Dave Richardson was not going to miss the Chicago Marathon.
When the news began to warn of the advance of Hurricane Milton toward Florida, where Richardson and his wife Stephanie live just a few miles outside of Fort Lauderdale, the couple decided to move up their flight to Chicago by four days. Now, they’re staying in an airport hotel as they work remotely throughout the week in advance of the marathon’s Sunday start.
“I’m hoping that this time tomorrow, my cameras on my house still work and I can view and make sure I don’t have any damage,” Richardson said. “And then I can put all of this stress behind me and focus on tackling the 26.2 miles on Sunday.”
With Hurricane Milton expected to make landfall on Florida’s west coast late Wednesday, bringing the risk of deadly 10- to 15-foot storm surges in the Tampa Bay region, residents have been ordered to evacuate, with extreme weather expected throughout the state.
As the last flights left from several major airports in the area, many Florida runners who had signed up for the Chicago Marathon found themselves facing the difficult decision of whether to bow out of the race for which they spent so much time training.
The Chicago Marathon has sent out emails to Florida runners offering them the chance to defer their entry in the race until 2025 free of charge.
Richardson confirmed he had received such a message Tuesday, adding that the marathon was a “class act” for protecting runners in this way. Typically, participants who are running for charity teams — including the American Cancer Society, the Richardsons’ cause of choice for this year — are not given the option to defer entry, he said.
“First and foremost, our thoughts are with all of those in the path of Hurricane Milton. We’re closely monitoring the situation and how this very serious storm may impact participants from Florida and other potential storm-affected regions,” a Chicago Marathon spokesperson wrote in an email to the Tribune. “We understand these participants may not be able to take part in this year’s race as they navigate the unknown challenges ahead and focus on their own safety and well-being. We will be in touch with participants in the coming days with information about what options they have regarding their participation in this or future Bank of America Chicago Marathons.”
Approximately 1,500 runners from Florida had registered to participate in this year’s Chicago Marathon, with deferral requests continuing to be processed, a spokesperson confirmed.
Dave and Stephanie Richardson have been planning to attend the Chicago Marathon since last October — the same month that they ran the Marine Corps Marathon. They’ve had a packed year so far, racing in the Napa Valley Marathon in March and the Utah Valley Marathon in June, Richardson said.
Since arriving in Chicago on Sunday, Richardson said he has seen dozens of frantic comments on Facebook from other Chicago Marathon runners from Florida who haven’t yet left the state. Runners have to be present in Chicago by early Saturday to pick up their bib, which may not be possible for some runners in the case of flight delays or cancellations.
“Maybe the marathon will do something if you have a driver’s license from the state of Florida, they could offer something where people could still get in late Saturday evening,” Richardson said. “That’s what everybody’s stressing about right now, is, will the airport have power? Will the flights still go? There’s always that ripple effect after major storms of cancellations.”
Carla Sieber, 33 a nurse who lives in Tampa, said she is now doubting whether she will be able to catch her Friday flight to Chicago to run the marathon — and whether there will even still be a functional airport in her home city.
“Emotionally I struggle with leaving my city after this. There will be so many people with damage and loss. I want to stay and help them,” Sieber wrote in a text message to the Tribune. “But on the other side, I have trained. I am running for a charity and I want to be there with my team.”
Sieber said that she is “still on the fence” regarding whether she will try to attend the marathon, but added that she will likely stay in Tampa “to help (her) city.”
The Team Red Cross’ charity marathon group has lost two runners from Florida — from the southwestern coastal cities of Sarasota and Cape Coral, respectively — as of Wednesday afternoon, according to spokeswoman Mara Thompson. The team had originally consisted of about 165 runners, she said, all of whom were required to fundraise at least $1,250 for the Red Cross.
By Wednesday, runners for Team Red Cross had raised over $257,000, with more donations expected to continue pouring in through race day, Thompson said. The money will go to the Red Cross’ natural disaster relief work, which includes hurricane recovery, in addition to supporting other services such as blood drives.
Thompson, who also plans to run the marathon with Team Red Cross on Sunday, said that the recent natural disasters of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene have made it “a more meaningful run.”
“I just did my 20-mile run a week and a half ago, and it’s a lot easier to run 20 miles and deal with some of that pain and discomfort knowing that what you’re raising money for is going toward people who are dealing with something a lot harder than what you’re dealing with,” Thompson said.
She recalled how last year, one member of Team Red Cross had come to Chicago from Lahaina to run the marathon after “his family lost everything” in the August wildfires in Maui. Thompson said the runner had used the analogy of how Lahaina’s recovery “was going to be a lot more like a marathon than a sprint … and that was the symbolism he put behind him deciding to still come and run the race.”