Monday, October 12, 2009

Chicago Marathon: The start

High hopes--and a bit of nervousness--accompany over 40,000 men and women who gathered yesterday morning on Columbus Drive for the start of the 2009 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. The tall building looking over the runners is the Aon Center, the city's third tallest skyscraper.

Once the starters' alarm goes off--which I didn't hear because I was way, way in the back--the nervousness is shed, along with a lot of clothing. On chilly days such as yesterday, runners will wrap themselves in old clothes, and literally drop their duds as soon as they start moving.

But that can take a while--it took me 22 minutes to cross the starting line. The piles of discarded clothing didn't help matters.

There are traffic jams--and runner jams. But thanks to ChampionChip technology, the clock didn't start ticking for me until I crossed the 26.2 mile rubicon.

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