2026 CHICAGO MARATHON RECAP

Here, obviously Chicago, it's one of the, our three majors, so that's why it attracts a lot of domestic interest.

But what is the international perception of the Chicago Marathon? Just a historically fast race that you guys get to watch in the middle of your Sunday afternoon?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

I, I, I don't know if anyone-- I don't know any of anyone else who kind of pays attention really, like that, that's I think the problem, right? There are people, I know I have friends who are not kind of into track and field kind of on the professional stage, but have gone and run Chicago.

I've got a few friends who've done that.

Uh, but other than kind of people who are runners, I'm not sure it really breaks through in any meaningful fashion.

I mean, it was on sort of the TNT Sports Discovery kind of, or HBO Max kind of platform here, as well as on Flow Track, um, in the UK.

So I don't know how many people were, were actually tuning in to actually watch it.

But, um, yeah, I mean, I, yeah.

I, so I, I don't know anyone else here who was talking about it, I'll be honest.

Um, I was telling my colleagues about it on, uh, on, on my way day, but [laughs] other than that.

Stephen Mills, who's based out of the UK, and he's like a track writer and, uh, fan from over the years, he tweeted that he had a, like, dodgy Russian stream that didn't cut away to commercials or, uh, anything at all, and so they were able to watch every single moment of the race.

And so it had me thinking, I was like, how did that, where did that stream come from? Because, um, we were subjected to, once again, like the, the local, uh, NBC stream, which, you know, we ha- I wrote about this in, in my Parting Thoughts column.

Like, you show grace because, like, you know that it's a local, you know, NBC affiliate handling all the production.

But some of the decisions being made, uh, are really, really frustrating.

And so, um, it wasn't a good broadcast once again.

And I have reason for hope for next year with USATF announcing that the 2027 Marathon Championships will be taking place there, US Marathon Championships will be taking place there, so then that they're planning to bring more cameras.

Um, I think this time around the, the problem wasn't necessarily cameras, 'cause they had enough.

They-- We didn't see the American men for almost a whole hour of the first half of the race because, but they did say that they had an issue with that camera.

So I, last week when we were talking about this and basically tele- telegraphing that we knew this was gonna be a problem, um, it wasn't as much of an issue because we said it would, it was because of the, um, wheelchair cameras are gonna drop back and then we'll be able to use those to catch the Americans that are further back from the leaders.

But this time around, they didn't f- figure out a way to have a motorcycle with a camera next to the top American woman and the top American men.

Problem was, for the men's, American men, camera wasn't working and so that, we didn't get to see a thing for the first, you know, 57 minutes of the race or until we finally got a glimpse of what it looks like to see Vinnie Mowry racing in the flesh.

Um, so yeah.

There, and then it, one, uh, we're, we'll, I figured we would talk about this later on, but we're just gonna get it out of the way now.

Cutting away for the interviews and crucial moments, some of them not even being actually live I later on found out.

Here, obviously Chicago, it's one of the, our three majors, so that's why it attracts a lot of domestic interest.

But what is the international perception of the Chicago Marathon? Just a historically fast race that you guys get to watch in the middle of your Sunday afternoon?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

I, I, I don't know if anyone-- I don't know any of anyone else who kind of pays attention really, like that, that's I think the problem, right? There are people, I know I have friends who are not kind of into track and field kind of on the professional stage, but have gone and run Chicago.

I've got a few friends who've done that.

Uh, but other than kind of people who are runners, I'm not sure it really breaks through in any meaningful fashion.

I mean, it was on sort of the TNT Sports Discovery kind of, or HBO Max kind of platform here, as well as on Flow Track, um, in the UK.

So I don't know how many people were, were actually tuning in to actually watch it.

But, um, yeah, I mean, I, yeah.

I, so I, I don't know anyone else here who was talking about it, I'll be honest.

Um, I was telling my colleagues about it on, uh, on, on my way day, but [laughs] other than that.

Stephen Mills, who's based out of the UK, and he's like a track writer and, uh, fan from over the years, he tweeted that he had a, like, dodgy Russian stream that didn't cut away to commercials or, uh, anything at all, and so they were able to watch every single moment of the race.

And so it had me thinking, I was like, how did that, where did that stream come from? Because, um, we were subjected to, once again, like the, the local, uh, NBC stream, which, you know, we ha- I wrote about this in, in my Parting Thoughts column.

Like, you show grace because, like, you know that it's a local, you know, NBC affiliate handling all the production.

But some of the decisions being made, uh, are really, really frustrating.

And so, um, it wasn't a good broadcast once again.

And I have reason for hope for next year with USATF announcing that the 2027 Marathon Championships will be taking place there, US Marathon Championships will be taking place there, so then that they're planning to bring more cameras.

Um, I think this time around the, the problem wasn't necessarily cameras, 'cause they had enough.

They-- We didn't see the American men for almost a whole hour of the first half of the race because, but they did say that they had an issue with that camera.

So I, last week when we were talking about this and basically tele- telegraphing that we knew this was gonna be a problem, um, it wasn't as much of an issue because we said it would, it was because of the, um, wheelchair cameras are gonna drop back and then we'll be able to use those to catch the Americans that are further back from the leaders.

But this time around, they didn't f- figure out a way to have a motorcycle with a camera next to the top American woman and the top American men.

Problem was, for the men's, American men, camera wasn't working and so that, we didn't get to see a thing for the first, you know, 57 minutes of the race or until we finally got a glimpse of what it looks like to see Vinnie Mowry racing in the flesh.

Um, so yeah.

There, and then it, one, uh, we're, we'll, I figured we would talk about this later on, but we're just gonna get it out of the way now.

Cutting away for the interviews and crucial moments, some of them not even being actually live I later on found out.