Disaster, Or Why the Chicago Marathon make me Nervous

I was going to blog about last night's runs and this morning's run, but two of my blogging buddies and CES alums, Lindy and Lou, brought this to my attention yesterday.

I wouldn't even bother reading the article, just skip to the bottom where the comments are. It's rather vicious! Obviously, I was here for the Chicago Marathon last year in support of my former roomie, who was participating and was able to finish the race. I know many people who were not able to, which is sad. And I'm not going to get into it, but balls were dropped my friends, oh balls were dropped indeed.

But I had noooooooo idea that there were such angry runners out there! Not angry about the Chicago situation, but angry at slower people. Just, read the comments and tell me what you think. I was absolutely stunned by gems such as this:

"John Bingham also knows when to admit a breakdown in race organization has occurred and steps up to the plate to make things right. I mean seriously, why doesn't he organize the Chicago Marathon?"
Ah, that's rich. Why, so he can screw up the course measurement like he did in the Distance Classic? So he can make it an "event" for his fat lazy followers so they can act like it's cool to walk and not train for a race? People like you and the rest of his followers should stick to 5k fun walks and free up spots for people who are willing to put in the work and learn how to run. Bingham and Galloway have done more harm to the sport than anyone. It's because of them the 5 to 6 hour "participant" comes to a marathon under prepared. They are the first to whine about how they were wronged if the weather is bad or if someone has the audacity to talk about requiring them to meet a standard, no matter how easy, to earn the privilege to run a marathon.
Yes, it's a privilege, not a right. They should close the course after 5 hours. If you can't walk it in that time, you have no business being out there.
Waddle on for now, hopefully your days are numbered in marathons.
Posted by: LA runner | Aug 21, 2008 10:30:08 PM

Ouch. What a douchebag! And for the record, I don't think John encourages anyone to be fat or lazy. I think he wants to make room for the people who can't finish a 3:30 marathon. Which is a LOT of people. If you've ever read any of his articles or books, you'd know that he completely respects the distance and training involved, and encourages anyone thinking about trying a marathon to do the same. AND I know more than a few people who've managed to qualify for Boston doing the whole run/walk thingy. That's more than I can say for myself. I mean jeez...it took me 5 hours and 15 minutes to finish my first marathon, and I worked really hard for nearly six months, was prepared, and respected the distance. And yes, I want to be faster! But if they'd shut the course down after 5 hours, I would have worked that hard and raised all that money and flown to Ireland, only to not be allowed to do what I trained to do.

Seriously, shame on this person. That was depressing, along with a lot of other comments. Yet there are many comments I agree with, I just don't want to go into detail here...gotta go to Niketown to pick up my race packet for The Human Race. It almost makes me want to not do Chicago this year.