Word: marathoning
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...these competitive long-distance runners don't make up the bulk of any marathon's participants. On Sunday in Chicago it was the average runner - the man or woman who has trained during lunch hours and is running in hopes of setting a personal best, or as a means of qualifying for a more prestigious race such as the Boston marathon - who formed the marathon's second wave. Numbering in the tens of thousands, they ran through their third and fourth hours (the race began at 8 a.m.) underneath a glaring sun - which, despite official numbers, caused one temperature gauge...
...many accounts, there wasn't just one marathon being run Sunday in Chicago but, depending on how fast you ran, three different races that came to three very different conclusions. By 10:30 a.m., the first contest was already over: an epic, exciting, down-to-the-wire finale in a men's competition that lasted just over two hours and came to a rousing photo finish when Patrick Ivuti (2:11:11) edged out runner up Jaouad Gharib by a matter of hundredths of a second...
...shortly after noon when Schuster crossed mile 23 - on a corner where several hundred onlookers cheered the racers, shouting "It's all downhill from here!" - and first heard the announcement from a squad car's loudspeaker that the marathon was cancelled. As she neared mile 25, she encountered policemen standing in the middle of the street, urging runners to stop and walk and informing them that it was now just a 'fun run.'" Other runners said they were given even less clear-cut directions from festival officials - some runners said the only notice of the race's cancellation they received...
Many runners like Schuster who were nearing the finish line fought through police officials to finish the race; with the finish line almost in sight, they saw no point in stopping. But the third wave of marathon runners behind them had it even worse: By then, emergency crews and empty water cups made finishing the race almost impossible. Brian Hayes, 36, of Springfield, Illinois, first noticed something wrong at the water station at mile number four (water stops are placed every two miles along the route), where he was told he was "too late" to get water. Sweating profusely...
According to official statements and the marathon's web site, the event was only canceled for those who had not reached the marathon's halfway point by noon. But Hayes says he had crossed mile 15 at 11:30 a.m. and was officially removed from the course at 12:04, re-rerouted by officials who by that point had closed the marathon and ran the runners back to Chicago's Grant Park...