Thoughts on Sandy and NYC Marathon.
I'll just start out by saying that I was horrified to see the impacts of Hurricane Sandy to the east coast. My hometown of Massapequa sustained a great deal of damage, particularly my neighborhood. The town of Long Beach had even more damage, which was very sad to me because I spent so much time there with my family visiting our beloved Grandma Mollie. I'll spare putting pictures of the damage on the blog. Just Google it. But Sandy's wrath was personal for me even though I am on the west coast.
Fortunately my family was lucky in terms of the lack of damage compared to many others. Some of our friends were not so lucky, and I'll just continue to think positive thoughts as they try to rebuild their lives and create some normalcy for their families.
As many of you know, I am an avid runner and I had the pleasure of running the NYC Marathon last year. With the anniversary coming up, I was starting to reminisce about the day I had and as luck had it, we were going to be spending time with one of our great friends, CP, who also ran it last year and managed to qualify for Boston.
Hurricane Sandy left devastation in the 5 boroughs of New York City. Staten Island, where the marathon starts, received the lion's share of damage along with the south shore of Queens (Breezy Point actually looked like a bomb was dropped on it). The course itself wasn't too impacted but the marathon requires a good amount of NYC resources, such as NYPD, NYFD and EMTs. And we know this because the entry fee for the NYC Marathon is amongst the most expensive and we were told it was because of paying for the security and other support for a point-to-point 26.2 mile course.
For whatever reason, the New York Road Runners (who holds the race) and the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, decided that the race should continue on because, you know, New Yorkers are resilient and the world needs to know that they are going to bounce back. Seriously? With how many people now homeless, without power, without running water, food shortages, gas shortages, and who knows what else? You really think that a family who lost a loved one from this storm is going to say, "Oh, I am so glad they are running the marathon in spite of this"?
My position on this was that they had no business holding the marathon this weekend. The pictures that I saw of people realizing that family treasures and their homes were either gone or going to need major renovation were shocking. I am friends with first responders and they have been working tirelessly to rescue people, even while having to worry about their own families and property. They put their lives to protect us and would work until they collapsed to ensure everyone that could be rescued was. If they had any "downtime" on Marathon Sunday, they could have spent that time with their families or sleeping. For the Mayor to tell people that none of the first responders currently working on rescue and recovery missions would be needed to work on Sunday was detestable. Sandy was an "all hands on deck" situation so where would the resources come from to support the marathon?
But I will say that I would have supported any runner who decided to run. Reason being that they earned the right to be at the starting line. They should not have been demonized, and yes, they were. They trained and put in countless hours to run/suffer through 26.2 miles. Many of them raised a ton of money for many note-worthy charities to secure their slot in the race, which is what I did last year for JDRF.
Well finally Mary Wittenberg, CEO of the NYRR, and Bloomberg decided that the race had to be cancelled. I have no doubt that it was because of the massive social media campaign that was launched via Facebook and Twitter to either postpone or cancel the event. What is unfortunate about their VERY LATE about-face was that people taking refuge in NYC hotels were kicked out because of marathoners flying in from out-of-town. If people had known the race wasn't going to be on, maybe they wouldn't have flown in and those hotel rooms could have been kept for people who didn't have power, running water, heat, etc.?
Anyway I am relieved that it was cancelled but it's not as though I am happy about the circumstances. Hurricane Sandy left a path of destruction that has impacted many and that is where the focus should be. Hopefully all of the runners and volunteers for Sunday will figure out a way to help in the relief efforts that are much needed.
Fortunately my family was lucky in terms of the lack of damage compared to many others. Some of our friends were not so lucky, and I'll just continue to think positive thoughts as they try to rebuild their lives and create some normalcy for their families.
As many of you know, I am an avid runner and I had the pleasure of running the NYC Marathon last year. With the anniversary coming up, I was starting to reminisce about the day I had and as luck had it, we were going to be spending time with one of our great friends, CP, who also ran it last year and managed to qualify for Boston.
Hurricane Sandy left devastation in the 5 boroughs of New York City. Staten Island, where the marathon starts, received the lion's share of damage along with the south shore of Queens (Breezy Point actually looked like a bomb was dropped on it). The course itself wasn't too impacted but the marathon requires a good amount of NYC resources, such as NYPD, NYFD and EMTs. And we know this because the entry fee for the NYC Marathon is amongst the most expensive and we were told it was because of paying for the security and other support for a point-to-point 26.2 mile course.
For whatever reason, the New York Road Runners (who holds the race) and the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, decided that the race should continue on because, you know, New Yorkers are resilient and the world needs to know that they are going to bounce back. Seriously? With how many people now homeless, without power, without running water, food shortages, gas shortages, and who knows what else? You really think that a family who lost a loved one from this storm is going to say, "Oh, I am so glad they are running the marathon in spite of this"?
My position on this was that they had no business holding the marathon this weekend. The pictures that I saw of people realizing that family treasures and their homes were either gone or going to need major renovation were shocking. I am friends with first responders and they have been working tirelessly to rescue people, even while having to worry about their own families and property. They put their lives to protect us and would work until they collapsed to ensure everyone that could be rescued was. If they had any "downtime" on Marathon Sunday, they could have spent that time with their families or sleeping. For the Mayor to tell people that none of the first responders currently working on rescue and recovery missions would be needed to work on Sunday was detestable. Sandy was an "all hands on deck" situation so where would the resources come from to support the marathon?
But I will say that I would have supported any runner who decided to run. Reason being that they earned the right to be at the starting line. They should not have been demonized, and yes, they were. They trained and put in countless hours to run/suffer through 26.2 miles. Many of them raised a ton of money for many note-worthy charities to secure their slot in the race, which is what I did last year for JDRF.
Well finally Mary Wittenberg, CEO of the NYRR, and Bloomberg decided that the race had to be cancelled. I have no doubt that it was because of the massive social media campaign that was launched via Facebook and Twitter to either postpone or cancel the event. What is unfortunate about their VERY LATE about-face was that people taking refuge in NYC hotels were kicked out because of marathoners flying in from out-of-town. If people had known the race wasn't going to be on, maybe they wouldn't have flown in and those hotel rooms could have been kept for people who didn't have power, running water, heat, etc.?
Anyway I am relieved that it was cancelled but it's not as though I am happy about the circumstances. Hurricane Sandy left a path of destruction that has impacted many and that is where the focus should be. Hopefully all of the runners and volunteers for Sunday will figure out a way to help in the relief efforts that are much needed.