# NYC Marathon **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 2, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696 "2012-11-02T19:14:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/1 "2012-11-02T19:14:56Z")
There’s been controversy regarding the NYC marathon going on as planned. My idea was to just do laps around Central Park. 2 questions: 1. Feasible? 2. How many laps? And if Bloomberg comes to his senses and cancels, can lottery wins (something I only learned of today) be held over a year? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/2 "2012-11-02T19:20:24Z")
The storm knocked down a few hundred trees in Central Park, although it’s supposed to reopen on Saturday. So I don’t know if running the marathon there is an option. I did read somewhere that the marathon has been run inside the Park in the past, and it took four complete laps and change to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/3 "2012-11-02T19:24:50Z")
The problem isn’t the course, it’s that it’s run by 40,000 attendees. Officials, including Bloomberg, who say that this won’t use resources that could be used better in recovery are lying assholes. Fuck the NY Road Runners. > **[Marathon Presses On Amid Backlash (Published 2012)](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/sports/officials-defend-decision-to-run-new-york-city-marathon-in-storms-aftermath.html)** > > Mary Wittenberg of New York Road Runners said the race was “about helping the city,” and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said this “is a city where we have to go on.” ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/4 "2012-11-02T19:57:27Z")
**Sicks** -I would’ve put it more delicately, but I completely agree! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/5 "2012-11-02T20:14:13Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > **Sicks** -I would’ve put it more delicately, but I completely agree! 😃 Checks the forum. Ummm… “Fuck the NY Road Runners,” he said. Uh. Game-fully. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/6 "2012-11-02T20:19:48Z")
I agree, seems like a big endeavour to put on the marathon when things are normal - this week is anything but. A friend if mine speculates that holding the marathon will encourage people to get things cleaned-up faster - but he is very cynical. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/7 "2012-11-02T20:24:47Z")
[Link](http://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-mike-bloomberg-and-mary-wittenberg-ceo-of-nyrr-postpone-the-nyc-marathon-until-spring-2013) to online petition to postpone the marathon until spring, and [Cancel the 2012 NYC Marathon](http://www.facebook.com/CancelThe2012NycMarathon) FB page. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/8 "2012-11-02T20:38:15Z")
In watching it in the past, there were 2? police officers per intersection as well as the barricades. I would say run the marathon without barricades and without police as both of these are needed. Leave the roads open to traffic as well. I could consider that this would be an acceptable way to have the race. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/9 "2012-11-02T20:43:40Z")
> [@Disheavel](#): > > I would say run the marathon without barricades and without police as both of these are needed. Leave the roads open to traffic as well. Might as well spread broken glass on the course while your at it. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/10 "2012-11-02T20:49:20Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Might as well spread broken glass on the course while your at it. Now you’re talking! Broken glass, banana peels, razor blades, attack dogs roaming free, downed trees imported from all five boroughs on the course…I’d re-design it so the winner would still be running it in December, the self-centered asswipe. Jesus, we’re in the middle of a crisis here, with people without housing, without food, gasoline, heat, and they’re using up police personnel to safeguard a bunch of runners because they can’t wait a few weeks or months to have their event? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/11 "2012-11-02T20:51:12Z")
As long as they start at 3:00 a.m. and are off the roads by dawn, I don’t have a problem with it. (actually, that’s probably a good plan for every year) ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-marathon/639696/12 "2012-11-02T21:15:21Z")
Bloomberg just cancelled it. Good. It would have been a slap in the face to all the good people in NYC suffering this weekend to see city resources dedicated to something as frivolous as an athletic contest, particularly one that started in Staten Island, where so many of the victims are being neglected.