Medill News Service article - Published: Oct. 3, 2001

Runners get high tech for Chicago marathon

By Patrick Cooper
Medill News Service

Broadcast voices, by definition, are calm and composed, rolling smoothly in dulcet tones. And then there will be Ashley McWilliams's voice on ESPN Radio 1000 this Sunday.

Gasping, wheezing and fighting to keep her legs moving, McWilliams will give live reports to the station as she runs the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, advancing high technology's move into a thoroughly low-tech sport.

McWilliams and two other runners will join the broadcast via small cellular phones and give what the station and its partners hope will be compelling additions to their extended coverage of the downtown marathon.

"It's really to a get sense of how the runners are doing," said Karen Lien Miller, a spokeswoman for Nextel Communications, the company that will handle the cellular connections. "To get an insider's perspective."

That perspective will be breathing heavy and maybe groaning from leg cramps, but that immediacy is exactly what the broadcasters need. When facing the challenge of covering a record 37,500 people simply running for hours, having the blood, sweat and tears is important.

"The goal is to enhance our broadcast, to have as many creative angles and technical angles as possible," said Mitch Rosen, vice president of operations at Radio 1000.

Radio 1000 will broadcast the marathon Sunday from 6:30-11:30 a.m. NBC5 Chicago will show the race from 7-11 a.m.

During the 26.2 mile race, McWilliams, along with veteran marathoner and running expert Hal Higdon and NBC5 reporter Amy Jacobson, will give the station periodic updates on their progress, how they're feeling, course conditions and weather.

Marathon organizers picked McWilliams, 25, through her company running team at Ernst and Young, where she works in its litigation services advisory group.

A former Northwestern University field hockey player, she has been running in races since childhood and this weekend is trying to achieve a qualifying time for April's Boston Marathon.

On Wednesday, she said being chosen was daunting but also thrilling. "The support of the community is so neat -- the energy going into the weekend," she said.

Sunday's race will be her third marathon; she has run the Chicago in each of the past two years. She has also been a commentator for Radio 1000 during a marathon preview show that has run on Saturday mornings for the last 12 weeks.

But broadcasting as she runs will make it very different race, she said. "Usually I have to be tough during the race because I know my parents or friends are watching. Now I have to be tough because I know I'm going to be on the air."

At least physically, the cellular hookup won't make the race tougher for her, marathon and Nextel representatives said.

The runner-correspondents will try on the phones for just the first time at a Thursday press conference, but Nextel's Miller said they won't be slowed or weighed down by the equipment. According to Nextel's Web site, the i85s model that the runners will use weighs just 4.8 ounces.

The runners will likely strap the cell phones onto their waistbands, and an automatic answering feature will handle the calls from the radio station. The runners will hear their callers through ear pieces and then speak normally as their voices are picked up by a sensitive microphone attached to the ear pieces.

"It's only going to disrupt their run for a minute, minute-and-a-half," said Tom Smithburg, media relations director for the marathon and a veteran of nine marathons himself. "Our goal is that it's not obtrusive to runners."

The cellular hookups are part of a variety of digital equipment being used in this year's marathon.

Marathon officials will again use the ChampionChip timing system, which tracks all of the runners by a plastic-enclosed computer chip that attaches to shoelaces. When runners cross special sensor mats laid at certain parts of the course, the mats will report the runners' locations and times to race organizers.

Times will be posted on the World Wide Web again this year, but people can also have times sent to their phones, pagers and e-mail addresses. People can sign up for the free race-day service at the marathon's official site, www.chicagomarathon.com.

But if people want to know about McWilliams or the other wired runners, tuning in on television or radio will get them the most information.

McWilliams will be ready to broadcast, she says, "assuming I have extra air."