Chicago Marathon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bank of America's Chicago Marathon (formerly the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon) is a major marathon held yearly in Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Alongside the Boston, New York, London and Berlin Marathons, it is one of the five World Marathon Majors.^[1] The October 7, 2007 running was the 30th Anniversary running of the race.^[2] It has been run every year since the September 25, 1977 running of the first race under the original name the Mayor Daley Marathon drew a field of 4200 runners.^[3][4] It is among the fastest growing marathon road races in the world, due in part to its largely fast and flat course which facilitates the pursuit of personal records and world record performances.^[5] The race has achieved its elite status among marathons by developing relationship with sponsors who provide prize money to lure elite runners who have produced American and world record performances.

There is no qualifying time to participate in the Chicago Marathon, but only runners who finish within 6½ hours are officially timed.^[5] The race is limited to 45,000 runners on a first-come, first-served basis. Although the race has limited registration, exceptions include elite runners and charity representatives. Increasingly, local (e.g., Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital), national (e.g., American Cancer Society) and global (e.g., Global Business Assist, British Red Cross, Asha for Education, World Vision) charities and humanitarian organizations encourage sponsored participation in the event as a means of fund raising.^{[6] [7]}

The 2008 marathon will feature a new sponsor name in Bank of America, (as Bank of America acquired LaSalle Bank in 2007).^[8] The 2008 Bank of America Chicago Marathon will take place on Sunday, October 12th, 2008. 2008 registration opened to the general public on Feb. 1st.

[edit] History

The 2005 LaSalle Bank ABN Amro Chicago Marathon at Grand Avenue passing under Michigan Avenue (Chicago) along the Magnificent Mile.

The first marathon at the 1896 Games of the I Olympiad generated interest in the sport which led to similar races throughout the most western countries and across the United States. Marathons sporadically occurred in New York City, Chicago and St. Louis with a few runners.^[9] Between 1905 and approximately 1915, a Chicago Marathon (organized by the Illinois Athletic Club) existed in rivalry with a St. Louis Marathon.^[10] It was not until the health consciousness of the 1960s that marathon growth gained traction. Frank Shorter's 1972 Games of the XX Olympiad marathon victory represented the convergence of many middle-class American ideals.^[11] Then the 1976 New York City Marathon, which was the first New York City Marathon to embrace the five borough course, popularized the big city marathon. As the New York marathon began to grow exponentially in the 1970s, the Chicago Marathon was established as a rival to the New York City Marathon.^[3] By the mid 1980s, the Chicago Marathon was ensconced as one of the big four marathons.^[12] During the mid 1980s, it was named America's Marathon/Chicago and opened up the way for appearance payments. Joan Benoit Samuelson described the Chicago Marathon's of the mid 1980s as "The World's Marathon".^[13] The Bank of America Chicago Marathon is an open race with no qualifying time to participate.^[5]

The founding location of the Chicago Marathon is at 214 West Erie in River North.

The Chicago Marathon was founded over the objection of Ed Kelly, Chicago Parks Superintendent who refused permission to run in the parks or along the Lake Michigan lakefront. With the help of Lee Flaherty, who operated out of Flair House in the Near North Side community area of Chicago,^[14] Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's support for the marathon was enlisted. Although Mayor Daley died, his successor Michael Anthony Bilandic approved the race and got Kelly on board. Michael Bilandic, a runner, and his wife actually passed out medals at the first marathon on September 25, 1977. Flaherty footed the bill for the first race, which had no sponsors. He again footed the bill in 1978 when the race was again called the Mayor Daley Marathon. In 1979, however, Beatrice Foods became the first race sponsor.

In the early years the Chicago Marathon was held in August.^[15] It has from its inception with 4200 runners and 2128 finishers been one of the nation's largest marathons. The 2000 running was second only to New York.^[16] The 1979 and 1980 events, however, continued to be gatherings of amateur runners. By 1982, the race finally had sufficient prize money to attract world class athletes. The 1982 was the first with world class times such as the 2:10:59 by Greg Meyer, the last American-born male to win the race.^[17] By 1983, the Chicago Marathon had achieved its status as one of America's most important marathons. In 1984, Beatrice raised the purse to $250,000 ($50,000 more than New York's).^[18] The race had become a legitimate rival to New York and continues to vie for top runners. The 1985 race was spectacular with Steve Jones breaking his own course record (2 seconds short of the world record) and Joan Benoit Samuelson the 1984 Olympic Champion, two-time defending Chicago Marathon Champion and Olympic Bronze Medalist, Rosa Mota and the fourth place Olympic finisher and world record setting Ingrid Kristiansen. Benoit set a record that stood nearly a generation. Although 1986 had 40 world-class runners among the 8000 participants the times paled in comparison.^[19] Beatrice dropped out as a sponsor in 1987, but Heileman Brewing Company sponsored the 1988 Old Style Chicago Marathon.^[20] The race resulted in three women who had been passed over for the 1988 Games of the XXIV Olympiad placing in the top positions.^[21] In 1991, Heileman discontinued its sponsorship and both the prize money and performances waned.^[22] 1992 again had no sponsorship, but 1993 brought new sponsor LaSalle Bank.^[23] In 1994, the race became the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.^[24] In 1996, LaSalle Bank purchased the Chicago Marathon.^[25] In 1998, the race began using transponder timing.^[26] For 2008, the race will be sponsored by Bank of America following the purchase of LaSalle Bank from ABN Amro to Bank of America, and the new title will be in use. ^[27]

2007 Chicago Marathon temperatures.

The 2007 race made history with the first ever CEO Marathon Challenge. The race featured a special competition among the CEOs, presidents, company owners and c-suite executives of companies with at least $5 million in annual gross revenue ($2.5 million for women).^[28] The 2007 race also made history for having three (men's, women's & men's wheelchair) of its four races decided in the final 100 meters in a day of record setting heat.^[29] The race was partially shut down early (after three and a half hours) as temperatures rose to an unseasonably hot 88 degrees, which surpassed both the temperature records for the Chicago Marathon and official Chicago records for October 7th.^[30] One runner died, over 30 were hospitalized, and over 400 others sought medical attention. Marathon owner and sponsor Bank of America, which had just acquired LaSalle Bank, has denied culpability. Similar hot conditions have been experienced in other city centre races. In London in 2003 The British 10K also had extremely hot weather that affected many runners. ^[31][32]

[edit] Winners

The 2007 Chicago Marathon final 300 meters was a duel between Patrick Ivuti (right) & Jaouad Gharib (left). Ivutu won by 5/100th of a second.

Adriana Pirtea (right) had a deceptively comfortable lead over eventual 2007 women's winner Berhane Adere (background) in the final 300 meters.

Year	Male Athlete	Country	Time	Female Athlete	Country	Time
1977	Dan Cloeter	United States	2:17:52	Dorothy Doolittle	United States	2:50:47
1978	Mark Stanforth	United States	2:19:20	Lynae Larson	United States	2:59:25
1979	Dan Cloeter	United States	2:23:20	Laura Michalek	United States	3:15:45 (15 years old)
1980	Frank Richardson	United States	2:14:04	Sue Peterson	United States	2:45:03
1981	Phil Coppess	United States	2:16:13	Tina Gandy	United States	2:49:39
1982	Greg Meyer	United States	2:10:59	Nancy Conz	United States	2:33:23
1983	Joe Nzau	Kenya	2:09:44	Rosa Mota	Portugal	2:31:12
1984	Steve Jones	United Kingdom	2:08:05	Rosa Mota	Portugal	2:26:01
1985	Steve Jones	United Kingdom	2:07:13	Joan Benoit Samuelson	United States	2:21:21
1986	Toshihiko Seko	Japan	2:08:27	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway	2:27:08
1987	-ran as half marathon-			-No marathon-
1988	Alejandro Cruz	Mexico	2:08:57	Lisa Weidenbach	United States	2:29:17
1989	Paul Davies-Hale	United Kingdom	2:11:25	Lisa Weidenbach	United States	2:28:15
1990	Martín Pitayo	Mexico	2:09:41	Aurora Cunha	Portugal	2:30:11
1991	Joseildo Rocha	Brazil	2:14:33	Midde Hamrin	Sweden	2:36:21
1992	José Cesar de Souza	Brazil	2:16:14	Linda Somers	United States	2:37:41
1993	Luiz Antonio Dos Santos	Brazil	2:13:14	Ritva Lemettinen	Finland	2:33:18
1994	Luiz Antonio dos Santos	Brazil	2:11:16	Kristy Johnston	United States	2:31:34
1995	Eamonn Martin	United Kingdom	2:11:18	Ritva Lemettinen	Finland	2:28:27
1996	Paul Evans	United Kingdom	2:08:52	Marian Sutton	United Kingdom	2:30:41
1997	Khalid Khannouchi	Morocco	2:07:10	Marian Sutton	United Kingdom	2:29:03
1998	Ondoro Osoro	Kenya	2:06:54	Joyce Chepchumba	Kenya	2:23:57
1999	Khalid Khannouchi	Morocco	2:05:42	Joyce Chepchumba	Kenya	2:25:59
2000	Khalid Khannouchi	United States	2:07:01	Catherine Ndereba	Kenya	2:21:33
2001	Ben Kimondiu	Kenya	2:08:52	Catherine Ndereba	Kenya	2:18:47
2002	Khalid Khannouchi	United States	2:05:56	Paula Radcliffe	United Kingdom	2:17:18
2003	Evans Rutto	Kenya	2:05:50	Svetlana Zakharova	Russia	2:23:07
2004	Evans Rutto	Kenya	2:06:16	Constantina Tomescu-Dita	Romania	2:23:45
2005	Felix Limo	Kenya	2:07:02	Deena Kastor	United States	2:21:25
2006	Robert Cheruiyot	Kenya	2:07:35	Berhane Adere	Ethiopia	2:20:42
2007	Patrick Ivuti	Kenya	2:11:11	Berhane Adere	Ethiopia	2:33:49

Country	Male Champions	Female Champions	Total
United States	8	12	20
Kenya	8	4	12
United Kingdom	5	3	8
Brazil	4	0	4
Portugal	0	3	3
Mexico	2	0	2
Finland	0	2	2
Morocco	2	0	2
Ethiopia	0	2	2
Japan	1	0	1
Norway	0	1	1
Romania	0	1	1
Russia	0	1	1
Sweden	0	1	1

[edit] Statistics

Chicago Marathon start/finish

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon has grown significantly from its beginnings. In 1995, 9000 people registered, and in 1999, over 29,000 people registered. The 2001 marathon run on October 7 reached its cap of 37,500, which was instituted after the 2000 race drew 33,171 runners,^[33] just prior to the entry deadline on September 19.^[34] In 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 it reached its cap of 40,000.^[3][35] The October 10, 2004 October 9, 2005 and October 22, 2006 races reached their 40,000 entrant caps on August 16, July 14, and May 26 respectively.^[35][36][37] On April 18, 2007, the 2007 race run on October 7 reached its cap of 45,000 entrants.^[38] There was a late registration exemption whereby elite runners (marathon times of less than 2:31/3:01 or half marathon times of 1:11/1:21 for (men/women)) could register until September 1st even though the race had reached its registration cap in the spring.^[39] The 40,000 registrants and 33,000 finishers in 2003 made the Chicago Marathon the third or fourth largest marathon depending on which metric (registrants or finishers) is used.^[40]

The 2007 Chicago Marathon with a registration cap of 45,000 seems to have accommodated about 50,000 registrants including exemptions.

Like most large marathons, the Chicago Marathon is entered by a small number of elite (mostly African) runners, and legions of middle-class and upper middle-class runners, predominantly male, caucasian, and from affluent countries. The largest demographic description of marathoners is of young urban professionals who reflect traditionally middle-class values of discipline, planning, hard work and deferred gratification. The vast majority of runners are not competing in hopes of winning the marathon, but instead are in pursuit of success in competition against their own historical standards or planned goals. For many, success is completing the course with an officially timed result, which means completing the course before the official closing time of 6.5 hours. For others, success is completing the course at all even in 8 hours plus by reaching the closing chutes in times described as walking times.^[5] The Chicago Marathon has never excluded women. Historically, however, the women's field has been smaller than the men's. This seems to be the result of historical sexism as the older age categories have large multiples of men to women, but the women are beginning to outnumber the men in the 20's age group of the field.^[41] The following are statistics for last year's marathon:^[4][29][32]

• In the 2007 event, 74% of the registered runners were from outside of Illinois;
• Runners represented all 50 states of the United States;
• 7203 were international runners;
• 120 countries were represented;
• 41% of the registrants were female;
• over 10,000 registrants chose not to run in the record temperatures;
• 10934 did not finish (many were called after the course closed early for safety);
• The prize money pool of $750,000 was the world's largest marathon prize pool.

Although entrants have registered on a first-come first-served basis and elite runners have an extended deadline, numerous official charities have additional late registration rights to award. The 2007 event had 85 charity partners. The 2006 event raised $9.5 million for charity.^[38][6] Charity fundraising is now closely intertwined with the event as the runners now raise money for research, aid the suffering and heighten public awareness of different causes.^[42] The marathon offers all registrants the opportunity to sign up to run with a charity partner. The marathon recognizes four levels of charities based on the number of participants recruited.^[43] The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society required participants to raise $1400 to be a team member in 2004.^[44] Children's Memorial Hospital only has a $500 requirement.^[45] This program has existed since 2001:^[46]

[edit] Deaths

• 2007 - Chad Schieber, 35, Midland, Michigan^[31] - Mitral valve prolapse^[47]
• 2003 - Rachael Townsend, 29, The Plains, Ohio - Mitral valve prolapse^[48][49]
• 2001 - Luke Roach, 22, Seattle, Washington - Collapsed near finish line. Body temperature reached 107 °F (42 °C)^[15][50]
• 2000 - Danny Towns, 45, Edmond, Oklahoma - Cardiac arrest^[15][51]
• 1998 - Kelly Barrett, 43, Littleton, Colorado - Believed to be caused by hyponatremia^[15][52]

[edit] Gallery

2007 Chicago Marathon banner	2007 Chicago Marathon men's wheelchair finish	2007 Chicago Marathon	2007 Chicago Marathon Columbus Drive start from Randolph Street overpass
Jaouad Gharib and Patrick Ivuti neck-and-neck at mile 23 (2007)

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Cooper, Pamela, "The American Marathon", Syracuse University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8156-0520-X.
• Suozzo, Andrew, "The Chicago Marathon", University of Illinois Press, 2006, ISBN 0-252-07421-1.
• Treadwell, Sandy, "The World of Marathons", Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1987, ISBN 0-941434-98-2.

[edit] External links

• Chicago Marathon official site
• Marathon Info
• Chicago Marathon: What to Expect on the Course
• Charities participating in the Chicago Marathon
• Chicago Marathon at MarathonGuide.com
• 2007 Results
• 2008 Registration Information
• Run for Team Continuum- a 501c3 Charity that supports cancer patients and their families

v • d • e City of Chicago Architecture · Climate · Colleges and Universities · Community Areas · Culture · Economy · Flag · Geography · Government · History · Landmarks · Media · Neighborhoods · Parks · Public Schools · Skyscrapers · Sports · Theatre :See also: Chicago metropolitan area