Take on the marathon

Forget the election, forget the thousands of people whose houses have
been swept out to sea and forget Tim Tebow, the only thing anybody is
talking about is the marathon. I have heard people say that canceling
it would be a travesty when the only travesty would be having it
I don't want to hear about this race showing the resiliency of this
city because real resiliency is seen in a recovery effort that affects
people's lives. This is the city's premier event to show itself off
but when the only sights are devastation you may not be getting the
bang for your buck

I know the argument the mayor uses about it benefitting small
businesses but really what that is are hotels (which are triple booked
anyway), restaurants (which are packed) and maybe bodegas (which are
out of food). So who we should look to benefit are the people in need
by NOT dedicating a single cop, a single bottle of water, a single
gallon of gasoline to a bunch of guys trying for a personal
achievement

As a veteran of two marathons I know what it takes to train for one
of these things and I know how disappointed I'd be if it were pulled
from underneath me but as a veteran of life I also know that sometimes
things get in the way. I trained for my third marathon three years
ago, had run 13 qualifier races, had completed my 18 and 20 mile
training runs and had the date circles on my calendar and then had it
pulled from me when my daughter was born 5 weeks early. Sure it
wasn't ideal but that happens. Now obviously my own situation was
caused by a positive while this would be done after a tragedy but that
is all the more reason to cancel it.

How we can run a race which starts in Staten Island when people's
houses are still under-water and there are 100,000 houses without
energy is beyond selfish. How we use thousands of cars to drive the
race through Brooklyn when the entire borough is out of gasoline is
ludicrous, how we have ambulances on the course when hospitals are
being evacuated is criminal
Maybe the 2 million people who would otherwise be cheering on the
runners can instead volunteer at a shelter out in coastal Brooklyn
There will be a time to run the 2012 NYC marathon, that time just isn't today