Posted by Monetta Roberts on October 10, 2007 at 23:22:50:
In Reply to: Re: Chicago marathon posted by Richard Leonard on October 10, 2007 at 19:04:55:
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, "RACE WAIVERS AREN'T WORTH THE PAPER THEY'RE WRITTEN ON"? Let me say, yes they are!:)
Au contrarie, my furry friend! Granted, I may well be wrong, but at counselor-at-law told me such waivers won't hold up long against a strong attack---so knock on wood post haste! Most especially when severe weather conditions contribute to the death or dismemberment of a competitor. Let's say the race day conditions directly contribute to three deaths----don't you imagine the race organizers will be asked---likely in depositon---why did you allow this to continue? What's the best answer? We TOLD them to be trained and prepared for warm weather! Of course they didn't say, "....or you may DIE."
Along with the race waiver, there's usually some blurb about the race reserves the right to cancel, postpone, delay (etc.,) the race as deemed necessary. I don't know that this particular registration said that, but I've seen it often on others.
Even though I AM defending the actions of the Chicago Marathon authorities, I am not intending to---I KNOW there have been at least equally miserable (for me) marathons that were not shut down early, but I certainly believe they did what they thought was the right thing to do.
And as far as there being more walkers in this marathon, I've done it three time, and I don't thik there are----I'm not up on the current cut off time, but I well remember it was 6 hours at one time----not exactly walker-friendly, unless you pretty good. However, the poster was right in saying there ARE a lot of first-timers in this one, because ordinarily it's one of the better ones.
Again, our area finishers (and all our area participants) have my sincere respect. There's some sort of formula that says for every degree (F) over 65 you can expect to be, I think, one minute (or close to it) slower in a marathon, because you body has to use some of the energy it COULD be using to go fast to TRY to cool you engine instead. Ya'll rocked out like Big Dogs! Truly.
Mo Roberts