Should the NYC Marathon take place on November 4th Topic

Shoud the NYC Marathon take place on November 4th?

Votes: 11
(Last vote received: 11/5/2012 6:20 PM)
11/2/2012 11:21 AM
I'll give you the 2 points of view, in case you're torn on this. 

Yes:

The NYC Marathon is a fantastic event.  It's inspiring, raises money for charity, and will create more awareness about the tragedy NYC is facing right now.  It generates $340 million for the city.  The organizers are donating a combined $3 million to the relief effort.  And it shows the city, and the nation, that we can test ourselves to do amazing things.

No:

In my opinion, there's too much no.  The city claims that the police force won't affect the cleanup/rescue efforts from Sandy, but when you see thousands of cops standing along the race, staring at runners, you'll feel they could be doing something else.  You have hotel rooms full of marathoners, where the homeless are trying to find a place to stay.  You see generators on Staten Island supplying power to those organizing the race, when those generators could be donated to those without power.  Marathon runners will be grabbing bottles of water, dumping half of it on their face, and throwing the other half on the ground.  It sends the wrong message to people who are actually in need of help.  There are people who love the marathon that feel it should just be postponed a few weeks.
11/2/2012 11:39 AM
Why isn't there an option of "I don't care"?
11/2/2012 12:08 PM
As a runner (and marathoner) myself, here is my opinion on the NYC marathon:

It's one of the "big name" events in marathons and running itself, yet I'm not sure why. There are hundreds of marathons people can do and I have no idea why it's so important to some of them to do NYC. Unless you're from there or have some special attachment to it, why is it any more important than any other marathon? Yet so many people want to do it they have to hold a "lottery" just to draw names - unless you cheat your way in, which plenty of people do.

It's like the Boston Marathon, where you have to "qualify" for it and yet so many people can cheat their way in anyway. I'm not sure why so many people want to do it when there are plenty of other marathons, but for some reason they flock to it.

I've run in marathons with massive fields in the thousands of people and some with less than 30 total participants, and I like the smaller fields better personally. I don't like crowds, and it's easier to run without the congestion too.

To digress to the original question, should the NYC marathon go on, I think it should. It's like any other scheduled event in NYC, be it a sports game or whatever else. They wouldn't cancel the Knicks opener, a Giants or Jets game, or whatever, so  the marathoners who also pay to be a part of their event should not have to go without.

The nature of every large field marathon is the way you describe in your "no" answer burnsy. Sure there is a lot of "waste", but that's how people (not just runners) are in general. They paid to run a race and there is no reason they shouldn't get to do so.

11/2/2012 1:01 PM
Posted by tecwrg on 11/2/2012 12:08:00 PM (view original):
Why isn't there an option of "I don't care"?
If you don't care, STFU and stop trolling.
11/2/2012 1:26 PM
Posted by bistiza on 11/2/2012 1:01:00 PM (view original):
As a runner (and marathoner) myself, here is my opinion on the NYC marathon:

It's one of the "big name" events in marathons and running itself, yet I'm not sure why. There are hundreds of marathons people can do and I have no idea why it's so important to some of them to do NYC. Unless you're from there or have some special attachment to it, why is it any more important than any other marathon? Yet so many people want to do it they have to hold a "lottery" just to draw names - unless you cheat your way in, which plenty of people do.

It's like the Boston Marathon, where you have to "qualify" for it and yet so many people can cheat their way in anyway. I'm not sure why so many people want to do it when there are plenty of other marathons, but for some reason they flock to it.

I've run in marathons with massive fields in the thousands of people and some with less than 30 total participants, and I like the smaller fields better personally. I don't like crowds, and it's easier to run without the congestion too.

To digress to the original question, should the NYC marathon go on, I think it should. It's like any other scheduled event in NYC, be it a sports game or whatever else. They wouldn't cancel the Knicks opener, a Giants or Jets game, or whatever, so  the marathoners who also pay to be a part of their event should not have to go without.

The nature of every large field marathon is the way you describe in your "no" answer burnsy. Sure there is a lot of "waste", but that's how people (not just runners) are in general. They paid to run a race and there is no reason they shouldn't get to do so.

Good input - and they did cancel the Nets game in Brooklyn on Thursday, but appear to be going on with the Knicks and Giants game.  I guess the bigger issue is that resources, like generators, police, etc, are being taken to host this race, when there's bodies still being found in the city, much of the city doesn't have power, there's a gas shortage that's resulting in fires and brawls at gas stations, so many roads are closed...and to take thousands of cops to close more roads and look at marathoners is such a waste right now.  I don't really understand the need to have this NOW.
11/2/2012 1:31 PM
The reason they have it NOW is because that's when it was scheduled. It's very difficult at this late of a date to reschedule something so massive, not to mention asking those who planned a trip around it (as many people do) to reschedule. In fact, I don't think they would reschedule it. If the hurricane had hit this weekend, the race simply would have been cancelled altogether, not rescheduled. It takes too much effort to get an event like that off the ground each year to reschedule it.

I understand your idea that people and resources could be better used elsewhere, but that's an argument you can make just about anywhere for any event. It may not have the attention a hurricane in NYC has, but any location has people who are suffering and the cancelling of an event and the money spent and other resources could help them.

Still, no one is shutting down sports games to give food and coats to the homeless. No one is advocating the shut down of casinos in an effort to encourage people to give their gambling money to charity instead. No one is telling everyone to stop doing all of their hobbies because to create world peace, feed hungry people, or stop a rampant disease.

All these things need attention and help, but to shut down functions of people's lives - even if they are simple hobbies - isn't going to change much and will in fact create negative reactions which could cause other problems.

11/2/2012 2:49 PM
I don't know the specific logistics of organizing a marathon.  So I can't argue if it would be difficult or not to reschedule it for a later date.

As you said, it's a huge event.  It's probably the biggest event NYC has every year.  So to pull that many cops, closing that many roads, etc, etc, is huge compared to an event at MSG, for example.  Remember, we're talking having cops watching 26 miles of marathon runners.  A marathon and simple hobbies are 2 different things.

If I had a house that was looted on Sunday, or if I need gas and a gas station with power and gas is closed because a road is blocked because of this marathon, I'm blaming the city for forcing road closures and cops to be taken off more important tasks.
11/2/2012 3:57 PM
Posted by burnsy483 on 11/2/2012 1:26:00 PM (view original):
Posted by tecwrg on 11/2/2012 12:08:00 PM (view original):
Why isn't there an option of "I don't care"?
If you don't care, STFU and stop trolling.
That wasn't a smartass remark.  It was a legit question.

If you're going to take a poll, you have to account even for the unaccountable.  Knowing the number of people who don't have an opinion one way or the other is just as meaningful of knowing the number of people who do have an opinion.

An example:

You put up a poll asking who people plan to vote for in the upcoming election.  You offer two choices: Obama and Romney.  You tally the votes and see Obama gets 11 votes and Romney gets 6 votes.  You might conclude (despite small sample size) that Obama has more support than Romney and will most likely win the election.

You offer a third option, "undecided", and "undecided" gets 20 votes.  Now the potential outcome is much less clear.

More data = more information from which to make inferences.
11/3/2012 9:47 AM
Should the NYC Marathon take place on November 4th Topic

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