I watched a James Bond movie marathon once. Are you telling me I didn’t participate in a real marathon? Bollocks.
Still, in athletics, a 1500m steeplechase and a marathon are two entirely different events.
She may or may not have been drunk.
She may or may not have been hypoglycemic, aka a diabetic incident.
She may or may not have been on drugs.
None of the above three had anything to do with the parade; it was just a case of bad timing that that happened when there was a crowd for her to hit.
In fact, hers wasn’t the only homecoming event this weekend where a drunk driver injured people. The one in Delaware happened in an area more like where the OP is proposing future parades go.
I heard she ran over a PD motorcycle before plowing into the crowd; any idea how close it was to the crowds? Right behind them or a block away? Could they have done anything to block the streets more effectively?
I’ve seen NYC park a large, 10-wheeled dump truck, filled with sand (to add a couple extra tons of immovability) across the cross streets on the Upper West Side during the Thanksgiving Parade to prevent any vehicle from being able to plow into the crowds/parade route.
Move the parade to a stadium and it’s a festival or expo or something, but not a parade.
Marathons are by definition that big. Anything less than 26.2 miles long is not a marathon.
Or did you mean in terms of number of participants?
As for holding marathons in a park, it seems like it would work as long as you remember than not all parks are in cities. But then you are moving it out of the city, away from easy access for spectators.
I think the benefit to the populace from getting to see the marathon easily, using existing commuter infrastructure to get there, outweighs the inconvenience of closing some major thoroughfares for a few hours on a single day announced well in advance.
Not anytime soon, not over this.
This is hardly the first tragedy at a parade. In 2012 in Midland Texas, a Veteran’s Day parade crossed train tracks. A float loaded with wounded veterans was struck by a train. I imagine they either re-routed around the tracks or got the railroad to agree to a window of service interruption after that, but I doubt they moved the parade out of town.
I read the column News Of The Weird, and semi-annually some driver plows into a crowd. Often it is an elderly driver, often it is said the gas was hit when the brake was desired, often it is a crowd in a place that is usually an open street, like a farmers’ market that happens one day a month.
And for your serving of irony: back in 2008 in Prince George County, Md (near Washington DC), a car plowed into a crowd standing in the street to watch the start of an illegal street race. Subsequent investigation suggested that the car was participating in an illegal street race at the time.
Sensible additional security measures is one thing: getting city vehicles to physically block side streets, choosing a route that avoids certain extra-dangerous spots,. But I think it would be serious overreaction to move these celebrations somewhere that makes it harder for the community to come observe them, since that is really the point of having them in the first place.
If you wish to be pedantic. Look up “marathon” in the dictionary. Or refer to post #40. “Marathon” is considered an acceptable word for any long-distance race, even if it runs shorter than 26 miles.
Well here in our area many paved walking trails that long and these are about 10 feet wide and often they hold running events there.
Just this weekend they are holding the Zombie run, which has a 5k and a 10k and a half marathon portion. Their are usually only about 500-1,000 participants.
As it turns out, this girl is mentally ill and has been committed in the past. She admits to being suicidal leading up to the incident. Still waiting for Obama to hold a news conference condemning cars as too dangerous for the general public to be trusted with.
If we, as a society, feel the need to change something for the sake of feeling better every time someone goes off the rails and hurts us, then we have already succumbed to fear and will be no safer after the effort. Should be stop using subway trains because too many people get pushed in front of approaching trains? Should we limit passenger planes to 5 or 10 people to limit how many people die in the event of a plane crash? Knee jerk reactions are a useless waste of time and effort.
Sadly I’m worried that as terrorism becomes a bigger threat this might become more common. Like that bombing at the Boston marathon.
But also there is the issue of logistics and the trouble a parade can cause to a city in terms of police having to close off streets and the disruption of business. In the case of the American Royal I was at, it worked out pretty well in that they could also have a midway/carnival plus have the BBQ cookoff all setup nearby where the parade was.
Quick note - about 20 years ago this parade including a “cattle drive” where they would move a herd of cattle down the streets in mimicking the old cattle drives that used to come to Kansas City and its famous stockyards. They had to stop it when their was an incident where the cattle got out of hand and ran down some streets.
So maybe moving a parade to a large parking lot might be a stretch, but I do think cities might look at planning so maybe a special corridor or side street, maybe say a street by a lake, could be setup for parades.
Slow or fast?
Are you worried about more minor mishaps or equally pinprick attacks such as this, or are you worried about society’s overreaction to same?
Your words seem to say one thing but your tone seems to say something else. At least to me.
Shufflin’ as fast as they can. 
Race commentator: “Wait a minute, it appears that our leader is dropping out…one piece at a time!”
Speaking as someone who actually runs in road races: the running community (i.e., the people who actually participate in, or set up, races) does not consider the term “marathon” acceptable for any long-distance race. It has a very specific definition among runners (26.2 miles), and any race shorter than that will not use the term to describe itself.
Whether the term may be used broadly by non-runners to describe races in general is a different issue. But, when someone says, “run marathons in a park, or in a parking lot”, actual runners will immediately point out how impractical that is for actual marathons.
Unless you want to do one in Canada…in February.
There are very few things that are too crazy for me to consider doing. The Thunderwolves Indoor Marathon is one of them, as evidenced by the 4 (that’s four - less than the fingers on one hand) finishers!
211 laps?!?!? :eek: :smack:
I have friends who’ve run in the similar Icebreaker Marathon in suburban Milwaukee – it’s run at the Pettit National Ice Center (home of the US Olympic Speed Skating team) in late January. Due to the (comparatively) small area of the track, the race organizers have to stage the participants, and limit the race to a relatively small number of runners. Even a smallish outdoor marathon or other distance race will attract thousands of runners, which would completely overwhelm a small indoor loop course.
According to your link, last year they only had 5 entries. 4 finishers is an 80% completion rate. Seems pretty good to me.
This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve called Dictionary.com wrong.
I respectfully disagree with you on whether this usage is “acceptable”. While it is fair to use it metaphorically for any endurance task, when using it to refer to a foot race “marathon” has a specific meaning, and it is just as wrong to use it to refer to some other event as it would be to call a set of 7 competitions a “decathlon”.
“decathlon” means 10 events, “pentathlon” means 5, “triathlon” means 3, “biathlon” means 2.
And “marathon” means a foot race of 26 miles 385 yards.
And if you scroll down at Dictionary.com you’ll find that only their first source, for which they do not give a citation, disagrees with me.