Runners are not mad that the marathon was canceled, we are mad that it was canceled on Friday

People in the US don't know what suffering means. Americans think that they are "suffering" because they don't have heat, running water, or electricity for a few days while the government provides them with handouts. Lacking those basic services perpetually is the daily reality for huge portions of the population in many developing countries, and the government does not have the revenue to provide handouts. That doesn't stop us from holding our events. This cancellation would be warranted for a bigger disaster (i.e. Katrina), but not Sandy.

Goofus! Staton Island was blasted as bad as Katrina did a number on New Orleans and Biloxi. You forgot to see footage on ALL of the homeless people in Staton Islands. How about the fatality numbers?

I saw enough on CNN last night about the horrible impact this storm had on Staton Island residents to make it a no brainer to cancel the NYC Marathon. The sad part is Mayor Bommber dropped the ball and should have had the guts to cancel it way back on Tuesday. Talk about clueless.

We should all boycott NYC Marathon

I have permanently scratch it off from my list of things to do!

CNN headline, Wed Oct 31: NYC Marathon to proceed, stealing resources from cleanup.

CNN headline, Fri Nov 2: NYC cancelled, stealing money from runners. Who are also selfish.

CNN headline, Sun Nov 4: Valiant and/or selfish runners complete marathon on closed course, in spite of thieving and/or respectful cancellation.

The mainstream media have no principles at all. Which works out fine since the average American has no memory at all.

I agree with "it's not about helping". The lynch mob got what they wanted. People who had a axe to grind with Mary W or Bloomberg or the marathon in general found a scapegoat and can be self satisfied that they took out their frustrations on the race and got it cancelled. 47,000 people were betrayed and it will come to no good on Sunday. Nasty little haters can just tweet away and bitch on talk radio about something they really had no stake in. Wallow in your misery. I now have contempt for all of you.

They should have remembered the 2000 Enschede Marathon, which was cancelled, after a fireworks depot exploded one week earlier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enschede_fireworks_disaster

Anybody who thinks that Bloomberg kept the race alive on Wednesday simply to get the tourist dollars in town before he canceled the race on Friday is truly insane. "The timing was suspect." That's idiotic. No CEO wants to be forced to reverse himself. It's egg on his face. He reversed himself because the nurses made it clear THEY were against it, Staten Islanders made it clear that THEY were against it, he began to inventory the potential blowback and realized that he'd miscalculated.

He had the power; Wittenberg did not. She required his buy-in.

Both of them end up being forced to retract what seemed to them at the time like a tough but warranted decision. I respect them BOTH for having made both the initial decision and the final (reverse) decision. They were both very difficult decisions. They certainly didn't make the initial call on Wednesday with malice aforethought, knowing they were going to reverse themselves on Friday. That's not how powerful people make decisions in very challenging conditions.

They made the initial decision not knowing just how slowly the drainage, power-on, and cleanup process was going to take. Neither did either of them realize just how bad a hit Staten Island--the marathon's starting point--had taken. Nobody really knew that except the people of Staten Island. When the SI story blew up in a big way, the tide began to turn.

Of course the tabloids fanned the flame, but that's what they do.

Anybody who has ever made a big decision that affects the fates of tens of thousands of people would pause at least a few moments before passing adverse judgment here.

I think Wittinberg has a lot of class. She looked relieved, frankly, at the press conference on Friday.

Where do New Yorkers get their badass reputation from? They are urbanites and thus more prone to loud, sharp gestures than country folk. But like a quarter of NYC's population is made up of George Costanzas and Larry Davids. Add in some fixed-gear bike couriers, street artists and fat pizza makers and you have yourself a pretty harmless-looking mob.

:-P

In Gaza, Israeli snipers shoot marathoners in the back during competitions. You Americans are lucky to live in a country with freedom.

So you are already in New York? You have a place to stay, a hotel room, food to eat, etc? What are you whining about, the fact that you "can't run" ? That's BS. Go out tomorrow and run 26.2 miles. Golly, you'll have to carry your own water bottle. Anybody who is a truly committed runner, in the spirit of what being a marathoner means, will keep their commitment to themselves and get up in the morning and go do it.

Ticket for NFL game: $100+; Beer: $50; Hot dogs/snacks: $30. All of that $ could have gone to relief efforts. So please don't just scapegoat the runners.

New Yorkers should just spit at those who are going to see the Giants game tomorrow. Better yet, throw garbage at them. They are taking resources away from the relief effort.

A group of us are doing just that.

Apparently runners are the selfish ones...

I live in New York and was displaced from my house for almost a week due to the hurricane. I had no power, water, cell phone service, etc. I just finally got back home today and it was a pretty terrible experience actually.

However what am I getting from the marathon being cancelled?? Absolutely nothing. As far as I can tell from official announcements, there are different resources being used in the marathon vs relief efforts and there is no talk at all about anyone getting their power or houses back because of this cancellation.

So who are the selfish ones... The runners? What do they have to do with this? The people who trained for months, maybe years to get here. The people who raised thousands of dollars for donation to be able to run, who have been waiting for 3 years to finally get in this race or who flew from far away and had to budget and save their own money and resources for this event? Just to get here and find out the race was cancelled b/c of controversy?? No other good reason, just plain image and politics.

After my awful hurricane experience, the last thing I'd want is for another 40,000 people plus their family/friends to be inconvenienced by Sandy.

To me, people who caused the complaints and controversy are the selfish ones. Wishing inconvenience on others just b/c u are in need won't really solve your problem at all... Sure if there were reallyyyy resources from the marathon being used to help hurricane victims would be one thing, but we all know it's a little too late for that.

GL wrote:

New Yorkers should just spit at those who are going to see the Giants game tomorrow. Better yet, throw garbage at them. They are taking resources away from the relief effort.

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What makes the Giants game worse is that they have invited over 100 police and firemen to honor them at the game , with close to 200 showing up ! Now wait a second diverting resources to attend a football game during a crisis situation. At least during the marathon they would have been working.

Surely this must not be the last home game that the Giants play this year ?

How do people in Manhattan and Brooklyn get to Giants Stadium? Many residents do not have cars. Is there public transportation to Giants Stadium? New York is so large it would seem that it would take forever to go from the east side of Queens out to Giants Stadium.