Thread: New York Marathon

New York divided over marathon plans - CNN.com

thoughts?

I was thinking of posting this same thing.

I don't think it's right because of lack of gas and supplies in the city. (But in all fairness, I can't fathom how large the city is and whether it's far enough away from the shortages that it affects that)

But it's also super insensitive to those suffering. Would it really kill to postpone it a week or two?

Postpone a bit, yeah probably a good idea. Cancel, no I don't think they should.

What I'm kind of surprised by is some of the residents' comments esp. ones like "55000 runners and we could've used some of your time..." or whatever. Who is to say that a good number of the runners haven't been there with their sleeves rolled up to help in the aftermath of the storm? Those kind of comments are pretty judgmental, IMO.

I think they should postpone it. It may require some work to change the date but I don't think it would be any more work than trying to come up with alternative transportation and all the other problems that are going to come up because they aren't ready. They will make a lot more money if all the vendors and everything are in place and they are more prepared.

I am sure not living there, that I do not understand all of the situation. It seems to me though from the pictures I have seen on-line that it would be best to wait at least until all of the subway/transportation problems are fixed.

They have canceled it.


When you have people that have lost houses, cars, family members it's more important to focus on helping them instead of taking away the services (ie: water, blankets, food) for a marathon that can be rescheduled.

Good call. The reason they can't postpone it is because people traveling can get refunds, refunds can be issued for registration fees, and travel insurance will kick in *if* the event is cancelled, but those kinds of things can't & won't happen if the event is postponed. It can be rescheduled at a later date once the city recovers. There's probably also visa issues for the elite foreign athletes who might not be allowed to stay an extra couple of weeks but can come later on a new visa.

As a runner, I'm glad to see they cancelled the marathon. Yes, it's hard for those who are coming from out of the country. But I think anyone within the U.S would agree with this decision. I just wish they would have made the decision a couple of days ago. What I love to see is how so many runners are volunteering to help with the relief efforts.

Originally Posted by Sapphire Sunsets

They have canceled it.


When you have people that have lost houses, cars, family members it's more important to focus on helping them instead of taking away the services (ie: water, blankets, food) for a marathon that can be rescheduled.

This. There are people in long lines waiting for food, water, toilets, etc. Not the time for using resources (water, portable toilets) on marathon runners. Caught a bit of local news yesterday at work (we still have no power or heat at home) and lots of people are in terrible situations right now. It's not okay to divert resources to others. Plus it's still hard to get around the city still and the marathon would make that even worse. They made the right decision.

I heard something on the news last night, as well. They were talking with some Bay Area runners who had already made the trip to NYC because the race wasn't cancelled until Friday night; these people can't get their money back, cant' get their time back, and the city is a mess so it's not even like being a tourist is much fun. That's awful, really bad handling. They should have cancelled the race much earlier in the week.