Mayor Richard Daley defended organizers of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on Tuesday and said problems from the weekend race will not affect the city’s quest for the 2016 Olympics.
“This is an unfortunate incident,” he said. “That’s all it is.”
Daley said the marathon had “a great history” and contended runners had a responsibility to make their own judgments on whether to participate on an unusually warm day.
The mayor’s defense came as race organizers said they already had finished their investigation into the marathon, which they stopped for the first time in its history Sunday while thousands were still on the course. After polling their 15 aid-station captains, race officials stood by their claim there were enough fluids, despite widespread complaints from runners who said they went without in the record-setting heat.
“Yes, we struggled at times to meet demand, but we distributed throughout the day,” race spokeswoman Marianne Caponi said. “Obviously there are runners who went through aid stations and didn’t get fluids. I can’t really comment on the difference.”
More than 300 runners were taken from the course in ambulances. One runner, a Michigan police officer with a heart condition, died in the race, though the Cook County medical examiner’s office determined his death was not related to heat.
The mayor stood by corporate citizen LaSalle, calling executive race director Carey Pinkowski “very professional, well thought of.”
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“He has done this for 17 years and is well-respected,” Daley said. “He said he needed more water [for participants], but I’m not ready to jump on his back.
“You do that,” Daley told reporters. “That’s your job.”
Furthermore, the mayor said, anyone who participates in outdoor sports in extreme weather has to be responsible.
“You get out there, you have to take responsibility — a bike rider, anyone who does sports outside in warm or cold weather.”
As for the city’s Olympic bid, Daley discounted the notion that the marathon’s problems will have any influence.
“You have elite runners,” he said. “Elite runners are different from average marathon runners. It’s like day and night.”
As Daley tried to tamp down any impact on Chicago’s Olympic bid, race organizers said no major changes are planned for future races, although they’ll always “dissect [a race] and look at ways to improve,” Caponi said.
Organizers consider their investigation into Sunday’s race closed, she said.
Volunteer Sharon Pines said she was surprised to learn race officials already have completed their investigation. Pines said she and other volunteers at the mile-10 aid station “ran out of everything” and had to reuse cups from the ground. They took a cooler to a nearby restaurant three times to replenish water needed to make Gatorade, she said.
Though the aid-station captain might have been interviewed, Pines said, he probably couldn’t have provided a complete picture of the chaos as exasperated runners arrived, some with tears streaming down their faces, because they couldn’t get fluids.
“He did a good job, but there were 15 tables on both sides of the street, and I didn’t see him near our table during the time we were under the most crunch,” Pines said. “I’m not sure the captains were getting the information they needed down the line to know there was a crunch all over the place.”
Race officials also have not decided whether to offer refunds or discounts for those who enter next year.
“We don’t know what form that will take if there is an offer or any sort of perk,” Caponi said.
Also Tuesday, the Chicago Area Runners Association canceled its Friday night “27th Mile Party,” largely because disheartened runners said they weren’t interested in celebrating, Executive Director Betsy Armstrong said.
“Unfortunately, the name ’27th Mile’ is a little bittersweet at this point, for the runners that were diverted. A lot of them didn’t get to run a full 26 miles,” Armstrong said. “We’ve just been hearing from people that they aren’t really in the mood to celebrate.”
The group expected a post-marathon bump in the $40 or $50 party tickets but, as of Tuesday, had attracted only 150 party-goers, Armstrong said. CARA was hoping to draw more than 500 people, Armstrong said.
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