Kaz - Aye, that's me back home now. If you are looking for accommodation in Chicago I'd happily recommend the apartment I stayed in. It was in a handy location for most things, about a mile walk to the start line and maybe just shy of two miles from the finish. It was also about half the price of any hotels in the area. Like most cities marathon weekend means hotel price hikes.
For anyone thinking of running Chicago I'm more than willing to put together a guide. Just give me a shout and I'll get writing.
Ok, now I have a proper keyboard it's Chicago Marathon race report time.
The race starts in Grant Park, which is between The Loop (downtown Chicago) and Lake Michigan. The start area was well organised and included plenty of portaloos (please take note Paris!). The park is most noted for the Buckingham Fountain, famous for being in the starting credits for Married with Children! What? 
This year for the first time they had split the race into two starting waves. The first wave was pens A to E, a proven sub 4 time faxed to them will get you in one of the first four pens. Pen E is charity runners! They start at 7:30am. The rest all start 30 minutes later, but still split on estimated time when entering. I didn't bother upgrading my start pen, even though my Paris time would have allowed me to do so.
I walked from my apartment to the start. It was bloody freezing. I grabbed an old jumper that was ditched at the start line, and I'm glad I had it. Even with the body heat of 45,000 other runners and supporters all along the side it was stingily cold that morning.
The start is a nice wide road that cuts through the centre of the park, which does give room to get going, but I still found the first couple of miles a little busy for getting into my stride. That may be partly as a 4 hour-ish runner I end up with a few fairly optimistic newbie runners! The first mile of race retraced my route back to the apartment, before turning into the Loop area. The first few miles are busy, but you do them running over bridges and between skyscrapers.
After those first two miles you then start to head out of the centre of town heading north and the scenery becomes more big city suburbs. This section of the race is where I found my only flaw in the organisation of the race. Pen E, charity runners or walkers! Yep a thirty minute head start, but between miles two to five there was a good bit of dodging lines of charity folk that were either walking, or running far slower than the on coming crowd. Made worse by the ones that where doing it side by side. It's was a small but annoying flaw to a well organised race. These folk should just be in estimated time pens, not a special charity pen. It was still crowded at that point and wasn't helped with numerous folk having to try and weave through the charity runners and walkers.
By mile five you enter another park on the northside of town to break up the street running, after you come out the park you do about another mile before turning back towards the Loop. This is both good and bad depending on how your race is going. The good part is you can see the skyscrapers in front of you, particularly the old Sears Tower standing proud in the distance. The downside if like me and you have an injury playing up is that you can see exactly how far away it it is!
You make your way back towards the Loop, great crowds all along the road and a good number of water/Gatorade stations (more than they officially marked on the race map). Also once again Paris please note, more portaloos on route! The crowds really pick up as you enter the loop, and not just as you head out of it going east you cross the halfway marker. It's worth pointing out all miles are marked on the route and they also mark every 5km point too.<
