Chicago Marathon

Question:
I am on a training path to run the Chicago Marathon on October 10th. The last time I ran it was a few years ago when there were 17,000 finishers. It was a great marathon. My only complaint was the crowds. Now, I see that last year there were 32,000 finishers. I assume there will be even more finishers this year. It could even reach their maximum of 40,000. Yikes!

I've noticed on the web site that they now have Competitive and Preferred Starting Positions. I would certainly qualify for a preferred starting position, since you have to run a sub 1:45 half marathon in order to qualify. Does anyone know what a preferrend starting postion means? Would it make a big difference on my finishing time?

Since I want to run the marathon as fast as I can and not be hindered by other runners, I'm having serious doubts as to running Chicago. There seems to be several other October marathons that might better suit my needs.

Thoughts anyone?

Answer:
It is going to help but you will still want to get there early. I had a competitive start position last year and it still took about 20 seconds for me to reach the starting line. They don't police the corrals like they do in Boston. I saw plenty of people that really didn't belong in either of the corrals. I ped a lot of folks the first couple of miles and went out pretty conservatively. They have also in years past released the corrals well before the start. I was up in the crowd far enough last year to not notice it, however.

The other side to the crowd slowdown is that there are plenty of folks to pace with and plenty of folks on the sidelines to cheer you on (for those that like the cheering section). The rerouting of the last couple of miles made it much more crowd friendly at the end. The only exception was the hill around mile 26.

Besides all of this Chicago does put on a quality race. The water stations are all very well manned, the expo is first cl (except for the walking) and the crowd is very supportive. I would highly recommend trying Chicago at least once.