What is the route record for the Chicago Marathon?
Dizzy and disoriented, his body wracked with cramps, marathon runner Rick Ball threw his arms in the air and howled at the sky. “I was screaming `bring me in, bring me in,’ ” said Ball, describing the last half-kilometre of his record-breaking run in the Boston Marathon yesterday. Ball, who lives in Orillia and works for the TTC, runs with a prosthetic leg. His time of 3:01.50 cracked the record for single amputees held by multiple record-holder Amy Palmiero-Winters. She ran the 2006 Chicago Marathon in 3:04:16. By the time he reached the last two kilometres of the race, the 43-year-old hit what runners call “the wall,” the point where your body – pushed to the limit of endurance – literally feels like it is going to shut down. “I don’t know how I did it … I guess the crowd brought me in,” said Ball. The last stretch of the race was a bit of a blur, he said. At that point, his only goal was to finish. “I remember the huge crowds and they were screaming. I know they were looking at my
Chicago, USA – When asked what was the most memorable about his 20 year tenure at the helm of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, executive race director Carey Pinkowski answered the three World records that have been set on the flat, fast course through the neighborhoods of Chicago. On Sunday’s 33rd running of the event, weather permitting, there may be a fourth record to add to those memories. The Bank of America Chicago Marathon is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race. Beijing Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru demonstrated in that race in 2008 that he is capable of lowering Haile Gebrselassie’s 2:03:59 mark and two other Chicago entrants, Morocco’s Abderrahim Goumri and Kenya’s Vincent Kipruto, whose personal bests, like Wanjiru, are also in the 2:05s, believe that they, too, have that capability. Wanjiru ‘ready for 2:04’, record could be in jeopardy Looking relaxed and confident, Wanjiru, told the media at Friday’s press conference that he was happy to make his first trip to the United Stat
