With the floods in Valencia is the marathon in doubt?

Dec 1 is a long time away. Maybe if it were tomorrow.

Have you seen the pictures though? Looks as bad as Asheville, maybe worse. Helene was a month ago, do you think Asheville would be ready to host a marathon today? They don't even have drinkable water yet.

The marathon brings a lot of economic benefits to Valencia - they call themselves the city of running. I imagine they will want to host it if at all possible. Hopefully if it goes ahead there will be a way for runners to show their respects and donate/contribute towards the wider recovery.

Is part of Valencia currently underwater? When the race does happen, the runners won’t be drinking out of a faucet at the aid stations.

I messaged our Jose our Airbnb accommodation booking regarding this to a. Wish them well and B. just ask they give us lots of notice if the booking is likely to be cancelled.

He replied saying the city is not really affected, it is OK and it was mainly villages and the south of the region.

Hopefully that helps rest some worries!

In two weeks at least 99% of the city will look like no disaster ever happened there. Unless part of the course or the airport itself was destroyed, there's no chance this affects the marathon.

Valencia city had no issues... its like 10km from there they had the flood, but still in the Valencia region.

You will have to run the marathon whether you like it or not.

It's not a 3rd world country like the US.Valencia will be totally fine.

Did NYC have the marathon after Sandy.

I think it's more the optics. Can you justify putting this event on with grand financial prizes and having hotels full of tourists when there's a lot of people nearby that have lost their homes and businesses?

Yes, why try to give a boost to the economy after a situation like that

That would be wrong

Sandy was closer to the race. While the marathon course was technically runnable, the issue was that a lot of resources (police emergency responders etc...) would have been diverted to the marathon and that created an enormous backslash.
From the images shown so far, Sandy was a drizzle compared to the devastation experienced by the Valencia region and the city itself was not unscathed. I don't know if they will hold the marathon, but would not be surprised if they would call it off (they already canceled the MotoGP).

This is a useful thread on Reddit

The city centre apparently appears completely unaffected and normal in a physical sense, but of course mentally it's expected and reasonable that there might be a mournful atmosphere.

I would hope there would be some comms either way from the organisers this week to let people know if a cancellation is likely

There's already a big anti-tourism movement in Spain and the government there is being criticized for it's slow response to these floods.

It they go ahead and successfully organize a glamour event like the marathon while not adequately assisting residents during a disaster, it will only crystallize for people where their government's priorities lie (i.e. not with them).

Like I said, optics.

I would hope it goes ahead, obviously. But to say it does so because the course is ok is slightly naive.

The PR element of this is crucial. To go ahead with the marathon while the city mourns might be considered as being in bad taste - particularly while the authorities are seen as having reacted poorly to the floods.

There is the administrative & logistical burden of actually tidying up the region too. But even if that were sorted by Dec 1, my bet would be on this being deferred to Jan/Feb - when adequate time has passed for a go-ahead to be seen an act of solidarity. It is currently too early for that.

We'll see. Hopefully an update is provided soon.

Hi everyone, I live in the flooded region close to where the race circuit is (MotoGP), 25min from the city.

I honestly doubt that the marathon will take place on the original date. Yes, the city centre is mostly unscathed, but the whole infrastructure around the city is destroyed. To this day the two major highways are not re-opened, almost all the streets leading over the barrancos (water ways) are destroyed. Where I live we still don’t have power or water. Supermarkets are empty or closed. It would be insane to bring ten thousands of people into the city to put further strain on all the systems. And as some mentioned, the PR aspect is huge, especially after the very slow first response.

There are 200+ dead. Major highway and train are out. It's a crisis and they canceled a real Madrid Valencia game. No one gives a damn about a marathon right now.

I had an email yesterday asking me to confirm my registration.

It will go ahead as scheduled. Thank you.