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September Marathon is canceled
By adamg on Thu, 05/28/2020 - 2:37pm
No way to hold it without bringing together large numbers of people in close proximity, Mayor Walsh said.
BAA CEO Tom Grilk said the association will refund runners' entry fees. He said the group is planning a weeklong "virtual Marathon," in which runners can win their usual shirts and unicorn medals.
Walsh joked that one positive side to this is that he and Police Commissioner William Gross will be running.
Participants in the virtual 2020 Boston Marathon will be required to complete the 26.2 mile distance within 6 hours & provide proof of timing. All finishers of the virtual race will receive an official Boston Marathon program, participant t-shirt, medal, & runner’s bib.
— Boston Marathon (@bostonmarathon) May 28, 2020
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Comments
Probably the right call
It's a lot of people standing near (or running near) one another for a long period of time. Pretty easy call.
As far as I'm concerned
As far as I'm concerned I don't care if there's ever another one. And no, I'm not a troll. People just invest way too much significance in that thing. But, as they say, it's not about me. I just wanted to register my opinion that not everybody worships at the altar of the marathon.
Oh we know not everyone cares
Oh we know not everyone cares about the marathon, because every single time there’s a post here about it someone who hates it comes here to tell us how much they hate it and wish it would be forever abolished.
It’s one weekend a year, and the marathon was here before you. Suck it up and deal with it.
Maybe it’s just me because I have been alone for months
But seeing everything become virtual and social distancing going on and on is just depressing.
Outright cancel and have people get excited for next year would be my preference for a lot of events. Though I understand it helps them raise money
I agree
The "virtual" thing seems silly. It would be preferable for them to spend time organizing smaller, amateur-only events throughout New England that wouldn't get the same number of runners or spectators and as a result, generally be safe.
No brainer. Right decision.
No brainer. Right decision.
No Fun No Fun
Hate to say it, a second wave is coming, yes, and there is nothing to stop it. That's biology. The further spread will be way underway a long time before September.
Does the mayor and governor really think that this will stop if we all eat our peas and wear clean underwear? If the Bruins win the cup, does he really think people aren't going to congregate? Central Square will have many a dozen people out and about when Liverpool clinches the Premier League circa June 27th. A few 90+ degree days this summer will have the tv stations slut shaming people on the beach even more than they were last Friday. You can't stop biology or the human need to socialize.
Hell, even Pay To Play Politio had a party at her house last weekend, sorry at her brother's house across her driveway, with way more than 10 people. Of course they were social distancing. Yup, sure. You betcha Karen. We believe you. You have to love the Do As I Say Not As I Do Conservatives.
It is time to get out and about a little more with precaution. Cancelling the marathon in order to stop the spread is like trying not to tell your parents about your F in algebra. You may delay things for a day or two, but you still got the F and have to face the consequences. The race would have been a lot smaller this year anyway, but when I hear someone hitting 5 people last night with gunshots, something tells me things are spreading still and the game is up with social distancing.
The curve was flattened and perhaps Attorney General Healy may want to indict a few nursing home owners but a virus is a virus and we aren't as smart as New Zealand. We are not that bright and the data has proven it, though when the data has shown that the average age of death from the virus in Massachusetts (82 years) is above the regular average age of death in the state (80.8 Years), perhaps we can get on with life with an * and a mask and maybe not cancel everything. The human condition does not really go for it.
Nah
There's a lightyear of difference between say, opening the city up to say 75% of what we were doing for public gatherings and having a major event with 50K people from all over the damn place gathering together in tight quarters to watch or run.
Get rid of the big stuff, marathon, going to Sox games, etc... and we can maybe start going to stores, restaurants without as much concern.
I agree a bit
I am a suburbanite. Things are a lot different out here. Here you were a mask at the grocery, hardware store, and garden center. Boston and Brookline are a ghost town when I drive through. It is terrifying. There is no one walking around. I had the owner of a certain awesome pizza place in Cleveland Circle thank me very much for coming in. I am scared for the mental health of a lot of people who have been cowering all this time.
I also last Sunday drove down Route 122 from Grafton to Woonsocket. If anything, more people were out and about that a normal late spring Sunday because there were no Red Sox games on. People were milling about in groups or house / graduation parties. People were also out walking and biking. This virus has been a blessing and a curse at the same time for many.
Fear has been a great motivator and it was completely justified at first. You don't think that local tv stations are rolling in advertising dough who would not want to play this up a wee more than they have too? Hate to be a cynical optimist, but we are well past the bad days.
As a Cleveland Circle
As a Cleveland Circle resident, I can assure you that plenty of people are out and about on a daily basis. I have to avoid walking around the reservoir because it is often too crowded. But, you're right, the car traffic is obviously way down.
I don't think everyone is cowering in their houses terrified of leaving. I think a lot of people have in fact left - the neighborhood saw a big exodus of students and young people who left apartments to move back home.
I am scared for the mental
As a therapist with a private practice - about half of my clients are college students and half working adults - I can tell you that very, very few are afraid of the virus itself. They aren't cowering, they know they are doing the responsible thing and staying home because they don't want to contribute to spreading it. I talk with my clients about these things for 6-8 hours a day every day. They are struggling with the effects of the lockdown - loneliness, isolation, boredom, uncertainty, anxiety, low motivation, worries about their careers and their futures, worries that we are reopening too soon, sleep disturbance, etc. These are the things bothering most people that I see, not fear. As for Cleveland Circle, a very high percentage of residents in that neighborhood are BC students who have mostly gone home. Almost all of my college-aged clients have left Boston.
TL/DR: They aren't cowering, they're being responsible.
I agree the local news has
I agree the local news has played this up- but have you seen the ad load on some newscasts? PSA's, promos and My Pillow ads running in what used to be valuable real estate
What about Pats?
But what good will this do if the Pats play their home game on Sunday, Sept. 13th? Or if BC plays its home game on Saturday, Sept. 12th? The decision to cancel 3.5 months out seems premature. It would make more sense to wait and see what the data looks like as Mass continues to reopen but also to continue to watch data from places like Georgia and Florida before making this decision. Otherwise, we could end up with a patchwork of cancellations that amount to half-ass measures...you know, kind of like the patchwork of state closures we have across the country. Like Pennsylvania's decision to close its liquor stores...which prompted people to travel and flood liquor stores on the state's border with New Jersey and West Virginia.
two things
One, I don't think full attendance Pats games are happening this fall, sorry.
Two, even a Pats game is different in terms of the number of people from *everywhere* coming into the city and 30K people running through 26 miles of suburbs.
It sucks but these are the easy choices to make if you're considering where to reduce risk while letting full time residents get something close to normal life back around Boston.
You'd Be Surprised.
There are a lot of people in certain areas who want the Pats to play. Since the Pats gameday fanbase skews, shall we say, Trumpian, Heraldian, Ram150ian, and Exurban, they are hoping that the disease will spread faster there knocking off a few of them off.
I wouldn't worry about BC games being a factor in disease spread. No one goes to any of their games anyway. However, I wouldn't visit any 68 year old lawyers in second floor offices in the center of Wellesley, Westwood, or Hingham for a few weeks after however, just in case they went to the game. Also, avoid most anyplace that on the Cape that has an early bird special. There are enough 1963 to 1983 BC class rings in those places that there is more gold there than an upper caste Indian wedding.
BS
Sorry, there simply aren't 'a lot of people' 'hoping' people contract a dangerous, contagious disease at the Pats. On either side of the aisle.
Oh Please
Take a joke.
The worst side effect
of this pandemic is that it is making a great number of people think that they are wise.
Another Side Effect - People Ignoring Data
A lot of special people think they are the smartest person in the room, yet they don't cite data showing that the death rate is skewed higher towards the already very sick, and instead just pontificate with their own sense of smugness.
As a Bruins STH and huge hockey fan..
They should just cancel the playoffs and pick up next year.
Commissioner Bettman said the NHL expects to conduct 30,000+ covid-19 tests for the duration of the playoffs. The NHL buy this many tests could drive up the price and impact lab processing times.
They shouldn't be playing, period.
Also you should stick to the suburbs, your idiocy and hilariously inaccurate anecdotal observations of Brookline/Boston/Cleveland Circle don't reflect reality.
Paranoid Patty
Lately I feel like Paranoid Patty. Yet everyone else is not.
I'm starting to crush mentally because of it. Here I sit at home. Working from home. Limiting my going out. wearing masks when I do from the time I leave my unit until I return.
Then just sitting here. Waiting. Well not sitting.. just keeping busy.
And I'm doing everything I should.. yet...
I see videos like The Ozark party
Or how Brian Sims went on about his state's GOP lawmakers being infected and not telling Democrats
Or videos like this where people went to the beach and "just don't care"
Or the line outside the local hair place because its so g-d important to look good right now
Or just walking and see people pull their mask down to smoke, or sip coffee..
Or the 4-5 kids next door all playing basketball
Or our own Karyn Polito having a party
and I'm just here alone.. doing what I should. I'm starting to wonder if I'm wasting my time or if its futile.
I'm not scientist but I try to look to people who would know, and I know that..
in 2 weeks we'll have a surge again (Thanks memorial day weekend)
in late July/early August we'll have another one (thanks 4th of july )
and again in mid-September (thanks labor day)
We're stupid to think people are going to obey and just stay home. The backlash is already starting in some states. Some places you're the odd one if you have a mask on.
More of this to come as summer heat turns up, tensions get high, people start to run out of money, and we get surges again, and have some orange colored poop throw into the mix, and Summer 2020 is shaping up to be one hell of a summer.
Yet I stay home and mind my own business. Not sure why, or what. At the rate we're going, I'm saving myself for ..... ? Not sure what's to come is worth saving for.
In short.. watching our society's slow demise is starting to wear on me.
Risk Levels
My fear is that in 2-3 weeks the infection level and death rate won't substantially change. (Perhaps inch up higher, but not surge.) This will make people think everything they've been doing is for nothing and that the experts are full of shit.
Then in October or November, there's a real 2nd surge. But because people "learned" to ignore these warnings over the summer, people disregard expert advice and tens or a hundred thousand die needlessly.
This is why I think it's important to discuss risk levels of contagion. Being outdoors and moving is very low risk event. Being indoors and/or in close proximity to other people for more then a few minutes is a high risk event. While both have a very real risk, focus public heath advisories on the high risk activities.
They shouldn't have aimed for Sep
They should have rescheduled for October. September is too hot. It would have bought them a bit more time, too.
Oh well.
Can't Do October
NYC has dibs on that. Theirs is scheduled for November 1, but that means that few very would have run both.
September 14 was never a good idea
for reasons having nothing to do with Covid-19 but a lot to do with the weather. I'll remind people here of Ari Ofsevit's article about this which he wrote way back in March. He's worth taking seriously, as someone who nearly died of heat stroke at the finish line a few years ago.
Irony is bitch
Sept 14th this year will now be the absolutely most perfect running weather in the history of the race: Cool, dry, and strong winds in the runner's favor.
Marathon Monday 2021 will feature Boston's worst noreaster in decades.
Why does Walsh decide?
Only a short part of the Marathon route is in the City. It could just be rerouted! They could go west for F's sake.Call it the Woostar Marathon 2020 yea.
Not just Marty
Did you miss the reference to "BAA CEO Tom Grilk"? Clearly the group that actually organizes and runs the thing was involved in this decision (and no, they're not going to move the Boston Marathon totally outside of Boston).
Huh
Doesn’t seem to stop the New York Giants or the Dallas Cowboys.