Who You Going to Believe?

The race organizers or your goddamn lying eyes? This ass covering is amazing. You've got the race organizers claiming everything was all fine and dandy:

• Channel 2 - Marathon organizers say they're reviewing all aspects of Sunday's operation and their response to the unseasonably hot and humid conditions. But they defended their decision to begin the race, as well as their decision to call it off[...].
  
  "I think it could have been a lot worse," executive race director Carey Pinkowski said. "If we would have allowed 12,000-15,000 people to be out in those conditions for another four or five hours, I think we would have had our hands full."
• Channel 7 - Marathon executives say they were surprised by the use of water for cooling rather than consumption, even though runners often pour water on themselves as a cooling-off technique. Organizers said volunteers could not keep up with the runners' demand for water. ABC7 Chicago's cameras caught some volunteers going to nearby residents to get water jugs filled.

Then you have the race participants:

• Tribune - All along the 26.2 miles of the Chicago Marathon, similar scenes played out as spectators offered water jugs, lawn sprinklers and garden hoses for hot, thirsty runners. In some spots along the route, open fire hydrants let loose vast plumes of water that cascaded down hot necks and shoulders.
• Channel 2 again - Out on the course Sunday, runners themselves were asking the same question again and again: "where's the water?" In some cases, aid stations had run dry.
• Channel 7 again - [Brian] Mabee said he ran by one depleted aid station after another. Finally, after nine miles without a drink, he waded into a public fountain on the city's North Side to cool off.

But the race organizers say they had water on hand, so it must be true. Evidently, they got their training for prevarication at City Hall.