This Is Your Day!

Running The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon can be a moving experience--especially your first time

By Hal Higdon

"The size of the expo amazed me," recalled Mike Cunningham, 39, a computer sales representative from West Des Moines, Iowa. "I had no idea the running business was so big. The excitement. The organization. I waited in line to get my number as little as thirty seconds. Every LaSalle Bank employee in Chicago must have been working as a volunteer."

I had asked Cunningham and other participants in my online Virtual Training service to remember their first Chicago Marathon--not necessarily their first marathon, but the first time they had run Chicago. It is my contention that The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon is so unique, so exciting, that it stands head and shoulders above every other marathon in the world. Okay, I'm prejudiced, but the responses from those I call my V-Teamers didn't disappoint me.

"When I ran Chicago in 2001, it was my fourth marathon," responded Judith, Henderson, 46, a software project manager from Denver, Colorado. "The first three were tiny, just a few hundred runners each, so my impressions of Chicago were all about contrast. So much of the experience of a large race like Chicago is the carnival atmosphere: the expo, the bus rides with other runners, what goes on around the race. You can get lost in a sea of people. And yet, at Chicago I had several great encounters with individuals, including folks at the V-Team party, where I had my first taste of getting to know other competitors first-hand, rather than just running with a bunch of strangers."

Buzz in the City

"The best thing about running the Chicago Marathon," wrote Patrick Seidel, 34, a project manager from Phoenix, Arizona "is the 'buzz' in the city for the entire weekend. You have this sense of belonging to something BIG."

"The walk from my hotel on State Street to the starting area was surreal." Cunningham remembered. "It was still dark, but police had begun closing the streets. Every block I walked, the number of people and the noise grew exponentially. Making the final turn onto Columbus Drive and seeing all the runners made me feel like I was entering the Olympic Stadium during opening ceremonies."

Bob Winter, 36, a mathematics teacher from New Lenox, Illinois, ran his first Chicago in 2000. Three years later, he still savors the sensation of standing in the corral on a chilly morning along with 30,000 other runners and feeling the excitement, nervousness, and adrenaline flowing off everyone. Winter stated: "And when the gun sounds, and the stream of people slowly begins to flow towards the starting line, starting your journey down Columbus Drive with music blaring over loudspeakers, and you hear the 'beep' of your chip as you cross the first mat, nothing else quite compares to it."

Kathy Sperlo, 46, a director of special events from St. Louis, Missouri, had done all her training alone while preparing for Chicago in 2001. "Even though I heard the crowds were fantastic, until I experienced it myself I could not believe the magnitude of spectator support," she remembered. "The first eight miles flew by without my even realizing I was running because I was awestruck by the numbers and the noise of the spectators. They were all ages, sizes, nationalities."

Elise Dayan, 36, a creative director at an advertising agency who lives in Highland Park, Illinois ran her first Chicago Marathon in 1997. Her best memory is running on Grand Street beneath the Michigan Avenue underpass. "Everyone started to yell," she recalled. "What a rush and inspiration. I thought, all those people got up early on a Sunday morning just to cheer us! I wore a shirt that said, 'Go, Elise, Go!" and throughout the entire 26.2 miles, strangers shouted my name. I also remember being amazed at the city I live in. I had never been to some of these neighborhoods, and to see them for the first time was fantastic, especially Chinatown with six Asian women singing Chinese songs."

So far to go

"During the early part of the race," Patrick Seidel remembers, "a spectator was shouting encouragement to the runners. As I ran by, she said 'Great job! Keep it up! You're almost there!' Then she turned to her friend and said, 'They have so far to go.'"

One point on the course Bob Winter remembered best was the corner of Belmont and Broadway, a half dozen miles into the race: "Coming out of Lincoln Park, there seems to be a quiet zone as you turn onto Belmont. But as you approach Broadway, the crowds get larger, the noise gets louder. Making that turn, with people eight to ten deep on the corner and hearing them roar with encouragement almost brought tears to my eyes."

"I had put my name on my shirt with electrical tape," recalled Tracy Musacchio, 26, a graduate student from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "It was energizing, hearing everyone yell 'Go Tracy!' for 26.2 miles. Around mile 9, I heard a runner behind say, "Tracy? Is that you?" It was a friend from high school, who had been extremely supportive when I started running. Neither of us knew the other was running Chicago. We ran together for quite some time catching up on gossip and enjoying each other's company."

Won Il Kim, 40, an electrical engineer from Bartlett, Illinois, attended a lecture by race director Carey Pinkowski, in which Pinkowski described the course. Wrote Kim: "Carey explained that you first run north and when you turn around, you can see the Sears Tower in front of you. The same happens when you run west and turn around. And south, then turn around. That's exactly what I saw, and it amazed me at the distance I was effortlessly covering every time I saw the Sears Tower."

Brenda Koehler remembers Elvis singing, the long dragon in Chinatown, sliding through the banana station's goop, and beer being handed out at mile 21. "These are things that only participants can see and experience," claims Koehler.

Just before Mile 21 on a stretch with fewer spectators, a woman standing alone looked Kathy Sperlo in the eye and said: "This is your day!" That simple declaration carried Sperlo through the next 5.2 miles. "It really was my day," said Sperlo.

They cheered me

David Kleeman, 46, a children's media consultant from Chicago, recalled turning at 31st Street onto Lake Shore Drive near Mile 23 and seeing his wife and two children: "They cheered me, then took off on bicycles. As I came down Columbus Drive with tens of thousands of spectators cheering, somehow I heard one familiar voice, looked over and three rows back on my wife's shoulders was my daughter. That was all I needed to be able to sprint the last 200 yards."

"Approaching the 26-mile marker, I didn't think I had any more to give," recalls Patrick Seidel. "Then I saw the bleachers on both sides jammed with cheering people. Something took over. I still don't know where that energy came from. The feeling running that last two-tenths of a mile is beyond words."

Michele Keane, 41, a chemical engineer from Atlanta, Georgia, ran Chicago in the year 2000 after a thirteen-year hiatus from marathon running. (Her all-time best is 2:58.) Even though Keane had participated many times in the 50,000-competitor Peachtree Road Race in her home town, she was stunned not only by the number of runners in the Chicago Marathon, but also the number of spectators. "It was one of the best marathon experiences that I ever had," said Keane, "but of course, I finished the race by saying 'Never again!'" (Keane is entered to run Chicago again this year!)

"My first marathon was Chicago 1998," says Lori Hauswirth, 39, a city treasurer from Merrill, Wisconsin, "and it was one of the most awesome things I ever have done. I rank it right up there with childbirth. Sometimes it could be exhausting and painful, but the second you see that finish line, the feeling of such an accomplishment is very powerful. I expressed this emotion by bawling my eyes out for quite some time while cooling down after the race. I have finished four more marathons since my first, and each was different. I've helped train two more friends, and sharing first-time experience with them is amazing."

Personal moments

Memories lingered long after the return home. Judith Henderson remembered a few personal moments: "A kind woman ran up to me and offered a ponytail holder when mine had gone flying as I discarded my long-sleeved shirt in Lincoln Park. And the kindness and personal attention of the volunteers who placed the medal around my neck and who cut the chip from my shoe at the finish area."

Liz Reichman, 41, a housewife from Columbus, Ohio, says: "Afterwards, walking the streets, finding them full of runners with medals and space blankets. For hours! The town had been taken over by marathoners. Happy, limping, having a hard time walking up and down curbs: marathoners."

"Even the post-race party at Navy Pier was spectacular," says Kathy Graeber, 46, a secretary from San Bernardino, California. "The video of the race, a chance to see the winners, swapping stories and people from the Marathon Office going around with palm pilots, so that you could find out your official time as well as that of your friends."

"At the airport, seeing other runners walking around wearing their medal makes you feel like you're part of this special group of people," said Patrick Seidel. "Nothing needs to be said. Eye contact does it: 'Congratulations.'"

Shirley Kussner, a housewife from Oxford, Michigan, was 65 when she ran her first Chicago in 2002 in what she calls a "family affair." She ran the race with her husband, their daughter, her husband, his sister and brother-in-law. "To top it all," Kussner wrote to the V-Boards, "I set a Personal Record and got fifth place in my age group. I didn't know that until the medal came in the mail months later. I find myself often reliving the dream."

For many of us, coming to Chicago and running the marathon is a dream. Good luck to all of you, and it is your day!

Hal Higdon is a Senior Writer for Runner's World. This article originally appeared in the program for the 2003 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.