Chicago Marathon grows from near extinction to one
of world's best
Nancy Armour for AP
22 October 1999 – Chicago, USA - Look at the Chicago Marathon now, and it's hard to believe it ever teetered on the brink of extinction.
The men's world-record holder leads a field that also includes the runners of the second- and third-fastest marathons in 1998. And more than 25,000 ``recreational'' runners will take to the streets Sunday morning for the race.
Yet it wasn't so long ago the marathon was like a runner at the end of the course: weary and exhausted, barely able to stagger across the finish line.
``I can't think of another race that's fallen down and gotten back up and come back stronger than it was,'' said Frank Shorter, the 1972 Olympic gold medallist and 1976 silver medallist in the marathon. ``I see it now as one of the major marathons in the world.''
Just seven years after its start, Chicago was poised to join the ranks of Boston, New York, Berlin, London and Rotterdam as the world's premier marathons. In 1984, Steve Jones finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 5 seconds in Chicago, breaking the world record Alberto Salazar set in 1981.
The following year, Joan Benoit Samuelson set the American women's record of 2:21.21, a mark that still stands. Jones missed another world record by one second.
In 1987, the marathon was in trouble. Beatrice Co., the race's sponsor, had dropped out, and no one took its place. With little money or support, the race had to be scaled back to a half-marathon.
The marathon returned in 1988, but three years later, it was barely existing. With a budget of only $150,000 in 1991, prize money was minuscule -$7,500 for the winners. Two years later, organisers considered cancelling the marathon.
``It would have been disappointing within the sport for sure,'' said Bill Rodgers, four-time winner of both the Boston and New York marathons.
The disaster of 1993 had one positive. Carey Pinkowski, the race director since 1990, became the race's executive director, in charge of virtually everything.
``Carey Pinkowski has established a wonderful rapport with the athletes,'' Benoit Samuelson said. ``It's a runner's marathon. It truly is. Carey has an All-American running background, he knows what goes through the heads of athletes, so he's able to really be of help to the runners.''
LaSalle Banks gave the race financial security when it became the title sponsor in 1994, and the marathon began its climb back to respectability. The breakthrough year came in 1997, the marathon's 20th anniversary. There were 16,372 runners, the largest number ever and almost 5,500 more than the year before.
And for the first time since the late 1980s, the marathon had a winner worthy of international attention. Khalid Khannouchi, making his marathon debut, won in 2:07.10, then the fourth-fastest time ever and 20 seconds off the world record.
Last year, Ondoro Osoro broke Khannouchi's world debut record, winning Chicago in 2:06.54. Four runners finished with sub-2:08 times for only the fourth time in history.
It's a long way from the early '90s, when Pinkowski remembers the marathon having not much more than ``a couple of sharpened pencils and a pizza.'' The marathon now has a $5.7 million budget. The $400,000 in prize money alone is more than double the marathon's entire budget in 1991.
With 27,000 runners expected, Chicago would be the third-largest marathon in the world, and the field is one of the strongest ever.
World-record holder Ronaldo da Costa is here, as are Osoro and Khannouchi. Catherina McKiernan, winner of all three marathons she has entered, is favoured in the women's race, along with defending champion Joyce Chepchumba.
