The Making of The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon
Blood, sweat and tears. Carey Pinkowski has seen them all.
| ILLINIOS
with Bob Richards |
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It has become a familiar scene each October at The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. Clad in his well-worn baseball cap, executive race director Pinkowski waits at the finish line as one of the world's great runners approaches. Thousands of people are screaming along Columbus Drive in Chicago's Grant Park, and Pinkowski, the guy who made it all happen, is readying his one-man welcoming party. Many a runner has collapsed in his arms. Sometimes, emotions run marathons, too.
Chicago is big-time, but it wasn't always that way.
Pinkowski is in his 10th year as executive director and has brought the race "to the next level" several times. After its initial heyday in the mid-'80s, times got tough and the race was on the ropes. One year, the race wasn't held (1987). Another year, they offered $7,500 to the winners. Now, they offer $75,000. The 2000 race offers $450,000 in guaranteed prize money, and last year, actually paid $709,800 when time bonuses
were included. That was the biggest payout by any marathon any time.
"It's hard to believe this is my 10th year directing the marathon," Pinkowski said. "To show you how far we've come in prize money, 10 years ago, our budget for the entire race was $200,000! I remember when we had to wait for entries to come in so we'd have enough money to just provide the basics."
When Pinkowski embraces the men's and women's winners at Chicago, it is the culmination of a lot of hard work by the people behind the scenes as well as the race's winners. A showcase performance is the icing on the cake for Pinkowski and his staff, and sure, recruiting the top athletes is what keeps his blood flowing from year to year. But for months before those special historic moments in Grant Park, they've been sweating a lot of other details.
They include things like getting extra phone lines and electricity installed in Grant Park, or getting the city to smooth over some unexpected rough spots in the pavement along the marathon route. Getting 35,000 runners from all over the world safely through 26.2 miles of your city is no easy feat. You don't just line 'em up and say "go."
Pinkowski likes to describe how he and his staff aren't afraid to "roll up our sleeves" to get the job done. If
you're in his shoes, you start with a grassroots effort, trying to make the race appealing to the everyday runners as well as the elites. Things like big mile markers, plenty of water stations, bands and entertainment along the way, and a smooth, hassle-free course will go a long way toward appeasing the demanding citizen runner. You need to find hotel space, and in Chicago, that is becoming increasingly difficult. You have to
make sure out-of-towners know how to use public transportation and are able to find their way around town.
It all starts with building a solid relationship with the Mayor's Office of Special Events. Then, as Pinkowski knows, you need to work with the streets and sanitation department, the park district, the police department, local medical/rescue teams and the Chicago Area Runners Association. You need to foster a
good relationship with the neighborhoods that will be disrupted on marathon day. You have to placate houses of worship, whose services might be affected. You need to make sure your route is measured and certified by USA Track & Field because of the potential for national and world records, not to mention PRs by age-group runners. And (this is where streets and sanitation comes in), you have to be ready for
surprises like the snowstorm that had city plows out clearing the route early in the morning on Halloween back in 1993.
You also need to forge a strong lineup of sponsors. They want their money's worth and Pinkowski and the Chicago staff at LaSalle make sure that happens.
But it's the competition with other marathons that keeps Pinkowski up on his toes.
There are a lot of big-city marathons Chicago must go up against for prestige and running talent. Boston,
New York, London and Los Angeles come to mind. There are a lot of fast marathons Chicago must compete with, too. Rotterdam, Berlin, Tokyo and Amsterdam top the list. And when there are just so many elite runners to go around, it takes someone like Pinkowski to sell them on Chicago's flat course and friendly people.
It's a process that goes on for most of the year. Each year, Pinkowski and some of his staff visit other major
marathons to promote their package to the everyday runners while scouting the emerging elite talent. These trips have taken Pinkowski and company to such places as Rotterdam, London, Paris, New York Boston and L.A. These trips also present the opportunity for the groundwork to be laid, the seeds to be planted, to land big names in Chicago. Many a moment is spent talking to runners and their agents.
The entire process is something Pinkowski thrives on, and once the blocks start falling into place, success does breed success. Put another way, once something good happens, other runners take notice and want to get on board. Chicago got a world-record 2:05:42 last year, courtesy of Khalid Khannouchi, and wasn't afraid to pay big dollars for the performance.
Low and behold, no less than six runners who have broken 2:07 are entered in this year's Chicago
Marathon. That number could be seven before marathon day on Oct. 22. That is twice the amount of sub-2:07 runners ever to start a marathon anywhere. London had three in April. Chicago in 1999 with two, also is third on the list.
Pinkowski says he looks for two things when he recruits big-time runners: speed and competitiveness.
"If you only recruit for speed, you wind up with a time trial, not a real race,'' Pinkowski says. "You need to
create a chemistry of aggressive competitors with blazing speed. I bring in fast athletes who want to mix it up, be in the middle of things and who want to be challenged by the best in the world. Speed alone cannot create drama, only true competitors do, and our field is chock full of them."
It may not be Tinkers to Evers to Chance (famous Chicago baseball names), but these names are worth
remembering. Call them the Chicago Six. No other marathon field has had this level of talent. After Khannouchi, now a U.S. citizen (2:05:42), come Kenyan Moses Tanui (2:06:16 last year in Chicago); South African Gert Thys (2:06:33 in 1999 at Tokyo); Kenyan Josphat Kiprono (2:06:44 in 1999 at Berlin); Kenyan Fred Kiprop (2:06:47 in 1999 at Amsterdam) and Ethiopian Tesfaye Jifar (2:06:49 in 1999 at Amsterdam).
It was Tanui who got Khannouchi to dig down last year and produce the 23-second improvement on Ronaldo da Costa's former world record. The gritty Kenyan made a move just past 21 miles and incredibly took a 33-second lead on Khannouchi. It wasn't until the McCormick Place tunnel near mile 25 that the Moroccan-born Khannouchi ran down his adversary. It was the kind of running drama Pinkowski likes to
see played out in his marathon. The whole incident also spawned the term "Pandora's Tunnel," coined by 1972 Olympic Marathon champion Frank Shorter, who was one of the television commentators.
Khannouchi vs. Tanui is what Pinkowski hopes for when he put his race together.
"Khalid Khannouchi has set a standard of success that is almost beyond comprehension," Pinkowski says.
"That (1999 race) was the greatest marathon ever run. You can talk about Dick Beardsley and Alberto Salazar (Boston 1982), but there were other athletes who had run that fast before. When you have two athletes that are running faster than any two athletes had run before, it's as good as it gets.
"Tanui throws himself into the fire and is a phenomenal competitor. He's always in the fight, no matter what
race he's in. The two complement each other very well, and I think they have mutual admiration for each other. I think a rematch is imminent."
Building the best marathon also includes women. It's an area that Pinkowski is working on. He wants the women's world record, currently 2:20:43 by Tegla Loroupe of Kenya (1999 at Berlin), but this year was a little tougher for recruiting because of the Olympics. It might not happen this year, but don't be surprised if
Chicago gets the women's record, too. As of now, it does have the North American record, courtesy of Joan Benoit Samuelson's 2:21:21 set in 1984.
But not much of this really matters to the thousands who will spend three to seven hours pounding the pavement. The fact that they know they'll have some fun while they're doing it is a big selling point. The fact that Pinkowski goes out and speaks to running clubs throughout the year keeps the local base strong in
terms of runners and volunteers. It's grassroots, hands-on management and it works.
This snapshot of what goes on to put the Chicago Marathon together can't possibly do justice to the work and coordination that goes on throughout the year. One way to look at the year's race is to imagine a sellout crowd at Wrigley Field lining up and running 26.2 miles. Only instead of beer vendors, they'll be handing out
water and Gator-Ade. It's hard to imagine, but you can see it for yourself (or run it if you sign up very soon) on Oct. 22.
Among the many things they had at the finish line last year were 100 cases of Samuel Adams, the official beer sponsor of the marathon. You can bet Pinkowski and his staff cracked a few. It was for a job well-done.
The 2000 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon begins Sunday, October 22, 2000, at 7:30 a.m., starting and
finishing in Chicago's Grant Park. For more information or to register online visit www.chicagomarathon.com or call 312/904-9800 or 888/243-3344 toll-free. Marathon runners will not
be allowed to sign up for the event on Race Weekend, a notable change from previous years. Mail registration will closed Sept. 22 – one month before the event – while online registration at www.chicagomarathon.com will remain open only until Oct. 1. As a bonus, all online registrants will
receive a $5 discount. After Oct. 1, no applications will be accepted.
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