Sunday morning marathoning

A superfast runner speeds up LaSalle Street. The front-running women, including Americans Paige Higgins and Kate O’Neill, who finished 8th and 9th. Wheelchair racers roll through Pilsen. Spectators on Pilsen's 18th Street cheer for passing runners. Today I shot some photos of the Chicago Marathon that, I hope, will appear on Runner’s World magazine’s website.

The marathon trudges along 26.2 miles of Chicago streets, through neighborhoods as diverse as Boystown, Chinatown and traditionally Mexican Pilsen.

I started close to home, on LaSalle Street, just in time for the last few wheelchair racers to speed by. Soon some of the fastest distance runners in the world ran past.

It blows my mind how fast they are — each of their 26 miles is run in about 5 minutes. The winner, Evans Cheruiyot of Kenya, crossed the finish line after only two hours and six minutes. The winner of the women’s race, Russia’s Lidiya Grigoryeva, was just 21 minutes behind him.

When I saw them, they were six kilometers in and going strong. Spectators had already packed the sidewalks, peppy and inspiring even at 8:15 on a Sunday morning.

The spectators are best part of the Chicago Marathon, even better than the course’s lack of hills. When I ran the race a few years ago, all the cheering fans got me through, energizing my tired legs with their constant hurrahs.

One of my favorite neighborhoods to run through was Pilsen, with its fried-food smell and mariachi music, so today I went back to experience 18th Street from the sidewalk. I saw balloon stands, tamale vendors and a man dressed like a cowboy sitting on a corner with his pitbull. Festivity was in the air, and most of the runners seemed to drink it in.

I think I took some pretty good photos. Fifty-two are posted on Flickr. Check them out. Maybe you’ll catch the marathon bug, too