Our club received local attention from the St. Augustine Record for our participation in the Chicago Marathon, and we appreciate their coverage of our activities. One typo of note however — there were actually 24,000 finishers of the 36,000 who started, and not 4,000 finishers as reflected in the body of the article. It would be more impressive for our club if we were 32 of the 4,000 finishers!!! But — the truth must be told!
CHICAGO The Chicago Marathon, which had 32 runners from St. Augustine, only had 4,000 of the 36,000 runners in it finish the race because of uncharacteristically hot conditions.
With temperatures soaring to 88 degrees, city and race officials closed the course at the halfway point at about 3 hours after the start.
Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said 302 runners were hospitalized with what he described as heat-related conditions.
Chad Schieber of Midland, Mich., 35, collapsed while running on the South Side and was pronounced dead shortly before 1 p.m. at a Veteran’s Affairs hospital, the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.
Marathon officials estimate about 4,000 runners out of the original 36,000 finished the full distance. It was the hottest day in the 30-year history of Chicago’s marathon.
Here’s the rest of the article on the Chicago Marathon