Distance runners are a masochistic lot. Who in his or her right mind willfully rises at 5am on a Sunday morning in order to go out and run a baker’s dozen miles with a few thousand others? But even the most intrepid ultra-marathonner’s tolerance for pain has limits, and being greeted at such an early hour by a cheesy announcer cheerfully hyping the presence of the Blues Brothers at the starting line is very very close to any runner’s threshold.

Not surprisingly, this race, the inaugural 13.1 Chicago Marathon, is being produced by out-of-towners who’ve apparently yet to succumb to Jake and Elwood overexposure. The Chicago half-marathon universe is going through a big shakeup this year, with a doubling of the number of major races from two to four, signaled by the arrival of two national companies who make a  business out of producing long-distance races in various markets around the country. The Chicago Distance Classic, run each August, was sold and this year becomes the Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon. And late last summer, the owners of the 13.1 series, Dallas-based US Road Sports and Entertainment Group, acquired the venerable Chicago Half Marathon just weeks before its running in September. Read the rest of this entry »