Civiltech staff enjoy giving back! It’s exciting when a person’s passions present volunteer opportunities.
As someone who loves bikes, Phil Hutchinson, PLA, Civiltech’s Director of Landscape Architecture, put his cycling passion to good use volunteering as a Bike Marshal for the Chicago Marathon. The world-class event was held on October 13.
In addition to assisting in the success of the Marathon, Phil’s Bike Marshal volunteer activity also contributes to a meaningful charity. The Chicago Marathon funds the Bike Marshal Program and has worked with Johnny Sprockets Cycling, a local bike club, to recruit the Bike Marshal volunteers and to provide organization and training. In working with Johnny Sprockets, the Chicago Marathon organizers and sponsors donates a stipend to World Bike Relief (WBR), a charity organization that partners with communities in Africa to deliver specially designed and locally assembled bicycles to people in need. Their mission is to empower communities of students, health workers, and women in rural regions by providing bikes as a means of life-changing mobility. The bikes are distributed by WBR and are designed by SRAM, a Chicago-based, innovative bike designer and manufacturer. 
Phil shared his recent Bike Marshal experience on Civiltech’s intranet platform, The Roundabout, and we are happy to share it here:
This year I was fortunate to be invited back to participate in the Chicago Marathon bike marshal team. This was my second year volunteering with this group. The bike marshals work before and during the race to keep the course clear, assist with security and logistics, and provide medical courier services to help move supplies around. Last year, I led out the Wave 3 runners, and this year, I was at the front with the wheelchair/handcycle racers.
Our bike marshal team was expanded this year from 35 to 56 marshals. The increase was requested by race organizers to provide additional assistance during the event, and a desire to keep the number of vehicles on the course to a minimum. 
My race day started with a 3:45am wake up and a brisk ride out to the lakefront where I met up with other members of the team so that we could ride downtown as a group. It’s always a fun experience to roll into downtown at this absurd hour with the race day prep already well underway.
Downtown security is very tight on race morning, and our group of bike marshals was moved around to several different staging points while we waited to start. We ended up staged under a bridge near the start, until the Chicago Police motorcycle cops showed up claiming to be the “real” bike marshals. Their bikes were way louder than ours, so we moved aside and let them in.
A few marshals are tasked with “advanced sweep” and head out on the course early to do final course checks, but for most of us our roles don’t start until race time, so we had plenty of quality time under a bridge next to a bank of porta potties. Thankfully, it wasn’t freezing cold this year, and we had plenty of room to warm up for the task ahead.
Finally, a little after 7:15am the race started. The wheelchair/handcycle athletes go off first, followed quickly by the pro/elite runner field.
This year, I was tasked with leading out the handcycle and wheelchair athletes. Handcycles are a unique race vehicle that’s basically a very low 3-wheeled bike powered by a hand crank. The rider is flat on their back, feet out in front of them, and they turn a crank with their hands that powers the front wheel. The whole thing tilts side-to-side for cornering. These devices allow athletes with spinal cord injuries to still compete, as they sometimes lack the lower body mobility required to lean over and power a traditional wheelchair. They compete alongside wheelchair racers, but are placed as a separate division:
The two top male handcycle racers quickly formed a 2-man breakaway that I had to stay in front of. Their race was full gas from the very start, average rolling speed was around 20mph, and we hit speeds well over 30mph on some of the straights. It was a hard effort from start to finish and also very cool to watch their race strategy unfold as we got further into the course. 
The speed, combined with their early start (they go off just ahead of the pro runners) meant that we were flying through an otherwise empty racecourse and sometimes catching spectators and aid station volunteers off guard. Most of my race was spent riding fast and blowing a whistle to warn people that we were coming through. The handcycle leaders closed a 3-minute gap and caught the wheelchair lead group around the 22-mile mark where they finally eased up. They paced the final few miles behind the wheelchair leaders and finished just a few seconds behind them.
The finish chute on Columbus, just after the “Mt Roosevelt” climb, is where my race ended. I got to pull off and watch the wheel athletes sprint it out for the win. The lead handcycle racers covered the 26.2-mile course in a blistering 1hr:22mins.
After their race ended, I was able to hang around and see the women’s world record get shattered by Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya – which was very cool. My day wrapped up early, and I had a nice leisurely cruise up the lakefront to cool down, grabbed a coffee and stopped to cheer on the Wave 2 and 3 runners coming through Lincoln Park near the zoo.
The following links provide additional information on World Bicycle Relief