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2011 Chicago Marathon
A Gorgeous Chicago Lake Front Morning Greeted the Athletes.
View ForumTwenty-seven men and thirteen women competed in the 2011 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, one of the World Marathon Majors, on Sunday, October 9th.
According to several athletes the large number of entries, which included a field of thirteen women, can be attributed to an increase in the prize money and to the efforts of director Carey Pinkowski who has made the wheelchair division of the marathon more appealing to the athletes. The event was also selected by USA Paralympics as trials for the USA 2012 London Paralympic Games marathoners.
Cathy Sellers, associate director of high performance track & field paralympic division, was on hand and profusely thanked the wheelchair division organizers Kim Muir of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Illinois Spinal Cord Injury Society and Larry Labiak of the Chicago Park District for allowing USA Paralympics to use Chicago as its trials.
The men’s field included five previous Chicago Marathon champions: Heinz Frie (Etziken, Switerland), 2010; Kurt Fearnely (Carcoar, NSW, Australia) ’09, ’08, ’07; Josh George (Champaign, Illinois) ’06, ’04, ’03; Adam Bleakney (Savoy, Illinois) ’02, and Tony Iniguez (Savoy, Illinois) ’01, ’00. Three past champions graced the women’s field: Amanda McGrory (Champaign, Illinois) ’10, ’08, ’07; Tatyana McFadden (Champaign, Illinois) ’09, and Christina Ripp (Lakewood, Colorado) ’03, ’01 along with Australian Paralympian Christie Dawes. Ten of men and seven of the women, are students at or alumni of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where they are coached by Bleakney.
A gorgeous Chicago lake front morning greeted the racers. There was not a cloud in the sky, the temperature hovered in the high 60s and there was a slight, cooling breeze from Lake Michigan. Fearnley, Frie, George, Josh Cassidy (Toronto, Canada) and Bleakney settled into a pack and they reached the 5K mark (10:37) with another pack of Ingiuez, and Aaron Pike, Ryan Chalmers and Brian Seimanns all of Champaign, less than a minute behind. There was nary a break in the lead pack until the slight grade on Roosevelt Road at Mile 26 and the turn onto Columbus Drive when each accelerated into a sprint. Fearnely crossed first at 1:29:18. Five second later, Frei and George crossed followed by Cassidy (1:29:24) and Bleakney (1:29:57).
It was not to be a good race for McGrory, who was hoping to win her fourth Chicago race in five years. She noticed a crack on her steering tiller while she was warming up. At 5.1 miles as she took a corner, the tiller snapped and she had to retire from the race. McFadden took charge and held off pesky Dawes and Diane Roy (Sherbrooke, Quebec) finishing at 1:45:00, just 31 seconds off the course record held by former Illini great, Ann Walters (1:44:29, in 1992). Dawes, Roy and Shirley Reilly (Tuscon, Arizona) posted the third, fourth, and fifth best times for the women’s wheelchair division at Chicago since 1984!
Bleakney, George, McFadden and Reilly, based on their first and second place finishes and their meeting the A standard for the London Paralympic Games, earned marathon berths on the USA 2012 Paralympic Team. After the race they proudly donned “London Bound” T-shirts to the delight of teammates and photographers.
This year’s event was exciting on several fronts: largest field in the wheelchair division, the largest number of female competitors, and a thrilling finish on the men’s side.
But more exhilarating for wheelchair marathon aficionados and race organizers was the number of first time marathoners including three women from the City of Chicago who competed. One of those women, Darline Abesamis, is still undergoing rehabilitation following a spinal cord injury and wants to pursue a degree in elementary education. Fighting Illini wheelchair racing coach Bleakney would undoubtedly like her to sport a T-shirt reading “University of Illinois Bound,”
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