‘To finish is to win’: What motivates suburban residents to run the Chicago Marathon

Thousands of suburban residents will be downtown Sunday for the 46th Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

One of the world’s premier marathons, it’s expected to draw 1.7 million spectators and a record field of 50,000 runners.

Each of those runners has a story that brought them to the start corral. Here are a few.

Diabetes? No problem

Like many distance runners, Matt Salatino of Arlington Heights loads up on carbohydrates with a big pasta dinner the day before the race.

Ahead of his 10th Chicago Marathon, it’s become a tradition for Salatino, a commercial credit lending officer for Bank of America. Pasta is an extravagance Salatino hasn’t taken lightly or indulged in often since being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2009.

“I’m able to manage it with diet and exercise for the most part, some drugs, but so far not insulin,” said Salatino, 54. His doctor has told him running has helped Salatino avoid insulin treatments.

After joining a runners group out of St. James Parish in Arlington Heights, Salatino started training and built his way up to a marathon. He started with a 5-kilometer race, the Arlington Heights Frontier Days Festival Stampede. It runs down his street, he said, “so I kind of had no excuse not to.”

Multiple 5K races led to longer events until he entered the 2013 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Running went from health maintenance to enjoyment.

“Absolutely,” said Salatino, who again will run in the battered Murphy’s Bleachers ball cap he’s worn each year. “And it’s funny because the Chicago Marathon really is what did it for me. I was bitten by that bug.”

Salatino, whose personal record is four hours, 21 minutes, no longer seeks a finish time under four hours. His goal is to finish and enjoy the journey.

“I enjoy the training. I enjoy the event,” Salatino said. “I don’t have a time goal anymore — although faster is always better than slower.”

Original GOATs

At 76 years old, Randy Burt of Antioch and George Mueller of Bloomingdale are two of only three participants to complete every Chicago Marathon since it debuted on Sept. 25, 1977, as the Mayor Daley Marathon in honor of Richard J. Daley, who had died the previous December.

Their buddy, Henry Kozlowski of Wilmette, 74 — “the youngster,” Burt said — also is entered for his 46th straight Chicago Marathon Sunday.

Roughly 4,200 runners in 1977 paid the $5 entry fee to run primarily along the lakefront bicycle path, Mueller recalled.

Medals were not awarded.

“You got a cup of beer and a pat on the back for the first few years,” Mueller said.

This will be Burt’s 92nd marathon, including races in St. Louis, Nashville and Green Bay, plus the Boston Marathon, where he last competed in 2005. His personal record is 3 hours, 7 minutes, in Chicago in 1984.

A distance runner at Bremen High School in Midlothian and Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Burt had a meal of pepperoni pizza and red wine on the eve of the 1977 marathon. Despite stomach cramps at the 21st mile, he finished in 3:36.

“I wish I could do that now. That’s youthful exuberance,” said Burt, an Army Ranger who lived in Vernon Hills for 30 years until moving to Antioch in 2006.

This year marks 50 years since Mueller quit smoking, motivated by an infant daughter he wanted to see grow up.

He started running to get in shape. Inspired by Frank Shorter’s 1972 Olympic marathon victory and his silver medal in 1976, Mueller decided to enter the inaugural Mayor Daley Marathon.

Though he only runs the Chicago Marathon now, he previously competed in Hawaii, Detroit and in several local events. With a personal best of 3:10 in 1984, Mueller has run “somewhere around 80” marathons, he said.

“I kind of stopped counting a while back,” he said.

Mueller conceded that three-hour marathons are behind him. Training has become “somewhat of a job,” he said.

“To finish is to win,” Mueller said.

Still, Mueller, Burt and Kozlowski hope to run their 50th Chicago Marathon in 2028.

“As we age, things get a little tougher physically,” Burt said. “But yeah, that’s the goal.”

A ‘Major’ runner

Just a few weeks shy of his 76th birthday, Edward Bates of West Dundee has run 76 marathons since his first at age 58.

Sunday will be the 16th straight Chicago Marathon for Bates, who, after running in high school, resumed it seriously at 56. He started with 5K and 10K races.

A December 2022 race in Honolulu marked marathons in all 50 states.

Bates had no time for the sport as a retail manager until he left to become a college history professor. He now teaches classes online for the College of DuPage.

In September 2023, he completed the Abbott World Major — a series of marathons in Boston, Chicago and New York, and internationally in Berlin, London and Tokyo.

Now intent on running only the Chicago Marathon for as long as he can, Bates has had multiple years where he’s run as many as eight marathons. His personal record of three hours, 29 minutes, 30 seconds came at the 2012 Chicago Marathon.

Bates has a time goal for Sunday: breaking 4:30, which he believes would land a top-10 finish in his 75-79 age group.

Being superstitious, he takes nothing for granted.

“I don’t count it till I’ve done it,” Bates said. “I’ve started 76 marathons, and I’ve finished 76 marathons.”