Superstorm Sandy has been top news since she started brewing in the Atlantic several weeks ago. However, once she made landfall last weekend, this storm has created news stories we’ll never forget. With the communities of New York and New Jersey taking the hardest hits, the most densely populated areas of our nation found themselves in despair. All of this coincided with one of the nation’s biggest events preparing to take place in New York City.
The New York City Marathon was scheduled for Sunday, November 4, 2024. Nearly 50,000 runners and their families were still set to descend on the city as the infamous race had not yet been cancelled and was still scheduled to run the 26.2 miles through all five of the New York burroughs. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had announced that the race would go on and essentially asked runners to come to New York to boost morale, generate tremendous revenue, and simply give the brokenhearted city something to cheer about. With uncertainty, many of those thousands of runners boarded their flights and made their way to NYC to run the race they had trained so long and so hard for.
Despite much of the city still being without power the expo doors opened on Friday. Elite runners began their press interviews, runners from around the world filed in to collect their bib numbers and buy their 2024 marathon apparel. All the while frustration was mounting in the city. Runners were being called selfish, as Melissa Dunn expressed in a tweet to DietsInReview.
The race was being accused of robbing resources from those in need; simply stated, it was getting heated. Who knows what caused the announcement, but late Friday afternoon Mayor Bloomberg called off the race. A call that lead to a fury of emotions for all sides of the debate, but has since shown the runners doing what Bloomberg wanted all along – morale boosting and mending of broken hearts.
Runners were chastised for admitting their disappointment with the timing of Bloomberg’s announcement. I think all runners agree it was the right call, they simply couldn’t believe it came so late, when many of them were already there, spent the money, clogged up the airports, used up taxis’ gas in the midst of a fuel shortage, and even occupied hotel rooms that could be used for those who live in the city and had lost everything. However, on Friday, emotions were too high and no one could see the runners as innocent bystanders in a hectic tragedy. (more…)