Should Mayor Bloomberg have postponed the NY Marathon?

New York City rarely is better than it is on marathon day. It's a celebration. The city is wonderful and the route is lined with fans virtually from start to finish. Every marathoner should have the chance to run it once in their life. But six days after Sandy is no time to have it.

I feel for those people who paid several thousand dollars to get to New York, but as we all know, sometimes life just isn't fair.

 

It should have been a 10-second decision.

A billionaire with his head up his ass -- quelle surprise.

 

Because they canceled it, I think all runners should boycott the race next year.
If they had run it, I think all the runners should have refused to take the start.
(Yeah, I'm that guy )


I did read somewhere, and not sure if it's been resolved, but the organizers said they would not refund people's entry fee. Buuuuul shit you won't. Canceling because you have to is one thing. Not returning people's money when you failed to provide what you promised is another.

 

I am going to guess they won't refund entry fees but they will roll it over to next year's event. They can scale up for the added numbers without much new cost, and the travel business gets a boost.

Also: People complaining about traveling there are the definition of #firstworldproblems.

 

The last I heard, NYRR won't refund the fee but will give those who paid preference in registering for 2013.

 

Yes, and it should have been done by Wednesday at the latest. Bloomberg seems like a pretty smart guy and I don't know that he has made many horribly bad decisions (Lindsay not getting the snow cleared in Queens, Giuliani locating key responders in 7 World Trade Center, budget decisions in the 1970s, Koch turning a blind eye to crooked party leaders in the boroughs outside Manhattan).

Bloomberg's late decision was not smart and was horribly bad.

 

Vaccaro: NYRR head deserves to be fired for blaming media over canceled marathon

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/run_nyrr_prez_out_of_town_Nc1TX2rFEwV41VRbq1ubEJ


I know Mike posts here on occasion, and I just want to say that Mary Wittenberg is one of the best people you will ever meet in sports. And, the NYRR is a great organization.

I truly believe that they were not being selfish in their goal of going ahead with the Marathon.

Yes, I think they were concerned with the financials. And, I believe they felt obligated to the thousands that were coming in from around the globe for a once in a lifetime event. But, I also think they thought the race would be a sign of the resilience of the city of New York (as it was after 9/11), and would bring people together.

Once it became clear that it would not, they had no choice but to cancel the event, which was the right thing to do.

 

I'm really tired of hearing how thousands of runners who came in for the race were inconvenienced by the cancellation. At least the ones from outside the New York-Jersey area have undamaged homes to return to.

 

That letter to the runners was ridiculous. Blaming the media? Implying that marathon volunteers and runners might be subject to some kind of retaliation from residents? As if the residents were going to take time out from cleaning up their homes and streets to whack a runner on the head with a splintered 2 by 4.
Vaccaro is wrong only in one instance: Wittenberg isn't the only one who should be fired.

 

I don't disagree.

I think their initial reaction was one of, "the show must go on." I don't think they realized the extent of the damage, or how long it would take to get things back to a semblance of normal.

I think they had the best of intentions all along.

And, as a former Marathon sponsor, I know I would go to bat for Mary Wittenberg. So would the Rudins, ING, and others.

People don't realize what a great organization the NYRR are to work with. And, the sponsors in particular have worked with Wittenberg for years, as she moved up from Chief Marketing Officer to CEO.

 

I agree with decision to cancel the race, but anybody see a cognitive dissonance from the city and NY/NJ officials that the marathon is an issue but it's OK for Knicks, Nets and Giants to play?
Basically, it's like "it's OK to do stuff as long as you don't see the devestation." But if you can see it, well, that's just in poor taste.
NFL's stance on natural disasters appears to be "only manipulate schedule if it advantageously benefits the Giants." (Katrina)