Rest day on the schedule today.
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So as most of you already know, the NYC marathon was cancelled. I'm not going to get into a debate about it going forward or not because I see both sides.
What I would say is the way the city and NYRR's club handled the situation was very poor. This decision should have been made a day after the storm. I certainly feel for the victims of the storm(and that is not what I'm debating - they need help and I don't dispute that) but I also think about the millions of dollars runners have wasted on hotel, flights, etc. Had I been there, this would have been a once in a lifetime race - I would not have the funds to go back.
How dare New York City and the NYRR's wait until everyone who was still going to run, make the decision to cancel after everyone is there. NY was always on the top of my list of races to run and I will now rethink that.
What are your thoughts?
Have a great day and.....Keep Running!!!!
Detroit Runner
I totally agreed that they handled it wrong. They should have cancelled before people started traveling there. However, this is a situation that they could not have envisioned happening even a month ago, but there were Sandy warnings several weeks ago, and you would have thought they would have had a Plan B or C to go to if certain things happened.
ReplyDeleteThey completely and utterly failed on this. And like you I am rethinking this because it was the top of my bucket list (eventually!) Considering everything I saw about Staten Island on Tuesday- Friday on the internet and TV I have no idea how anyone thought starting a race in a disaster area was a good idea.
ReplyDeleteThey read the room totally wrong and should have cancelled it immediately. Personally, I don't have any desire to ever do the NY Marathon. City is too big, too busy and it would be too difficult to pull off for me. The Chicago Marathon is closer, cheaper, the city means more to me and would be much easier to do.
ReplyDeleteThey should've cancelled it days and days ago. Many runners probably could've saved lots of money, aggravation and time. It should've been cancelled from the get-go without hesitation. People here are devastated. I have friends who've lost everything. There are still people being rescued from their homes and anyone with half a brain (here and assessing the situation) could see that it would make very little sense to continue with the race as scheduled.
ReplyDeleteThere was no decision to make. The Race should have been cancelled immediately before or after the storm. I have been through hurricanes before - the last being Ike - and a city cannot be up and running at full capacity in such a short time, much less be prepared to host a major event such as the Marathon.
ReplyDeleteWhat's happened has happened and we need to move on. We need to focus on helping people in this community and region. It's true that it wasn't handled well at all but I'm pretty sure they realize that. It makes me really sad though that the runners who did come here to run were treated horribly by many people. Instead of wasting time, energy and effort taking their anger out on the runners who have spent so much energy, time and money preparing for this race - perhaps their one and only opportunity to participate - people should channel that into positive efforts. It does no good. Stop the hating. On the runners and the organizers.
ReplyDeleteGo for a run, let off some steam, then donate some money to an organization that needs help.
I agree with Lisa. I live in ny. I have no power. I have no heat...day seven. I was supposed to race but deferred after seeing the devastation. I think I'm just really bothered by everyone stating that "new York" made a big mistake. Bloomberg made a big mistake ...be angry with him not with ny
ReplyDeleteIt is what it is. It sucks for the runners that made it out there, but there is no way it should be run. There are more important things to worry about. People should just suck it up and move on.
ReplyDeleteYeah ditto. Of course I will weigh in more later. right now its six am and I'm going to run central park instead of the full marathon.
ReplyDeleteI just blabbed away here. http://markmatthewsauthor.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-new-york-city-marathon-year-without.html
ReplyDelete