Had been pushed back to September, but they're now canceling it for the first time in it's 124 year history.
Sucks for those runners. And it doesn't inspire me with much hope that the Smuttynose Half Marathon will go off as scheduled in October in Hampton Beach NH. I look forward to that yearly.
Link - (
New Window )
No doubt, quite the accomplishment and I assume where you got your handle from?
Quote:
Feel really sorry for the runners. Qualifying and running the Boston marathon was something I was very proud of and worked hard to get there. I know I'd be crushed.
No doubt, quite the accomplishment and I assume where you got your handle from?
Good guess :)
What is kind of sad, I joined BBI in March of 2005 and I haven't finished a full marathon since then. I attempted one in 2007 on a day that was very hot and muggy and I dropped out at mile 21 when a dude in a full on fairy costume (he even had a wand) passed me like I was standing still. Now I just run for fitness.
The interesting thing, at least for me, is whether you could impose something similar to the triathlon no-drafting rule that requires competitors to keep their distance during the bike leg unless attacking. (i.e., no pelotons). That rule isn't used in all triathlons, but a lot of tri people are passionate about it.
The argument is that if you let racers form pelotons, whatever lead or deficit they accrued on the swim is negated, they all form a pack in the bike leg, and essentially the entire triathlon becomes a footrace. No drafting raises the incentive to compete in all three legs.
But could you install a distancing rule in the run, so you can only get close to a competitor if you are trying to pass them? I am not a runner, not sure if that works or not.
a couple of days before the Boston Marathon bombing I was in the San Diego airport ready to fly to Boston. There were a bunch of runners on the flight, excited, on their way to compete in the race. I think about that a lot.
99.7% Survive
The interesting thing, at least for me, is whether you could impose something similar to the triathlon no-drafting rule that requires competitors to keep their distance during the bike leg unless attacking. (i.e., no pelotons). That rule isn't used in all triathlons, but a lot of tri people are passionate about it.
The argument is that if you let racers form pelotons, whatever lead or deficit they accrued on the swim is negated, they all form a pack in the bike leg, and essentially the entire triathlon becomes a footrace. No drafting raises the incentive to compete in all three legs.
But could you install a distancing rule in the run, so you can only get close to a competitor if you are trying to pass them? I am not a runner, not sure if that works or not.
Forget the actual race. Think about the packet pick up which is a mad house and goes on for a couple days. Then you have the buses (Boston is a point to point race - they bus everyone out from Boston to Hopkington - most buses will be packed) to the athletes village. The entire field is staged there (some for several hours) and its very crowded. Then they corral everyone to the starting line where you stand around for like 30-40 min packed like sardines. Then the race starts and the further back you are - the longer you stand around (packed in still). Then you start moving and people that you weren't packed in with are passing by and you to them - impossible not to rub up against other people. The actual race is the only time you get to spread out. Depending on what pace you're running you never really get spread out...all in all its basically the worst place you want to be if social distancing is a priority.
None of this takes into account all the traveling from all over the place. It also doesn't take into account all the people that come out to watch. I suppose they could mandate a no-spectators race.
Another angle to marathons, my understanding anyway, is most that arent part of the competitive piece anyway... need to raise a pretty good amount of money to participate. Donations/charity will be tough to comeby this year i would think.
I've run Boston 18 years in a row, and this will allow me to keep my streak alive! :-)
Quote:
...hoax?!
99.7% Survive
Are you volunteering to be in the .3%, if that’s even accurate? Or willing to sacrifice your loved ones?
Quote:
In comment 14912765 Brown_Hornet said:
Quote:
...hoax?!
99.7% Survive
Are you volunteering to be in the .3%, if that’s even accurate? Or willing to sacrifice your loved ones?
Well that includes the high risk population so those under 55 are more like 0.03% but hey .... you go ahead and wait 3 years for that vaccine which probably won’t be effective anyway. Thoughts and prayers getting in your car or stepping outside - it must be terrifying!
And the risk isn’t 0.00% if you don’t run either so the ‘spread’ isn’t 2-3 people in 10,000
I get it though - no matter the facts and the statistics which even with margin for error don’t change the conclusion, we are conditioned to fear a plague and more generally something we can’t control. It’s why people feel safer in their cars than they do in airplanes - We are behind the wheel... we ‘control’ it so statistics don’t matter.
But I agree - let’s not have our grandparents and nursing home patients run the marathon this year. Agreed.
But the fear mongering needs to stop it’s just not backed up with data. Tonight’s protests however warranted would/will prove more fatal than any Marathon with education that all runners wouldn’t mingle with their elders for 14 days afterwards
And let’s not minimize COVID’s severity regardless of survival rate. For example, I’m assuming that you wouldn’t want to volunteer to go work in a meat processing plant right now, whether you’d survive COVID or not.
If your comments above were directed to me, please recognize that my thoughts are more nuanced than you describe, as I’m sure yours are.