Contingencies  

I ran in the Chicago Marathon today -- my first marathon, and a crazy one. The race was canceled part of the way through, so that slower runners (such as myself) were divided into those who were asked to walk the rest of the way and those weren't permitted to finish at all. I got to finish, fortunately, though I walked a big chunk of the race.

I don't have any problem with the decision to cancel, given the insane heat and the 300 or so people who had to be hospitalized because of it. I do however have a problem with the disorganization that I experienced. I was told many conflicting and in some cases not very sensible things by the police officers along the way (they seemed to be the only people in charge) -- that times would be recorded; that no times would be recorded; that the race had been called and the course had been closed; that it was OK for us to continue to walk the rest of the course; that "thousands" of runners were down; that the city had run out of ambulances. There were helicopters hovering overhead shouting down instructions over loudspeakers that couldn't be heard over the sound of the helicopter blades. After I (and hundreds of other runners around me) had been told to continue walking the rest of the course, one of the water stations along the way was completely closed down, and others were running out of water.

I'm particularly upset about the confusion about whether official times would be given. The idea that one could receive an official time paired with the request that one walk the remainder of the course presented a difficult choice for those who actually cared about their times. How could they call the race and then still time those who continued to run? I guess this lack of comprehension about runners' motivations goes along with the following statement I heard, which makes it sound as though runners were somehow being compelled to run against their will:

At around 12:10 p.m., near the 20-mile marker at Halsted Street and Cermak Avenues, a Chicago firefighter announced over a public address system: "Attention runners, the marathon has been canceled. You can stop running, now."