Risking arrest, dehydration in Chicago, a defining race

LITTLE ROCK — Chatter on the Arkansas Road Runners Club of America message board about races canceled or unfinished reminded Alison Fowler of the first marathon she did in Chicago in 2007. It was the Conway native and University of Arkansas graduate’s first marathon. The temperature spiked that day, and race organizers ran low on water at aid stations and so stopped the race — just up and called this 45,000-entrant caravan considered a World Marathon Major. By the time word spread, Fowler was at 15 miles, too far to be divested and far too short to consider it a success.

Police helicopters circled overhead ordering participants to desist. Buses cruised the route enticing runners off the course with the promise of a soft seat and an untarnished record of civil obedience.“They were pretty stern. It was pretty scary,” she says. “We were thinking, ‘Can we keep doing this?’ We would potentially have to go 10 miles without water or Gatorade.”

Runners tore off their bibs and kept going. Storekeepers and cafes along the route plied the lawless with pitchers of fluids. Sympathizers wheeled out shopping carts stacked with bottled water. The cri de guerre went out — “‘You can’t tell us not to run. We’re just citizens walking down the street.’”

Fowler, 31, finished that race, then ran 20 more. And four Ironmans.

“Even now, after all the marathons I’ve done, all the Ironmans, Chicago is one of my proudest moments.”