Back in the early days, when the local marathoner was still considered an obsessive nut case, walking was not an option during the relentless 26.2-mile race. Crawling could be heroic, of course. But walking? Most self-respecting runners would rather quit.
Katie Brown, today’s new breed of marathoner, doesn’t care. When she lines up with 40,000 other jittery runners Sunday at the start of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, she plans to walk most of the race with a friend at a 15-minute-per-mile pace. Her personal goal: to finish before the course closes–6 1/2 hours after the start.
Once a long, lonely journey for the truly hard-core individual, marathons now cater to the masses. And many of the participants–especially those trained by the burgeoning number of charity programs–aren’t bothering to actually run.
This non-competitive attitude rankles many athletes and coaches, who still view the marathon as a running race–not a group walk–and one that should be taken seriously. If a marathon is about testing your limits, what’s so remarkable about walking it, if you have the ability to run?
“There’s no sense of mastery anymore, of taking on something and excelling,” said Chicago running coach Greg Domantay, who trains runners of all levels to push past their comfort zones. “People now come in without doing their homework, get it done and leave.”
For Domantay, the slogan “Just Do It” isn’t enough. He urges people to “Make Things Happen.” Others say mega marathons like Chicago’s, which blossomed into the second largest in the world last year behind London, have plenty of room for everyone. For Brown, 29, raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is her primary motivation. Her secondary–but still important–goal is the personal challenge of completing the event.
“When I first started [six months ago], I couldn’t run 20 yards,” Brown said, reflecting on the struggle to jog to a nearby light post. “Two weeks ago I ran and walked 20 miles and it’s because of the coaches, the training and the stories of the leukemia patients.
“Sometimes I sense that people look down on me and think I’m not really doing it because I don’t run the whole thing,” she added. “But hopefully, runners will realize charities are out there, helping so many people.”
The marathon, once so elitist that women were barred from the competition, was the most revered race during the original running boom in the 1970s. A grueling distance on the mind and body, marathons require intense mental focus, consistent training and dedication. For years, marathons have been a measure of how much pain and misery one could endure before a meltdown. And they were completed in about three hours.
But as charities began to adopt races as fundraising vehicles, they fueled a second type of running boom and drew participants with different mind-sets, abilities and goals. The watershed moment, said John “The Penguin” Bingham, author of “Marathoning for Mortals,” was the 1998 Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego. With bands and cheerleaders stationed at each mile, the race was a party that inspired people to smell the roses.
A tidier finish
It was the first event created “specifically for people who weren’t willing to let it all hang out and vomit at the finish,” said Bingham, a major force behind the slow-running movement.
Hal Higdon, author of “Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide,” said, “This generation has discovered you don’t have to bleed from all pores to go out and participate.”
And they’re not. Today’s recreational runners are slower, and more social, than ever. With participation rising, the median marathon time has increased to more than 4 hours and 30 minutes, an hour longer than it was 20 years ago, said Bill Pierce, a professor of health and exercise science at Furman University in South Carolina.
At the Chicago Marathon last year, the average male finisher completed the race in 4 hours and 19 minutes, according to marathon officials. The average female time was 4 hours and 35 minutes.
Training, traditionally a solitary endeavor, now often takes place in large packs with pace leaders and structured workouts. The Chicago Area Runners Association has 2,500 people in its marathon training program, which includes about 229 group leaders in Chicago and the suburbs.
Meanwhile, 19 charities–about 3,000 runners who are expected to raise more than $4 million–are participating in the Chicago Marathon, and the larger ones offer programs to train beginning runners.
“There is much more smiling going on,” said Chicago Marathon race director Carey Pinkowski, who hopes to expand the charity involvement next year. “Do we have a lot more people running with cell phones, camcorders and cameras? Yes. But in 1990 when you talked to someone about the scenery at the finish, they didn’t know if they were in Chicago or Cleveland. Now people are connected to the architecture and the neighborhoods. It’s more of an activity or a happening than a competition.”
Ready to race
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, which bills itself as the largest endurance training program in the world, has trained 600 people, including 300 local runners, for Sunday’s race, according to spokeswoman Liz Olsen.
In exchange for the minimum donation of $1,400, participants receive coaching, a structured training schedule and a built-in support group. Many people have moving stories about why they joined. Others felt the training and fundraising experience was transforming.
“I cannot say if I will ever do this again. It is like asking a 9-month pregnant woman when she’s going to have another child,” said composer Lesley Spencer, 49, who raised $10,201.20 for Team and Training, more than any other female in the country. “But it has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life–and I feel a new level of commitment to help others.”
The charities encourage a run-walk method for the inexperienced participants, many who are tackling the unforgiving distance of a marathon, before trying shorter races. Though 5- and 10-kilometer (3.1 and 6.2 miles, respectively) races are safer and more practical for beginners, they don’t have the fundraising cachet and the daunting challenge that a marathon provides.
“It’s getting more people running, which is good, but these people are not training to run a marathon. They’re training to walk one,” said Pat Savage, an assistant track and cross-country coach at Niles West High School, who recommends a different, perhaps looped, route for walkers.
On summer weekend mornings when training is in full swing, the rift between runners and walkers is most evident. Large, slow-moving throngs of charity runners have become an institution along Chicago’s lakefront path, and in the early days, the massive congestion was a major source of irritation for the rest of the lakefront users.
In races, the problem can be even worse, especially when race organizers give the walkers a head start, hoping to get them off the course more quickly so streets can be reopened. Often it results in chaotic water stations, mixed-up results and frustrated runners who get trapped behind them.
“I think it’s great they are participating, but they have to follow the rules,” said Jeff Wagner, founder of the running team Tinley Track and Trail, who said walkers sometimes mess up races by preventing runners from getting around the corners. “When you’re running 26 miles, you don’t want to run 27 because five people are walking abreast.”
To cope with Chicago’s sea of participants, Chicago Marathon organizers added two new starting categories closer to the front called “competitive” and “preferred,” for those with appropriate qualifying times. Walkers are instructed to line up in the back, and most do. It’s often the runners–the overly optimistic 9-minute miler who lines up with the 7-minute milers–who actually mess things up.
Room for all
“There are 40,000 different reasons to run a marathon and the race is big enough to cater to all of them,” said Mike Dilbeck, Chicago Program Director for the AIDS training program. “The back of the pack, slower runner is accomplishing something he never thought he could do. I was one of those people who didn’t have the self-esteem or confidence to do these types of things. I learned the mind and commitment are powerful things.”
For Doreen Huro Michelini, a veteran runner who hated to have anyone see her walk, even if she was just cooling down, the back of the pack will be an unfamiliar place. But Michelini was diagnosed with breast cancer in August. She has had surgery and will begin radiation two days before the Chicago Marathon.
“Will I finish? Who knows,” said Michelini, a vice president at Dial Tool Industries, who runs with Chicago Penguins. “But mentally, I think I have to at least give myself a chance to start.”
– – –
Why they run
`I run because it’s who I am. For a little while each day, I’m free.’
–Patrick Finerty, 33, of Chicago, who hopes to finish in 2 hours, 50 minutes.
`I am doing it because I am alive to do it.’
–Moira Minielly, 38, of Wilmette, whose goal is to finish “before they close the course.” Minielly had a bone-marrow transplant two years ago.
“Team in Training has helped me reconnect with the beauty that is within children everywhere. My class has truly become the ultimate team … cheering each other on and believing in each other.”
–2nd-grade teacher Jeanne Tierney, 24, Chicago, who will run Mile 22 with her students, when she passes by the school in Bridgeport
Target finishing time: Less than 4 hours
