EDITORIAL: Chicago Marathon . . . my kind of race
On Sunday we were at the Chicago Marathon, one of a handful of major marathons in the entire world. My wife is a runner, and her finishing times in other marathons allowed her to qualify. It’s something she has been working hard at for many years now, and it is quite a marvel of willpower.
There are almost 10 million people in Greater Chicago, and its airport, O’Hare, is larger than most municipalities in Alberta at over 7,600 acres. The land mass containing Chicago is over 28,000 square kms. So yeah, it’s big.
It’s also intimidating when you are from a nice quiet Alberta town and suddenly plunged into one of the largest cities in the United States. The weekend before we came, there were eight murders in Chicago. Of course Chicago has a history of crime, and we were excited to take the Untouchables Gangster Tour while there.
The guides took us on a historical trek of the comings and goings of people like Al Capone and drove us past the site of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Somehow they wove humour into these criminal tales, which made it so much fun.
On race day, we followed the masses to Grant Park where runners from all over the world found their corrals and checked in. Non-runners like me, escorted their spouses to the race site, which was quite a walk in itself. All in all there were hundreds of thousands of people along the route cheering wildly for the 45,000 strangers running in the race. As is the case in today’s screwed up world, the police presence was immense. Chicago Police, the US Military, Homeland Security, helicopters, cars, and bicycle cops were all there protecting everyone. . . . contd.
