Chicago's annual marathon was shut down early on Sunday due to oppressive heat and humidity, which led to dozens of hospitalizations. Grister Sarah Hardin was on the scene and offers this first-hand report:
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It's become a tradition for my geographically widespread family to converge on Chicago in October for the city's annual marathon. We've been volunteering at the marathon ever since my cousin married the operations manager for the event. This was the first year I was able to join in -- and what a year, too. While 2006 saw 37-degree temperatures and cold rain all morning, this year's runners experienced some of the hottest weather Chicago's seen in October since the 1970s.
I witnessed up close and personal just how much planning goes into coordinating such a large-scale event (the race draws around 45,000 runners and 1.5 million spectators annually), and then I saw hundreds of people suffering from the effects of heat exhaustion, dehydration, and hyponatremia. Kudos to the marathon coordinators for making a difficult (and perhaps unpopular) decision to shut the course down and encourage people to reroute or walk the rest of it. It can't be an easy task to convince stubborn marathoners to stop running.
The atypical October heat, and the general public's lack of preparedness for it, was downright frightening. Grant Park was littered with exhausted, dehydrated, nauseated runners -- and while the medical units were working hard to tend to everyone in need of care, it proved difficult to dispatch such widespread assistance. Chicago's marathon is commonly known to be one of the best organized races in the world, if not the best; even so, it was simply impossible to extend resources smoothly on such a large scale.
This was just one race, on one hot day, but it seemed to indicate the need for better planning and preparedness at the city and state levels: We ought to seriously examine whether our systems and infrastructure are ready for environmental crises -- because those crises sure don't look like they'll be ending any time soon.
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Comments
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amazingdrx Posted 12:47 am
10 Oct 2007
My first marathon was on Grand Island just north of Munising in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Even though it was in Aug it was cool on the tree covered trails and along the cliffs overlooking the lake.
The shores of Lake Superior are becoming the Riviera of the midwest with GHG climate change. I sense a vacation population boom on the southern shore about to heat up. Almost time to move to the north shore.
Flee the human wave of climate change! Or live like just another rat in a maze. Mass culture is not for everyone.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Flamingo Posted 1:20 am
10 Oct 2007
There was apparently a Wisconsin football game with problems with heat that they'd never encountered also, this past weekend.
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Flamingo Posted 1:22 am
10 Oct 2007
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Delay And Deny Posted 2:18 am
10 Oct 2007
The press kept talking like Chicago has turned into Oman. I imagined Laural and Hardy in French Foreign Legion outfits, jogging over sand dunes.
High temperature for that day: 88F.
Big deal!
John Bailo
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Flamingo Posted 3:28 am
10 Oct 2007
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estark Posted 4:14 am
10 Oct 2007
Guess you've never heard "It's not the heat, it's the humidity" nor lived in the often oppressive summer humidity of the midwest.
88's not that hot, but with the high humidity the heat index was no doubt well over 100. It bogles my mind why anyone would want to run in that.
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PolluteLessDotCom Posted 6:19 am
10 Oct 2007
Is there anyone that sees connections between our hobbies and pollution? I can admire anyone who runs that far. Generally speaking it is a sport with little impact on the environment. I do wonder why they cannot run where they live though. Or at least very close.
Just like with most of what we do in North America, it may not be the activity, but all that is done to support the activity that causes problems. Transportation of all involved including spectators and equipment, the materials used for equipment, the maintenance of facilities, the energy consumption of facilities, etc. need to be considered if you look at climate change and sports.
The folks who travel long-distance to get to a sporting event and then suffer from unusually high temperatures (or at least weird weather) are not necessarily ONLY a victim of climate change, but to a certain extend also causing it with their behavior.
If you pee in the water, don't be surprised when it changes flavor.
Karsten
http://www.polluteless.com
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Delay And Deny Posted 9:54 am
10 Oct 2007
<sarcasm>
Yeah, I see your point. It's not like the original marathon in Athens was run in hot weather. Or that some of the best marathoners come from Central Africa.
</sarcasm>
John Bailo
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ids Posted 1:39 pm
10 Oct 2007
I am sorry, but it is not unprecedented for someone too young to die on Chicago streets. 300+ hospitalizations of people who had to run 26 miles that day, do I give a shit?
Two kids I know had breath attacks the holiday weekend, one needed a hospital shot to recover. Those two victims are commonplace, is old news and disproportionately affects minorities, so they are not the story. The great race is the story, forget about two coal plants, bus diesels, loco diesels dragging train lines of coal, all going into the neighborhoods year round.
Heat Wave by Klinenberg is a good read on Mayor Daley's policy and press and administration during the 1995 100 degree heat wave that killed 700+ here. Some people never learn. Don't bother him now, the Mayor is planning the 2016 Olympics for US.
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GonzoDon Posted 2:10 pm
10 Oct 2007
1%? 2%, maybe, on a good day? I doubt any more than that. I'll bet they "don't have the time" -- too busy training for this big race! And, as Karsten has already pointed out, a larger percentage than this probably flew or drove 100+ miles just to participate in this event.
I think marathons are wonderful events. But it should be easy for anybody to see why most people in the developing world -- who may have to walk one mile twice a day to fetch clean water, or bicycle five miles over dirt roads to get to school -- find North American culture to be hopelessly and inexplicably self-absorbed and wasteful.
I long for the day when it will be 'cool' for North Americans to actually use their feet and their bicycles for practical errands, rather than for going in circles for the sake of going in circles ...
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Delay And Deny Posted 3:53 pm
10 Oct 2007
walk one mile twice a day to fetch clean water
People always chide Americans for not walking.
But living in a pure suburb, Kent, WA, I find that even when driving its hard to avoid walking. That is, from my car, through the parking lot to the stores.
In fact, between going from my car to the store, and then walking around in the giant supermarkets, Wal*Marts and mega stores, it seems to me that I do quite a bit of walking when shopping.
I wonder if this applies to other Americans as well. Contrast this to the lazy Frenchman, who barely has to stride a few steps to his bistro before sitting down for a 4 hour espresso.
John Bailo
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amazingdrx Posted 1:17 pm
13 Oct 2007
Go ahead and complain all you want you fat assed, miserable couch potatoes. I'm sure the 800+ runners who ran the 26.2 miles would get just as big a laugh out of your idiocy as I will.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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