On Sunday the Chicago marathon (one of the world’s top five marathon races) was shut down, midway through, because of high heat and humidity. The record-setting temperatures of 88 degrees led to one fatality and about 50 hospitalizations.

The heat wave continued through Monday making for quite an unpleasant run for me and, from what I saw, many others at the Amboy cross country meet.

A few weeks ago I was actually looking forward to running in brisk fall weather. Except that I haven’t gotten the nice weather yet. In fact, a record high of 92 degrees was set Monday. The average high for this time of year is 69 degrees.

If you look at Gargoyle photos of last year’s meets you’ll see plenty of hats, gloves, and definitely underarmour. The idea of these accessories was almost unimaginable Monday at Amboy.

Another running-related disappointment Monday was the news that one of my childhood heroes, Marion Jones, got stripped of five Olympic medals after admitting that she used steroids.

Recently Floyd Landis had to give up his Tour De France title because he was also found to have used performance-enhancing drugs. The pity is, it makes it hard to look at winners without thinking, was that real?

I wonder if, and to what extent, high school sport stars use drugs to make them harder, better, faster, or stronger? And if they do — so what? Should athletes not use performance-enhancing drugs because it gives them an unfair advantage? And aren’t unfair advantages the way the world works?

No.

It’s a cop-out to think this kind of behavior is OK. High school sports should not become like professional sports.