I can't believe they've cancelled the NYC Marathon! By waiting so long
to cancel, the many people who had already traveled such long distances in
order to compete in one of the world's great endurance events have now arrived to ...? Personally, I think going ahead with the race would
have been a great way to signal to the world that NYC was recovering
yet still able to showcase a world-class event.
NYC Road Runners could have done a better job of getting thousands of caring and concerned athletes in volunteer positions during the week, providing work many athletes I'm sure would have been willing and able to do. Instead, my sense is that there was a growing groundswell of opinion that the marathon was an elite event out of touch with the concerns and real needs of at least some of the rest of the city. But I think this misses the point - and the opportunities.
If I may be so bold, Kona's Ironman is an elite event that is increasingly out of touch with its locale, and if a similar event were to befall the Kohala Coast and Ironman officials had to consider cancelling the Ironman, through chats and conversations I recently had with a number of disgruntled Kona residents, I could see how many of the locals would be just as happy to see Ironman go away for a year, if not forever. Kona is an elite event that gives every indication of becoming only more elite and exclusive in the years ahead (more on this topic soon). Ironically, the very very argument Ironman folks made in 1982 justifying their move from Oahu for the then more expansive and inviting venue offered by the Big Island could be used by Kona locals today. Based on the name, maybe they should consider moving the event to the town of Ford?
The NYC Marathon is vastly different. Rather than 2,000 triathletes, it welcomes nearly 50,000 runners, many of them decidedly fair to middling as athletes, nearly half of them from the burroughs of self-same NYC. While Kona disallows local viewers from all but a but a small portion of the race, NYC's marathon is watched live, race-side, by millions of supportive and wildly cheering folks, and generates incalculable good will and memories. It isn't necessarily an event you want to cancel - unless the event gets politicized and its relevance distorted which, unfortunately, would appear to be the case today. And while Kona continues to separate world-class from world-class by allowing the professionals to start earlier than - which is to say apart from - the many very fast and able age-groupers present, NYC allows a common bloke like me to line up directly behind the Kenyans and Ethiopians, crossing the start line only moments after they do and experiencing the race as they do (albeit at a slower pace!).
Granted, Mayor Bloomberg had to make a very tough decision, and I know he must be aware of various details he can't, or won't, make public, but the more I find out about today's decision the more it seems to smack of posturing and smell of preening. With millions of folks watching live and tens of thousands more volunteering (or, let's not forget, getting excellent overtime pay as police, etc.), I think a marathon tomorrow could have been a great signal to the world that NYC can take a hit and get right back up. In truth, some of the challenges that a distinct minority of east coasters have felt this past week are the daily realities for tens/hundreds of millions of folks, more than a number of whom live in countries that host world-class events on at least a sometimes basis - like India did with its recent hosting of the Commonwealth Games.
At least with an event like the marathon, Regular Joes and Janes of the sports world get to toe the line with the immortals running the sub-2:10 marathons. With professional sports, on the other hand, cities increasingly have to pay ridiculous money to build and maintain venues in which the (increasingly only wealthy) citizens only get to watch athletes entertain/compete. The Knicks played last night at Madison Square Garden and the Nets play tonight in their new home in Brooklyn. To my knowledge, no one was/is asking them to cancel their events. I'd be interested to know how many other professional sporting events got canceled in the NYC region through this weekend. Each requires a fair amount of emergency/traffic personnel, and, as more than one economist has noted, the economies of elite professional sports don't have nearly the broad brush trickle-down effect a 50,000 strong marathon has.
I'm bummed (in case you couldn't tell!), especially for the athletes who just traveled a very long distance to fulfill a dream, only to find their hopes dashed. I was one of those athletes traveling a very long distance just last year, and not once but twice, to Port Elizabeth and then Kona, both times from Saudi Arabia, and I can tell you I'd have been particularly upset had either race been cancelled for the reasons I've at least been able to read about related to NYC Marathon's demise this year.
No one wants to promote suffering and loss of life, but the truth is most of the folks who ended up losing their lives during Sandy failed to take the precautionary steps advised repeatedly by local officials. In addition, many of the homes destroyed were built on low-lying, fragile, coastal regions; statistically, these venues have a much greater chance of experiencing the kind of devastating damage they did, and with global warming/climate change it was mathematically only a matter of time before they did.
Concern was voiced about possibly having to force flood victims out of temporary hotel rooms so that 20,000 or so out of town athletes would have places to stay - before any mention was made about how social media could possibly easily have solved the housing problem through quick apartment shares/extra room donations and such. I'm willing to bet the NYC Road Runners Club, et al., could have solved the housing problem quickly with its members' Twitter and Facebook accounts. As for the lack of electricity and gas to many NYC residents, I'm not sure how a Sunday morning marathon is especially relevant. Most emergency crews are already on location, hard at work; many problems have been solved, or will have been by Sunday. Hardly anyone is reporting to work on a Sunday morning. Unlike Ironman, roads are truly shut down for just a few hours, and even at Kona with its one major north/south road, emergency vehicles can get up and down the coast if need be during the race.
We used to be a scrappy and plucky nation. Now we seem scared of our shadows, too worried about our images, excessively concerned about what others might think. As if the nauseatingly too long and expensive national election weren't enough, now we have to throw in a perfectly good and decent marathon to the political mix just to placate a few potential voters. Opportunity lost. As a former NYC resident and NYC Marathon runner, my heartfelt apologies to all those who were inconvenienced by this very late and unfortunate decision. I must disagree with the mayor (and especially his handlers) on this one.
David Evans
2:29 Marathon P.R.
1989 NYC Marathon
Top Manhattan finisher
12th American
NYC Road Runners could have done a better job of getting thousands of caring and concerned athletes in volunteer positions during the week, providing work many athletes I'm sure would have been willing and able to do. Instead, my sense is that there was a growing groundswell of opinion that the marathon was an elite event out of touch with the concerns and real needs of at least some of the rest of the city. But I think this misses the point - and the opportunities.
If I may be so bold, Kona's Ironman is an elite event that is increasingly out of touch with its locale, and if a similar event were to befall the Kohala Coast and Ironman officials had to consider cancelling the Ironman, through chats and conversations I recently had with a number of disgruntled Kona residents, I could see how many of the locals would be just as happy to see Ironman go away for a year, if not forever. Kona is an elite event that gives every indication of becoming only more elite and exclusive in the years ahead (more on this topic soon). Ironically, the very very argument Ironman folks made in 1982 justifying their move from Oahu for the then more expansive and inviting venue offered by the Big Island could be used by Kona locals today. Based on the name, maybe they should consider moving the event to the town of Ford?
The NYC Marathon is vastly different. Rather than 2,000 triathletes, it welcomes nearly 50,000 runners, many of them decidedly fair to middling as athletes, nearly half of them from the burroughs of self-same NYC. While Kona disallows local viewers from all but a but a small portion of the race, NYC's marathon is watched live, race-side, by millions of supportive and wildly cheering folks, and generates incalculable good will and memories. It isn't necessarily an event you want to cancel - unless the event gets politicized and its relevance distorted which, unfortunately, would appear to be the case today. And while Kona continues to separate world-class from world-class by allowing the professionals to start earlier than - which is to say apart from - the many very fast and able age-groupers present, NYC allows a common bloke like me to line up directly behind the Kenyans and Ethiopians, crossing the start line only moments after they do and experiencing the race as they do (albeit at a slower pace!).
Granted, Mayor Bloomberg had to make a very tough decision, and I know he must be aware of various details he can't, or won't, make public, but the more I find out about today's decision the more it seems to smack of posturing and smell of preening. With millions of folks watching live and tens of thousands more volunteering (or, let's not forget, getting excellent overtime pay as police, etc.), I think a marathon tomorrow could have been a great signal to the world that NYC can take a hit and get right back up. In truth, some of the challenges that a distinct minority of east coasters have felt this past week are the daily realities for tens/hundreds of millions of folks, more than a number of whom live in countries that host world-class events on at least a sometimes basis - like India did with its recent hosting of the Commonwealth Games.
At least with an event like the marathon, Regular Joes and Janes of the sports world get to toe the line with the immortals running the sub-2:10 marathons. With professional sports, on the other hand, cities increasingly have to pay ridiculous money to build and maintain venues in which the (increasingly only wealthy) citizens only get to watch athletes entertain/compete. The Knicks played last night at Madison Square Garden and the Nets play tonight in their new home in Brooklyn. To my knowledge, no one was/is asking them to cancel their events. I'd be interested to know how many other professional sporting events got canceled in the NYC region through this weekend. Each requires a fair amount of emergency/traffic personnel, and, as more than one economist has noted, the economies of elite professional sports don't have nearly the broad brush trickle-down effect a 50,000 strong marathon has.
I'm bummed (in case you couldn't tell!), especially for the athletes who just traveled a very long distance to fulfill a dream, only to find their hopes dashed. I was one of those athletes traveling a very long distance just last year, and not once but twice, to Port Elizabeth and then Kona, both times from Saudi Arabia, and I can tell you I'd have been particularly upset had either race been cancelled for the reasons I've at least been able to read about related to NYC Marathon's demise this year.
No one wants to promote suffering and loss of life, but the truth is most of the folks who ended up losing their lives during Sandy failed to take the precautionary steps advised repeatedly by local officials. In addition, many of the homes destroyed were built on low-lying, fragile, coastal regions; statistically, these venues have a much greater chance of experiencing the kind of devastating damage they did, and with global warming/climate change it was mathematically only a matter of time before they did.
Concern was voiced about possibly having to force flood victims out of temporary hotel rooms so that 20,000 or so out of town athletes would have places to stay - before any mention was made about how social media could possibly easily have solved the housing problem through quick apartment shares/extra room donations and such. I'm willing to bet the NYC Road Runners Club, et al., could have solved the housing problem quickly with its members' Twitter and Facebook accounts. As for the lack of electricity and gas to many NYC residents, I'm not sure how a Sunday morning marathon is especially relevant. Most emergency crews are already on location, hard at work; many problems have been solved, or will have been by Sunday. Hardly anyone is reporting to work on a Sunday morning. Unlike Ironman, roads are truly shut down for just a few hours, and even at Kona with its one major north/south road, emergency vehicles can get up and down the coast if need be during the race.
We used to be a scrappy and plucky nation. Now we seem scared of our shadows, too worried about our images, excessively concerned about what others might think. As if the nauseatingly too long and expensive national election weren't enough, now we have to throw in a perfectly good and decent marathon to the political mix just to placate a few potential voters. Opportunity lost. As a former NYC resident and NYC Marathon runner, my heartfelt apologies to all those who were inconvenienced by this very late and unfortunate decision. I must disagree with the mayor (and especially his handlers) on this one.
David Evans
2:29 Marathon P.R.
1989 NYC Marathon
Top Manhattan finisher
12th American
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