else to blame for their own shortcomings.

Second, no one’s talking about the fact that only 350 people (give or take) were hauled away from points throughout the city but that small group essentially shut down the emergency response capabilities of the city. What happens when something big occurs in a major American city? After this weekend is anyone remotely comfortable with our ability to deal with a tragedy of any magnitude? I’m not.

Comment by A Chicago runner Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:49 pm
Both the organizers and the runners are to blame here. The organizers for not having enough liquid on the course and the runners for not knowing their limits. I will tell you that HEAT sneaks up on you and often times people do not realize it until they are in major trouble.

Comment by He makes Ryan Look like a Saint Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 3:58 pm
It is becoming pretty clear that the hyped “city that works” doesn’t work at all. In recent weeks we have learned that we are one of the cities least prepared to handle a disaster, with one of the worst environmental protection records, with a public transportation system that is falling apart, with the highest sales tax (with more to come) and gasoline costs of any major city, with a series of serious police crimes against the citizenry, not to even mention the many convictions and pending indictments of city officials. Who is managing this city as Daley flits around with deep pocket friends to China, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Rio, and all those places yet to come in supposed search of support for the olympics selection? By now he must know that Chicago will not be selected so stay home, hire some professional staffers to deal with the multiple messes that his mismanagement have allowed to develop, and use whatever political muscle that you might have to bring some sense to the threatened escalation of taxes and user fees on city residents. Chicago can’t even handle a lousy marathon and Daley wants to land the olympics.

Comment by wallace Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 4:02 pm
Rich - point taken, but I haven’t, nor would I ever, compare what happened yesterday with Katrina…and no one should make that comparison.

Yesterday was a perfect example of what happens when you’re not properly trained, yet you sign up for something like this. I was at this year’s triathlon too, it was hot and people were dropping like flies. These are high endurance events, and they’re not for everyone.

Comment by Jay Byrd Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 4:05 pm
A couple quick points. For people saying there were 10,000 people who didn’t run, I’d just say that there are always a ton of people who don’t show up for a marathon.

From last year’s AP story on the Chicago Marathon: “The field featured 34,698 runners on a misty, blustery day with temperatures of about 40 degrees.” So, that means, 1,169 more people ran this year than last year.

And, as far as Chicago runner’s attack on run-walkers, well, it’s just baseless. I guess I would be one of those (although not in Chicago) and I know quite a few others. When I trained with AIDS Marathon, the biggest goal was simply finishing the marathon by being smart and being prepared. Some 98 percent of the program’s racers finish their marathons. They may be slow (I sure was!), but they’re not about to kill themselves to cut 15 minutes off their time. As part of our training, we were REQUIRED to have supplemental water and a bunch of other equipment. We ran all summer (six months) in preparation in just as bad heat and humidity (although, we’d try to start earlier).

This whole notion of blaming the victims is really disturbing. They could have been better prepared. But that goes for the organizers too.

Comment by Dan Vock Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 4:05 pm
Rich, you nailed this. I was infuriated watching Pinkowski on Chicago Tonight. The spin and non-sense he was spewing to Carol Marin’s appropriate questioning is all to indicative of an endemic problem afflicting Chicago’s power set.

Pinkowski reminds me of Grant Park Advisory Council President Bob O’Neil. Both are funded “privately,” yet their missteps cause hemmhoraging of public resources and trust. The Children’s Museum debacle and the unrestrained greed of developers at public expense in the South Loop both were pushed strongly by O’Neil. O’Neil is roundly loathed by neighborhood residents, but his out of touch and heavy handed ways don’t matter a whit.

Holding no public office, nor even accountable through appointment or oversight, the Mayor has perfect stooges to push through poorly conceived agendas and mismanaged programming. At least when things go wrong in the public sector, someone’s head rolls. With the Marathon and Grant Park unaccountable ones - where does the blame, or responsibility lie?

Keep up your great blogging, Rich!

Comment by phocion Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 4:11 pm
10,000 elected not to run (not 900 as Skeeter wrote).

10,000 didn’t finish or were told to stop.

Pinkowski’s way out of his league here. Yes, everything went according to plan.

What he’s completely not comprehending is that the plan was wholly inadequate.

Even if it was record-breaking October heat (more like July), you’ve got to put a better contingency plan together than what we saw happen Sunday.

Comment by Rob_N Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 4:18 pm
I ran the marathon once, following the very sensible Chicago Area Runners Association training program. Although I ran slowly and often walked, I went into the race knowing what my body could and could not endure.

I have worked several times as a volunteer on the course and with the elite runners at the finish line.

I feel bad that this event is getting such a bad wrap. Seeing the marathon from these perspectives left me with the feeling that this is a very organized event.

This is very unfortunate on many levels.

Comment by anon Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 4:45 pm
Phocion, and other people who wondered what happened: You might want to check out the Second City Cop blog where an officer posted that he/she thought there were more like 100,000 runners in the race instead of 40,000.

This was based on his (or her) perception that if U.S. Cellular has 45,000 on a World Series night, and it takes 20 minutes to empty the stadium with people walking, why were people still running three hours after the start of the race at the halfway point where this anonymous officer said he/she was stationed.

The officer speculated a lot of runners used last year’s numbers and just ran anyway.

Who knows? Something to think about, though. Lots of blame to go around. Lots.

Comment by Phocion Phan Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 4:52 pm
The Marathon has gotten much too large. The race was held too early this year. Yes, Sunday was unusually warm for early October. But, if the race was scheduled on the second or third Sunday in October instead of the first (as it has been at many times in the past) it would have been even less likely that the weather would have been so hot.

I find Pinkowski’s comments incredible. To say that he didn’t expect runners to take cups of water and drench themselves in an effort to cool off as an excuse for not having enough water is ridiculous. Pinkowski was unprepared. It’s that simple.

The comments by “Chicago runner” represent the type of elitist twaddle that intimidates novice runners into thinking that they shouldn’t be out running unless they are built like gazelles and are capable of running 3:00 hour marathons.

According to “Chicago runner” “They want to run 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes and once for 90-200 minutes on the weekends and that’s it.” Actually, that’s pretty much Galloway’s marathon training method and it’s a pretty effective method if you want to run, not race, a marathon and finish comfortably.

For many years, the Chicago Marathon has been the marathon of choice for the novice runners because it’s a marathon that can be completed at a slower pace without the fear of running alone or having the course closed before you have an opportunity to complete the course. Through the various training programs the beginners have been encouraged to participate. I suppose that’s why I found Pinkowski’s comments particularly irksome. They didn’t take care of the runners that were running the 9:00 minute pace and slower.

It will interesting to see what happens with the marathon next year after the debacle this year. Will Bank of America sponsor the race now that it has purchased LaSalle? Will they limit the field to a more manageable size? As for me, it will be off to Milwaukee, or Minneapolis/St. Paul, or Des Moines or Fox Cities - all places with smaller fall marathons.

Comment by Just the Facts Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 4:56 pm
Phocion,

Think about it — Cellular Field and its 45k patrons have many, many exits and can fan out in all directions. Doesn’t take long to clear out.

The 48k runners in the marathon are all funneled through the same starting gate. Takes longer to get them through the single point.

As for using “last year’s runners” — first, that would imply that the 48k registered this year were all brand new entrants since Second City Cop guesstimated twice that amount ran and second, the numbers themselves are coded so anyone using an old flag would get noticed pretty quick (let alone nearly 50k doing it).

Second City Cop … not the greatest source. (And people wonder why Chicago cops get hit with brutality charges all the time… just read SCC.)

Comment by Rob_N Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 5:03 pm
Just the Facts,

BoA had indicated they would still sponsor — but they didn’t say anything specific.

Comment by Rob_N Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 5:19 pm
Your attention please: the 2016 Olympics have just left the building.

Comment by Jake From Elwood Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 5:25 pm
Latin America has never hosted the olympics and is perfectly positioned to do so in 2016 in the beautiful city of Rio. Let me be the first member of the “Chicagoans for the Rio Olympics” committee.

Comment by wallace Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 5:29 pm
They were never in Jake, never in.

I think the little submarine sandwich-sized flags of the world stuck into the frozen tundra of the barren south side said more than words could ever say. Or express. Not to mention the CTA buses BREAKING DOWN ON THE WAY THERE CARRYING VIPs.

The Mayor and his gang are making $$$ just PURSUING the games.

And that’s the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) they like it (uh-huh, uh-huh) and want it.

Comment by Marion Jones' Nutritionist Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 5:37 pm
there were other heat related running problems
all over the country. Downey’s column today
nails it. the runners were warned.

Comment by Amy Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 5:50 pm
I know that runners could have just quit running if they knew it was unsafe but after all that training, I can see why they did not quit. This was a disaster that will give the IOC a reason not to consider Chicago. They ran out of water! WTF! How can you justify that when there would be access to water all over the route form businesses and building owners. They emailed everyone on Wednesday to say it would be hot. If they could not handle the responsibilities of the race they should have called it off or told runners to start as early as 6:00 A.M. This guy should be gone if he believes that nothing else could be done. Does he get paid for this?

Comment by blogman Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 6:11 pm
I don’t care about the race organizers excuses. The fact is you had many, many hobby runners out there. There were warnings about excessive heat during the race.

The pro’s running seemed to have very little problems. It is a shame more liquids weren’t available. There should have been cooling/misting stations brought in for the race. Some blame has to be placed on the race organizers, but in reality about 85% of the people running should not have been out there.

It is sort of like Rich jumping into the boxing ring with Mike Tyson in his prime.

A man got’s to know his limitations.

Comment by Papa Legba Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 8:20 pm
Papa, that’s kinda ridiculous. If organizers ran out of water, it doesn’t matter how prepared the runners were.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 8:41 pm
it’s pretty bad to run out of water. i predict that this will be like the ‘79 blizzard (every plow is out now if there is even a chance of snow) and there will be so much water/gatorade, etc. from now on that you won’t believe it.

Comment by rosie ruiz Tuesday, Oct 9, 07 @ 8:57 pm
Hey there…There are some interesting observations here. Rather than address each one individually, I put everything on my mind in this Illinoize post:

http://capitalfax.blogspot.com/2007/10/chicago-marathon-keep-pinkowski-in.html

Comment by John Ruberry Wednesday, Oct 10, 07 @ 12:38 am