What a Great Day!

The very best stories as posted to the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon's V-Boards

By Hal Higdon

Almost everybody has a warm memory of running the 2003 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. Jim Cummins, 45, a graphics engineer from Greendale, Wisconsin, ran with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. He decided to do the marathon carrying a single-use camera, so he could get pictures of the group. "Every few miles, I'd dash ahead and get shots of people passing interesting landmarks," Cummins explains.

Alas, while retrieving his gear bag, Cummins lost the camera. Then a week after the marathon, he got an email from one of the group's runners. Someone in the marathon organization found the camera, developed the film, looked up the bib numbers, and mailed the pictures.

"Another reason to love Chicago," smiles Cummins.

That was only one of the stories reported to the V-Boards soon after this year's marathon. "V-Boards" is what I call the bulletin boards I manage for the Chicago Marathon's Virtual Training, an online service that offers advice and schedules for runners. Leading into the marathon, I often answer dozens of questions a day. Afterwards, I get to read the both moving and amusing race reports that come flooding in from V-Board participants. Here are some of the best.

Khalid: The top marathon memory from Mark Kramer, 35, a finance manager from Lindenhurst, occurred on Friday before the marathon, when he encountered a celebrity familiar to many Chicago runners. Kramer recalls: "I said, 'Khalid?' He said, 'Yes?' I said, 'It is nice to meet you.'(We are now shaking hands.) I told him, I was sorry he wouldn't be running this year, that it was always a pleasure to share a course with him, even if I was 1.5 hours behind. He said, 'That is very nice of you,' and he climbed into the elevator."

Fall:: Amanda Musacchio, 29, a librarian from Villa Park, started in one of the preferred corrals. She described tripping on a Gatorade bottle dropped by a careless runner: "I don't remember falling as much as I do other runners attempting to pick me up. I was bleeding, and some suggested I not continue, but I was in the shape of my life and determined to finish." Still in shock, Musacchio admits babbling for the next several miles to anyone who noticed her bloody legs: "I-fell-I-fell-I-can't-believe-it!" Despite the fall and what many considered unseasonably warm weather, Musacchio still sliced a minute off her Personal Record, running 3:36:31.

Landmarks: Alan Headbloom, 50, a language consultant from Midland, Michigan, ran his first 14 miles with lawyer friend Brian Stephenson, who pointed out landmarks: "There's the Sears Tower, where I work. Over there, between those two buildings, that's Wrigley Field. Headbloom admits that after Mile 5, he had a hard time containing his pent-up energy and started surging ahead. Stephenson shouted, "Where are you going? This is a marathon!" Headbloom concedes that his friend saved him from crashing and burning: "I went on to have negative splits, ran 4:11:51 and finished with a smile on my face."

Smiles: "My favorite memory," says Patti Lemberth, 49, a homemaker from Tupelo, Mississippi, "was running past what was obviously a retirement home. The windows were open with no screens, and several very old men and women were watching the marathon and waving. They were smiling at us, and we were smiling at them. I wonder what they were thinking. Maybe about a past marathon they had run, maybe about another event they had done when younger. I thought, I am glad to be here running and not where they are, but they may have been glad to be there and not where I was. Who knows?"

Namesake: Many runners put their names on their shirts, including David Kleeman, 46, a children's media consultant from Chicago. His shirt was orange with "David" in letters eight inches high and a smiley face dotting the eye. At least early in the marathon, Kleeman tried to acknowledge "Go, David" cheers with a smile or a fist pump. "At Mile 10, I did so, then heard the guy who cheered say, 'Oh, okay: Go David in the orange shirt too.' I never did see who my name-sharer was."

Coercion: Steve Shute, 34, a computer systems consultant from Dade City, Florida, found the miles between 17 and 22 particularly difficult. One of the few times he smiled during this period occurred after he spotted two young women running together. On the back of each of their shirts was the caption, "She made me do this!"

Y-M-C-A: Shute was running with a friend, Tony DeSilva, 40, an accountant from Batavia, who had his own marathon memory. At 22 miles, he passed a loudspeaker blaring the Village People song: Y-M-C-A: "It was amazing to see how many of us barely shuffling along still found enough strength to raise our arms to spell out Y-M-C-A," recalls DeSilva

Survival: Valerie Harrell, 28, a business analysist from Chicago, struggled because of the weather. By 14 miles, Harrell had hit her own personal wall, but at Mile 17 she reached the Clif Shot station. Not only were volunteers handing out gels, but Gloria Gaynor's "I will survive" was playing at mega-decibel level over a loudspeaker. "I found myself singing along and honestly believing the words, I will survive this marathon." Harrell did, running 4:43:28, nearly ten minutes faster than the previous year.

Dragon: David Fried, 43, an attorney from White Plains, New York, loved seeing the dancing dragon in Chinatown, but recalls most fondly soon after giving a high-five to a little boy who seemed so disappointed that the runner in front of Fried passed without doing so.

Desperation: Running her first marathon, Oksana McDowell, 32, a legal assistant from Chicago, recalled passing three men holding signs near the UIC campus. "One guy had a sign saying, 'Looking for a single woman, who is a marathoner, over age 30.' The second sign said, 'He's desperate.' The final sign said, "What's your phone number?"

Stripper: Debbie Vickers, 37, an executive assistant from Chicago, recalls spotting a woman who must have started the marathon wearing blue jean: "By Mile 22, she had the blue jeans tied around her neck--and was running in her underwear."

BQ: Like many others that day, Christian Hauser, 31, an attorney from Rochester, Michigan, recalls coming across the Roosevelt Road bridge and making the final turn onto Columbus Avenue. "The feeling I had running down that final stretch knowing that I had qualified for Boston (Hauser ran 3:07:08) is something I'll never forget. It was as if all of the pain and fatigue I had experienced up until that moment simply vanished and for two-tenths of a mile, I felt like I could run forever."

Rocky: For Nicole Falvo, 28, a medical technologist from Grand Blanc, Michigan, this year marked her third and most successful Chicago marathon. "In the past, I had been plagued by going out too fast," she says. "So I joined the 3:20 pacing team to see if I could run an even and smartly-paced race for a change. The leaders were great. Turning onto Roosevelt Road, I smiled and busted my hump up that last rise with my best Rocky impersonation; passing runners with ease. My final race time: 3:19:10 What a great day!"

Pacer: Finishing a few minutes ahead of Falvo were Steve Langley, 43, a contract manufacturing planner from Beloit, Wisconsin, pacing his friend Karl Kleiderer, 36, an equity trader from Chicago, to a 3:15:10 Boston-qualifying time. Passing 23.5 miles, Langley turned to Kleiderer and told him, "You only have 20 minutes to go. You can do anything for 20 minutes"

Goalless: Catherine Kedjidjian, 36, a writer from Deerfield, has run six marathons, but admits that Chicago 2003 was the first she ran without trying to beat the clock. "I had no expectations, no goals, no pressure," says Kedjidjian. But in none of her previous marathons had her husband and three children seen her cross the finish line. "This time they did," she says. "It wasn't my fastest time, but I sure had the biggest finish-line smile."

Questioner: After finishing, Dan Schwartz, 40, an engineering professor from Boulder, Colorado, headed back to his hotel north of the river and had to stop as a bridge rose to let a boat pass. "A couple was waiting next to me, drinking coffee out of paper cups," recalls Schwartz. "The man asked if I ran the marathon. After I answered in the affirmative, the woman asked, 'How long was it?'"

Courage: Tim Rippinger, 47, a vice president for development from Granger, Michigan, also chatted with a stranger walking back to his hotel. Her name was Phyllis Nelson from Edmonds, Washington, and she had battled cancer three times earlier in her life. Two days before Chicago, Nelson's doctor announced that her breast cancer had returned. She ran anyway and did 3:42:08 at the age of 56, fourth in her age group. Rippinger recalls: "As we walked, she told me how the marathon gave her confidence to return home to battle her cancer again. She was a tremendously strong woman, and I was truly inspired from her attitude on life. The marathon is a beautiful way to cross paths with courageous people from across the country and from all corners of the world."

Lovers: Beth Tatarko, 40, a consultant from Manhattan, Kansas, was running her first marathon along with husband John, 49, a research scientist. They started with the 10:00 pacing group, still awed by the experience. Tatarko recalls, "Suddenly, without warning, a man gets down on his knee and proposes to a woman runner. A cameraman appears and begins filming the proposal. All of us make a circle around them. She says "yes" and we all begin to cheer, they kiss and hug, and she has the largest smile I have ever seen in my life. She is crying with excitement and the race is starting. Later in the race when I had a fleeting thought of tiredness, I thought of the excitement of this young couple, and it made be happy. After the finish line my husband gave me the most loving look and kiss I could ever remember. The marathon had been my idea for many years, and he was there the whole way to support me. I hope the new couple feels the same way in twenty years as we did then."

A total of 32,321 runners finished the 2003 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, and every one of them certainly has a story, or stories, as unique and memorable as these.

Hal Higdon is a Senior Writer for Runner's World. This article will appear in the results booklet for the 2003 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.