Colombian soccer is close. 
I notice that article also says that the reason for the water shortage was that runners were taking 5-7 cups at a time and dumping them over their heads. Instead of being greedy and inconsiderate, they could have just stopped running.
I’m not sure…Wrigley Field would have been a bloodbath on Saturday.
Figuratively speaking, wasn’t it anyway?
I can’t believe George Bush got elected twice. I can’t believe Fox TV cancelled Firefly. I can’t believe the blonde at the end of the bar doesn’t want to have sex with me. There are a lot of things I can’t believe that are still manifestly true. I read Sarahfeena’s post in that sense, not in the sense that she didn’t think the reports actually happened.
Everything fun, interesting, and worthy of accomplishing has risks.
Marathoning is a fun, interesting, and worthy task and it has risks.
Sitting on your ass in front of your television your entire life watching yourself get fat also has risks and costs to society, much larger than the costs of being a marathoner.
A very weak rant.
Yep, and USC’s football team would be down to about six guys right now.
I would have agreed, but…
Yes, thanks for the benefit of the doubt, Miller, but that’s not what I meant. I really did mean that I don’t know what the situation with the water was. As I’m hearing more reports, it sounds as though there was a problem, but I’m not sure what caused it. From the article kidchameleon linked to, it sounds as though the runners hogging water to use to pour over themselves to cool down was an issue.
I think the reaction to what I said is kind of funny, though. Usually, people on this board want cites when you make claims…but when I say I can’t make a judgment about something being true or not without more proof, I’m called on the carpet for it.
One wonders if it was a known condition, or a condition known to put him at risk for marathoning above specific temperatures. It sounds as if his job had particular physical demands, since he was a police officer who trained others in bike patrol techniques.
As for the runners who took multiple cups for cooling purposes, it wasn’t clear to me that they knew that this was creating a problem for runners who came after them. If they did know that, and elected to take multiple cups anyway, then yes, it seems selfish. If they didn’t, then dousing onself seems a reasonable measure for a runner to take during an organized race on an unusually warm day.
I am having a hard time understanding your urge to find fault with these athletes.
From the article:
He may or may not have known about the condition. Calling him a dumbass seems awfully vitriolic for this situation when you don’t have enough facts. Runners like to run, it’s what they do.
Someone should have held a hose to them every kilometer or something. I’ve never been to a marathon before. Do they ever do this to runners?
No, I don’t know that it’s so unusual or funny.
I misunderstood your sentence that running out of water was “unbelievable” and that misunderstanding seriously altered the context of your “how was I supposed to know” response to Scout later.
I understand now what you meant, but at the time it seemed you were, on the one hand, making a snap judgment without facts, and then turning around and protesting that you can’t be expected to make snap judgments without facts. That’s what led to my further query.
I think it is within the general ethos of this board to query someone about that kind of thing (although admittedly I’m not around here as much as I used to be).
I’m sorry, however, that it was merely a misreading of your original statement about what, exactly, you couldn’t believe.
AH HA! Now I get it. OK, that makes sense. Too bad I can’t edit that post at this point, to make my meaning more clear.
For the record…I should have said something like this:
I have heard claims that there wasn’t enough water available to the runners. Well, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know if those claims are legitimate or not. But I do know one thing…if I was running in 90 degree heat, and I was feeling like I needed water really badly, and there wasn’t any to be had, I would STOP RUNNNG. I find it unbelieveable that people would not do so under those circumstances.
I hope that this clears up what I meant, so I can be castigated for what I actually meant, instead of a misinterpretation. 
Actually, the Chicago FD popped hydrants and hosed down runners. In Minneapolis, there were some citizens who stood in their gardens along the way and sprayed down runners too.
It was helpful, but not enough.
The conditions were pretty awful. Today? It’s beautiful – cool, dry, and would have been glorious.
Stupid Minnesota weather.
(note: I had to laugh at catsix’ Roseville comment… Seeing as Roseville embedded into the metro area, it’s a really ridiculous thing to say. Sometimes I wish people picked up a map before saying shit like that.)
It does.
But you know, all this clearing stuff up is bullshit–how many multiple-page threads would sink into simple, forgettable, single-page oblivion if people actually understood each other the first, second, third, or 89th time they tried to clarify? Many an Asshole Doper’s career has been made parsing the everliving shit out of something they thought the other person meant–while in the othe corner, a Professional Victim Doper martyrs themselves over the cruel and perhaps deliberate misunderstanding of their posts.
Let’s not go fucking this place up with all this conciliatory explanation.
Oh, you silly midwestern people, thinking you know anything about “urban areas” or “cities.” Leave real metropolises to the east and west coasters, you quaint little hayseeds.
A fine point, but in this case, I think the problem was mostly due to people skipping ahead and not reading the subsequent clarifications I made…I didn’t get the impression that anyone in particular was trying to nail me. Although I do appreciate that you actually showed me what people were misunderstanding about my post, rather than just watching me twist in the wind. Thank you.
I’ve always thought this place could benefit from some kind of rule about reading the thread to see how it has progressed & what points people have made, rather than reading the first 3 posts of a 10-page thread and jumping in to react. But that’s another story.
Any more stupid than any sport you care for?
I went by the news article that said something about three dozen ambulances from surrounding areas. Excuse fucking me that I am not an expert on Chicago geography.
So, you are cordially invited to lick my brown rosebud.