This is a post I've been meaning to write for a few days now, but wanted to see how the entire debacle played out during the week leading up to the marathon. For reference, I was registered to run the race, after years of trying to get in, and was all set and ready to go Tuesday after the storm finished dropping rain on Southern Maryland. At that point, the NYC government and the NYRR race Director, Mary Wittenberg, should have had a good idea of the situation on the ground. I say should have because I had a good idea of how bad it was, and I live a few hundred miles away, but I don't know they knew. The race should have been cancelled, or pushed off then and there. No questions, no waffling, further analysis or any waiting to see if miracles would happen; they didn't.
Instead Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC race committee said the race is on, and with that people started to make arrangements. The 10,000 to 15,000 international runners, those that could get flights, started the 1 to 2 day trek to NYC. Runners on the US West Coast started their trek across the country and the professional runners started to arrive then and the next day, creating by Wednesday evening, a nice stew of disaster and stupid. Why did everyone travel? Because until the race was actually cancelled Friday night, they had to travel otherwise everyone lost all their money. The hundreds of dollars in hotels, flights(thousands for some), cars, food etc.
On Thursday morning as the devestation in Staten Island started coming out, and subsequently Friday morning as it continued....it was obvious to most everyone this race couldn't go on. The city wasn't ready, the course wasn't ready, and there was no way most runners would have the race they wanted due to the atmosphere. Instead of cancelling, the leaders still hung onto their olive leaves shouting the race would go on, the race must go on...instead of showing real leadership and cancelling this race.
By that time, I had to make a decision. Thursday evening I made the call to cancel my entry until next year and lose the entry fee..potentially the rest b/c this was not the time, I was not kicking someone out of my hotel room to run a race. So I cancelled, and thankfully get allowed into next years race, like many thousand others had at this point, sacrificing our entry fee on the altar of NYRR greed.
Thankfully the race was cancelled on Friday night, allowing all the runners who made the trek to get into the race again next year, assuming the NYRR doesn't find a way to screw the runners again. Thankfully the race was cancelled so the water and food for 45,000 runners was able to be given to people who needed it to survive and stay healthy. Thankfully the 1MW of power sitting in central park was able to be rented elsewhere to keep a family warm at night. Unfortunately though it came too late for my image of the NYC Marathon, my (unwarranted) idolization of the Marathon that takes years to get into, gone was the naivete that this race was solely about fundraising and the idea of running. Instead the Mayor of NYC and the CEO of the NYRR showed me this was solely about money for them, and personal pride.
The way they handled the race and the cancelling of the race did nothing but force runners to come to NY and pay for being there, thus brining the city money. The numerous people who cancelled(deferred) sacrificed their money for the registration by cancelling, only to have the race cancelled at the last minute. The people who traveled from other countries lost their money on the travel...and couldn't run the race. Instead they get to try again next year, and if they fundraised...there was no race so they may not be able to make their donations. What the runners got instead was an email from the NYRR's on Saturday morning at 2am, requesting we donate money to a charity they founded.
Here's a thought, take my registration and donate all $160 of it to that charity instead of lining your own groups pockets with it. Or rather how about every runner make a donation on their own, or if you live in NY
Instead, it's just clear that while i still want to run the NYC Marathon, my image will be forever tarnished by how badly this was handled and how the two 'leaders' in this farce cared solely about their image and making money vice the impact on runners. In the end the runners got screwed, the residents of Staten Island got screwed b/c they were not consulted...in general it was just a train wreck and honestly showed a complete lack of any real leadership. The easiest thing to say is always "The Show must go On".
sometimes the show must not go on is the right call.
...But back to training and let's get my time down to qualify for Boston...or go and run the MCM in DC again, which is an amazing race, put on by a great group!
Instead Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC race committee said the race is on, and with that people started to make arrangements. The 10,000 to 15,000 international runners, those that could get flights, started the 1 to 2 day trek to NYC. Runners on the US West Coast started their trek across the country and the professional runners started to arrive then and the next day, creating by Wednesday evening, a nice stew of disaster and stupid. Why did everyone travel? Because until the race was actually cancelled Friday night, they had to travel otherwise everyone lost all their money. The hundreds of dollars in hotels, flights(thousands for some), cars, food etc.
On Thursday morning as the devestation in Staten Island started coming out, and subsequently Friday morning as it continued....it was obvious to most everyone this race couldn't go on. The city wasn't ready, the course wasn't ready, and there was no way most runners would have the race they wanted due to the atmosphere. Instead of cancelling, the leaders still hung onto their olive leaves shouting the race would go on, the race must go on...instead of showing real leadership and cancelling this race.
By that time, I had to make a decision. Thursday evening I made the call to cancel my entry until next year and lose the entry fee..potentially the rest b/c this was not the time, I was not kicking someone out of my hotel room to run a race. So I cancelled, and thankfully get allowed into next years race, like many thousand others had at this point, sacrificing our entry fee on the altar of NYRR greed.
Thankfully the race was cancelled on Friday night, allowing all the runners who made the trek to get into the race again next year, assuming the NYRR doesn't find a way to screw the runners again. Thankfully the race was cancelled so the water and food for 45,000 runners was able to be given to people who needed it to survive and stay healthy. Thankfully the 1MW of power sitting in central park was able to be rented elsewhere to keep a family warm at night. Unfortunately though it came too late for my image of the NYC Marathon, my (unwarranted) idolization of the Marathon that takes years to get into, gone was the naivete that this race was solely about fundraising and the idea of running. Instead the Mayor of NYC and the CEO of the NYRR showed me this was solely about money for them, and personal pride.
The way they handled the race and the cancelling of the race did nothing but force runners to come to NY and pay for being there, thus brining the city money. The numerous people who cancelled(deferred) sacrificed their money for the registration by cancelling, only to have the race cancelled at the last minute. The people who traveled from other countries lost their money on the travel...and couldn't run the race. Instead they get to try again next year, and if they fundraised...there was no race so they may not be able to make their donations. What the runners got instead was an email from the NYRR's on Saturday morning at 2am, requesting we donate money to a charity they founded.
Here's a thought, take my registration and donate all $160 of it to that charity instead of lining your own groups pockets with it. Or rather how about every runner make a donation on their own, or if you live in NY
Instead, it's just clear that while i still want to run the NYC Marathon, my image will be forever tarnished by how badly this was handled and how the two 'leaders' in this farce cared solely about their image and making money vice the impact on runners. In the end the runners got screwed, the residents of Staten Island got screwed b/c they were not consulted...in general it was just a train wreck and honestly showed a complete lack of any real leadership. The easiest thing to say is always "The Show must go On".
sometimes the show must not go on is the right call.
...But back to training and let's get my time down to qualify for Boston...or go and run the MCM in DC again, which is an amazing race, put on by a great group!
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