The thermometer at today's Chicago Marathon topped out at 10 degrees cooler than last year's dangerous heat which led to 312 people treated for medical problems and perhaps was the cause of one runner's death. But it was still over 20 degrees above the temperature marathon runners prefer. Fortunately, an increase in fluids and medical aid stations helped keep health incidents to a minimum and the race finished as usual. Another factor that may have kept injuries down is that the prediction for warm weather seemed to have kept more people at home -- the official count of 35,000 starters reflected the most no shows ever.

A Kenyan runner won the men's race for the 6th time in a row -- Evans Cheruiyot, who just competed in his first marathon less than a year ago, finished in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 25 seconds. Fellow Kenyan David Mandago finished second just over a minute later. On the women's side, Russian Lidiya Grigoryeva, who previously won the 2007 Boston Marathon, came in first with a time of 2 hours, 27 minutes, 17 seconds. The nationalities doubled up again as Russian woman Alevtina Biktimova finished second.

Be sure to check out Chicagoist's extensive marathon photo gallery tomorrow. [Trib, S-T, NYT]

Photo by Katie Scully