While the race commands the attention—this year’s Chicago Marathon had the added charm of a symmetrical date, 10-10-10—the commerce goes down two days prior at the marathon expo, filling the cavernous space of one of the McCormick Place halls. All 38,131 runners have to visit the expo in order to get their bib numbers,  timing chip and t-shirt, the latter of which is strategically placed at the very back of the expo hall, like milk in a grocery store, meaning you cannot avoid at least some of the vendors if you want to get your swag.

Of course, no one really wants to avoid them, so immersed have they been in the world of running these last few weeks. The expo is open to the public but save for guests of entrants, a handful of aspirants and a few freaks, attendants are running 26.2 miles the next day and, in spite of expert admonishments against spending too much time on your feet at the expo, few can resist the magic combination of running and shopping. So what are they buying? Read the rest of this entry »

A rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle doesn’t usually mean hitting the hay early on Saturday nights, but it would be a wise decision for those running in this Sunday’s Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon, which starts at 6:30am. If you’re there to support a friend or enjoy the music, well then, don’t think twice, it’s all right to stay up late, just as long as you wake up early, too—the post-race concert in Grant Park is free and open to all, and begins at 7:30am with opening act Hello Dave, followed by the main act Five for Fighting. The Rock ’n‘ Roll Half Marathon features live Chicago bands for each of its 13.1 miles, which cover downtown Chicago and the lakefront. It won’t be a monotonous run, with music ranging from classic rock ‘n’ roll to blues, jazz, folk music and even Irish bagpipers. Adding live music, says event manager Shaba Mohseni, brings “a whole new meaning to doing a running race.” Last year’s debut event (they bought out the long-established Chicago Distance Classic) sold out with 18,000 runners, and this year’s race is sold out as well, despite adding 7,000 more slots. Last year, Marty Mardirosian’s daughter ran the half-marathon, and he cheered her on. Mardirosian says watching his daughter run, and the title of the race, got him interested in playing—Mardirosian’s band, M&R Rush, had a hit song the summer of 1980—“Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago.” Now Mardirosian will be motivating thousands of runners around the nine-mile mark with covers and original music. Needless to say, you can leave your mp3 player at home for this run. (Ella Christoph)

People get into running for many reasons—health, competition, even insanity I’m often told—but it’s hard to argue with the logic of running for the sake of indulgence. No wonder then that the Hot Chocolate 15K/5K has almost instantly become one of Chicago’s larger races, tripling in size to nearly 12,000 runners in this, its second year. Not surprisingly, the 15K field is quite a bit smaller than the 5K, but the distance is a perfect return to running for those who’ve done the Chicago Marathon three weeks earlier and need a stick or a carrot to get going again. But all runners in this race are unified in their pursuit of chocolate, which is delivered to racers through a rather tasty chocolate-fountain fondue (watching the staff madly unwrapping Hershey’s Kisses to feed the thing was something of an astonishing site) and through a conceptually terrific hot-chocolate booth. (And if we don’t talk about the assorted “trick-or-treat”-style candy-bar distributors near the finish line, those calories won’t count, so we won’t.) Read the rest of this entry »

Walking toward the runner-reunion destination after the marathon, I noticed another finisher walking in the same direction. Her face seemed pained; she looked, well, a bit unwell, so I decided to gently inquire into her status. “Congratulations, how was everything, I asked?” “Great!” she responded. “I did a personal record!” My concerns about her wellbeing clearly unfounded, she went on to tell me that Chicago was her favorite marathon—she was from North Carolina—and that this was her fourth time running it. Favorite, even though she’d been here last two years ago, when the race was cut short due to extreme heat, a turn of events that had been a great disappointment for her.

Her belief, that Chicago is a great race despite its occasional flaws both major and minor, rings true: it is an outstanding race, combing a great course, outstanding fans and crackerjack management—its scale offering resources to focus on details unlike most any other—the bridges are carpeted!—but with a handful of shortcomings, many of them also manifestations of its size (just under 35,000 runners started the race and more than 33,000 finished). Read the rest of this entry »

By Brian Hieggelke

Mile 1
Nike changed my life. Ordinarily, I’m no corporate shill but bear with me.

October 2005, I’m watching the Chicago Marathon on the television in my apartment. Saying the same thing I say every October: “I can’t relate to what they’re doing. I can’t even imagine ever wanting to run 26 miles. Those people are crazy.” October 2009, I’m registered to race in my first marathon, at the age of 47.

What happened? Nike+iPod happened. And I became a distance runner.

Four years ago and fifty-some-odd pounds heavier, I’m at the doctor for a routine physical. High blood pressure. I can either exercise and diet, or I can start the meds now. I think about my dad, who’d had heart-bypass surgery a few years earlier and who’d been on the meds as long as I can remember, adding pills to his diet as quickly as his aging body added maladies. I’m not ready to be my dad yet. My inner self-portrait is youthful, vigorous and thin, like I’d been up until I quit playing football my junior year in college. Up to now, my girth is just a temporary setback. Temporary going on thirty years. The doctor gives me a wake-up call. I’m not in college anymore. Time to change. As soon as I get through the holidays, of course.

January 1, 2006, I start exercising daily. Read the rest of this entry »

What does it mean when it’s easier to run 13.1 miles than it is to get to the starting line? When the race is the Chicago Half Marathon, with 20,000 runners arriving in Jackson Park, not far from the proposed epicenter of the 2016 Olympics, and the CTA seems to be running less buses on the one route that will take folks to the parking-challenged area, it doesn’t bode well for the city’s global aspirations. Oh well, maybe they handled the U2 concert that night better, since the bus rerouting for that event was reasonably well communicated. Never mind that Soldier Field is easily accessible via multiple modes of public transit and offers ample parking. Thankfully the race started late, as cars emptied their passengers a mile away, and hundreds of runners converged on the starting line after the appointed time. Many even had time to pee in the parking lot of the nearby Chicago Park District building, till the park workers starting shooing runners away. Too bad the portable toilets were completely inaccessible from the west side of the starting mass.

It was that kind of day, where the scale always threatened to overwhelm the event, but in the end never did. Read the rest of this entry »

We like the way culture upends the universe’s metaphors. Mother Nature might be in the autumn of her year, but the arts are alive with the spirit of new birth.

Labor Day ushers out what meteorologists like to call meteorological summer, making schoolkids go back to school, closing beaches far too soon, and forcing outdoor festivals to sound their last notes, but it gushes in a deluge of culture too magnificent for even the most ardent of arts lovers to fully appreciate. The full richness of our city comes alive in the fall, even when the Bears don’t have a messiah behind center. Read the rest of this entry »

With the surging popularity of the sport of running, it’s inevitable that events will fill in every niche imaginable. Ergo, a run for the inner (or outer) Elvis in all of us. With an evening start, do-it-yourself timing, a low entry fee and a substantial number of participants in some variant of costume, runners came out for a party and made one. Sure, the 2,000 or so of us crammed the lakefront path at times, but whenever you got cranky about getting cut off, here comes another Elvis, in her sideburns and jumpsuit, to make you laugh. Even the boats in the lake got in the spirit, serenading runners with acoustic renditions of the King’s tunes. At the finish line, the usual assortment of runners’ replenishments, plus Mr. Presley’s favorite, peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches. Then beer and a stellar impersonator, Joe Elvis, putting on a concert in the twilight, with the city gleaming behind him. Before long, everybody was dancin to the jailhouse rock. (Brian Hieggelke)

The Fleet Feet Sports Elvis is Alive 5K takes place each August.

Lined up among 14,000 fellow runners at six-thirty on a Sunday morning, I’m wondering how this Rock ‘N’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon will be “rock ‘n’ roll.” Then the announcer points out a charity runner who’s running for NORML. “Ah, I think, the potheads are here. It is rock ‘n’ roll.”

Turns out the charity is not the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, but Normal in Schools, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about eating disorders and addictions, that communicates its message through producing a musical. And no, I’m not high right now.

What is “rock ‘n’ roll” these days anyway? When I heard that the long-running Chicago Distance Classic, a serious, conservative-sounding name for a race if there ever was, had been sold to a national operator of races under the Rock ‘N’ Roll rubric (the company, Competitor Group, also operates participant-athletics magazines and recently acquired and renamed Chicago’s Windy City Sports), I naturally thought they’d be turning it into a big party. I just hoped they also kept up the racing quality of what had been my favorite local half-marathon. Read the rest of this entry »

On a mildly warm, sunny day on Chicago’s South Side, a group of six avid runners and their mascot dog, Sadie-a chocolate lab and spaniel mix-gather together at the corner of 59th and Cottage Grove. The group’s organizer, Paige Troelstrup, pulls out trash bags and latex gloves, giving one of each to everyone.

The Chicago Trash Runners, as the group is called, was organized by Troelstrup when Jeremy Litchfield of Atayne, an environmentally conscious athletic-apparel company based in Virginia, suggested she start a trash running group in Chicago. This gathering at Washington Park is the second meet-up for the group; the first was last month at Belmont Harbor. Read the rest of this entry »