Female mud-wrestling troupe the Mud Queens of Chicago got down and dirty last night at Reggie’s rock club as the Bad Knights (a quartet of what looked like former-D&Ders in cardboard medieval helmets) comically ripped through speed-metal riffs.

Backstage before show time, the colorfully-named cast of hard-drinking Mud Queens—among them Smother Theresa, Twisted Fister, Tinker Hell, and Andy Kaufman’s Cancer (printed on her shirt: “You can fight cancer, but you can’t beat it”)—were most of the way through a 30-pack of PBR cans. However, the troupe’s founder and ringleader Meg Bell (wrestling name: the Fulsom Prison Manhandler) was a little worried. “You can show your whole breast in public, but you can’t show nipples,” she said, wondering aloud whether the girls should should apply duct tape to their nipples before hitting the ring—you know, just in case. “No one said anything about it, so I think we’re okay,” she concluded, tipping back her head of jet-black hair toward the ceiling and taking a big gulp of beer.

Bell’s concerns were not baseless: As the bikini-clad Mud Queens pummeled each other in the ring of mire, it seemed bared nipples were unavoidable. Lucky for Bell and Reggie’s, the cops didn’t show.

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In football, a 24-point win should feel great. But the vibe in the Chicago Bears locker room and post-game press conference was just short of “relieved.” Despite Chicago’s own struggles in last week’s 35-point loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the laughable 1-6 Cleveland Browns were no challenge. But there can’t be much satisfaction in a win against the 32nd ranked defense and 31st ranked offense in the NFL—especially when the underwhelming Bears started out with a trio of field goals.

Jay Cutler didn’t make excuses to the media. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We have to improve in every respect offensively possible,” he said. Cutler’s candor in today’s press conference actually warmed me up to the guy who’d gotten such a bad rap for being arrogant.

Cutler was sacked four times Sunday. Kamerion Wimbley hit Cutler so hard with a helmet-to-helmet block that Cutler spent much of the game wrapping gauze around his bloody tongue. The Bear’s QB ran five times for 32 yards and his own first downs, because his receivers couldn’t get open. That situation is setting him up to take even more blows. So naturally the media kept asking “How does it feel to get hit so much?” After a pause, Cutler responded, “I don’t know about that, I guess I’ll have to see the tapes.”

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I really thought that last week’s loss to Atlanta was about the worst I’d see the Bears play this season. Little did I know that the Cincinnati Bengals had more devastation planned for the Bears this past weekend, as they rolled over each and every Bear for a 45-10 victory. The common response from players when asked about the loss was “embarrassing.” The historically defensive machine gave up the most points in one game that is has in ten years. And to pour salt on the wounds, former first round Bears draft pick Cedric Benson rushed for a career high of 189 yards, catapulting him to the top of the entire NFL in rushing yards…too bad for the Bears that it was in black and orange, rather than navy and orange.
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I was in San Francisco this past weekend, thanks to the kind folks at Nike who hosted a Global Running Summit so the press could preview some of their upcoming shoes and running apparel. (I know, I’m a very lucky duck.) More to come on the sneak peeks I took of some new gear, plus convos with 2009 Chicago Marathon winner (and course record-setter) Sammy Wanjiru and Chicago Rock ‘N Roll Half Marathon winner Kara Goucher. For now, here’s the story of how the mighty swoosh sucked me—hook, line and sinker—into running one what became one of my all-time favorite half marathons.
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Sunday night’s loss to Atlanta was about the worst Bears football that I’ve seen in three years. Instead of a bye-week-re-energized team taking the field, the Bears imploded. Penalties, penalties, penalties and turnovers killed the Bears. The Bears did far more damage to themselves than anyone in a Falcons’ jersey.

Cutler’s arm seems to have beguiled Ron Turner into abandoning the run. However, the picks are coming all too frequently (Cutler’s had seven in five games) as a result of the overzealous passing. And unfortunately, Matt Forte seems to be in some kind of sophomore slump: forgetting to pick up his feet, making little headway on rushing, stepping on his own feet. The Bears are ranked 15th of the 16 teams in the NFC in rushing. Perhaps it’s not so much that Turner has forgotten the run, but that he has lost some faith in the Bears’ ability to execute it. Forte’s back-to-back fumbles in the third period cost the Bears a shot at a touchdown and didn’t help the case for the rungame. And to further complicate things, the offensive line is offering little to no help in opening holes for Forte. Whether it be a running back problem, a line problem or a problem calling from the booth remains to be seen.

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Like thousands of other fans, I was tracking a runner on Sunday’s Chicago Marathon via e-mail updates from “Runner Tracking presented by Verizon Wireless.” Actually, all-in, I was following 11 friends! Unfortunately, the updates at the 10K, halfway-point, 30K and finish line didn’t arrive in real-time. Most arrived in my inbox several hours after the race ended. Now, this was mildly annoying, yes. But if the glitch prevented me from waving and cheering on my runners as they ran by, it would’ve been heartbreaking (for me and my runners). Anyway, like every other fan, I’d pretty much written off this minor marathon drama as a mysterious glitch that I’d never get to the bottom of. But, lo and behold, someone’s stepping up and taking the blame. The full apology from Active.com is after the jump. Read more »

The crisp weather this past Sunday was actually a boon to distance runners —some of whom were even forced to stop prematurely two years ago during a heat wave when organizers ran out of water. But this past weekend, personal records were the rule, not the exception. Our photographer captured marathoners as they passed through the Clark and Fullerton intersection.

Photos: Amy Mokris

I’m not sure Old Town resident Rob Chenoweth knew what he was in for when he agreed to grace the cover of this week’s TOC, our second-ever Marathon Issue. For instance, do you think he was psyched about standing on a chair on the sidewalk, donning a lightweight running singlet and shorts, while pouring pitchers of beer over his head on a chilly Fall morning? But Rob was super laid-back and took the whole not-so-glamorous experience in stride. Click for a look behind the scenes at his cover shoot. And click on to meet some of the the other readers who were willing to grace the cover of our mag. Reader Zach Burns told us, “Why should you put me on the cover?…I’m planning on shaving my beard into a delicious handlebar Marathon Mustache, which I would be willing to do a bit early, should the wise photo editors select me.” Aww. We’ll be rooting on Zach, Rob and the rest of the awesome folks who will run their hearts out on Sunday 11, using the spectating tips and strategies in this week’s marathon package. Good luck, runners!

When we put out a call last month for marathon runners to submit pictures of themselves along with a brief statement in order to have a shot at being included in this week’s marathon issue, we received an overwhelming number of responses from folks involved with an organization called Team M3. Among these emails was one from the Executive Director of MGRF (the overarching organization that runs the program Team M3), Vesna Stelcer, explaining what exactly it’s all about: pairing adult mentors in the community with Chicago Public High School students to train and run the Chicago marathon or half-marathon.

We feature a few Team M3 members in The Get this week discussing everything from their new favorite body parts to the biggest sacrifices they’ve made during the training season. Tomorrow at 10am you can hear about this amazing organization on WLUW’s Outside the Loop as I interview Stelcer about the history of Team M3, the participants and how you, too, can get involved.

If you’re running the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday 11 there are three things you’ve done in the last hour…

1. Checked the forecast at Accuweather.com.
2. Refilled the water bottle you keep on your desk.
3. Checked the forecast at Weather.com.

May I suggest one more neurotic addition to your hourly routine? Check out our just-released Chicago Marathon feature package. We’ve got tons of awesome info for runners and fans. Click through our slide show of elites running for serious moolah, meet some hilarious (and nervous!) first-time marathoners, download the training tunes of the speediest American athletes, find food, drink and party ideas for your post-race celebration and drool over the sweetest new running apparel you’ll find at the expo and online. Plus so. Much. More. We’re super excited for Marathon Sunday here at TOC—and we’d love to count down to the start gun with you.