AIBU to be fucked off at road marathons?

The main road out of my village has been closed since MAY. We have had a diversion that takes twice as long to get to the nearest town.
Sometimes we are inconvenienced.

Car drivers inconvenience whole cities every single day with their pollution, noise and congestion shortening lives and making it miserable to get around. It's ok for other people to occasionally cause inconvenience as well

@DinosaurMunch a car free day a month would be amazing! I went out for a run early before the marathon last year and it was lovely - there were families out running with the kids on bikes and scooters (probably the only day of the year that mum and dad get to run together!) and people playing football on the main road. Such a good healthy vibe!

Okay 😂

I've known more injuries and deaths actually from marathon running than many others sports - so to say marathon runners "save" the NHS money is nonsense

I'd be in favour of a car free day every month to be honest. It's so much nicer without the noise and stink of traffic. You can go out locally and it's actually pleasant.

There are bikes or walking as options. People need to stop being so reliant on cars. Lots of people don't even have cars including lots of disabled and elderly people. They manage every day. Most drivers are able bodied, just too busy and self important to walk anywhere

How very dare they repair the road without checking when it would be convenient for you!

A marathon takes a few hours and it's over.

There are loads of events which inconvenience others but from some reason it's only running or cycling events that people get upset about. I wonder why that is.

I don't like carnivals but my town has one. So I go out for the day it's on, or stay at home all day. It's one day.

Is it that hard? Carers are allowed through and if you need to go somewhere you can move your car to park it elsewhere just before the event starts.

OP, you say why can't they run around a park? There was a thread a few weeks ago on how inconvenient parkrun is for park users (for 30 minutes a week) and it filled up in no time, so I don't think people would like marathon/other event runners using their park regularly either.

There's a mentality of "I don't run and don't want to do it so nobody else should be able to" rather than "right I need to go out that day so where shall I put my car to make sure I can".

Is this you ?
hahahahah

All of these races are agreed well in advance with the council and the organisers have to make plans for emergency situations and vehicle access for emergencies.

It isn't just a random group of people chosing to run in the middle of the road.

We've got one near the end of the month. Hoping I don't go into labour those days as the car will be trapped!
It's so annoying

Your town has a road race every summer weekend? That's wild!

Yes, during the summer they are. .the race season is over now and guess whats happened now..the council has dug up the road ..we two in and out and both being dug up with lights ....

Most marathons and half marathons through towns involving road closures are normally held on the same weekend each year. So it should come as no surprise that it's happening. Our local one had signs up for weeks on all main roads approaching the city warning of road closures on the specific date.

Please tell me where you live, it sounds great!!

It’s once a year. Yes it’s a bit annoying but it’s not like it’s a weekly event. It’s like all the residents moaning about festivals because it’s loud/increased traffic/road closures. It’s once a year. Usually on the same weekend. If you don’t like it go away that weekend.
We have one that blocks our cul-de-sac in a small village every year. I just know that if I want to go anywhere that day I’ll have to park outside the village and walk to my car. Slightly inconvenient yes but it’s not a huge drama

I have some sympathy with this, but the problem is where you draw the dividing line. If it's not OK to cause problems for residents with running events, what about all those football, rugby, tennis etc events that attract big crowds? I live near a large stadium and, when there's a big match on, they close the roads around us and there's horrendous traffic jams on the main roads. It's not like they can tell the big sports stadia to fuck off somewhere else. What about big pop events, parades, royal events etc?

Big road races can fill stadiums- of seated spectator space capacity. There aren't venues that can accomodate events of long distance running- at professional events like the Olympics, they still have to compete in public spaces.

Distance track running or other multiple short loops is an injury risk because of being imbalanced to one side from running in one direction. Treadmills are mindnumbingly tedious and not the same functional movement as propelling yourself along a static surface. It doesn't activate the full range of muscles effectively so also leaves runners with injury risk. They have their uses for short distances and suplementing outdoor running but are not a good strategy for sole and prolonged use.

Motivation for thousands or tens of thousands of people to train for and participate in sport is healthy and of greater benefit to society. Most events result in donations to charities, and they draw people into areas that result in extra spending in the local economy. Ultimately councils would refuse permision and support if they didn't think that events were of greater benefit.

It's taken events like parkrun years to get back to their previous participation levels from the Covid disruption. Without events and training cycles, it was very difficult to maintain regular, healthy, consistent training in 2020/21. Many people that tried running then were displaced from other activities then reverted back and there wasn't much actual gain in the running community.

Outdoor, social exercise is so powerful for physical and mental health. Society's bigger problem is a lack of people taking part in adequate levels of exercise for basic health.

104 times round the track = a marathon. They do exist, but are not popular.

The race organisers have to pay to close the roads and it’s not cheap. Road racing isn’t a cheap hobby.

It’s a shame that your council can’t be more flexible with this.

Roads aren't closed for cars to use them and they are designed for cars. Closing roads so people can go jogging is very inconvenient.

Athletics tracks? Parks? Hire a large field?

In a way I agree with this. We live in a city and there are definitely quite a few events over the year. The traffic is quite busy already on weekends and on the day of events it becomes practically impossible to get out of the house.
The problem is that in a city you need to use public transport or your car to get somewhere and you can’t. It’s not a village where you can get around everything by foot in 30 minutes.
Also weekends are the only time when most people can get to shops for something major or visit relatives so it looks like “ oh it’s just one weekend” but weekends are very valuable.
On the other side people who are taking part do a great thing for themselves and others. And I suppose doing events in a city helps with transport and other logistics for organizers and participants.

YABU. I live in Cardiff, we've just had the half marathon this weekend.

Yes, the road closures can be annoying as a resident, but in all honesty the route has barely varied in it's 21 year history and with the exception of COVID disruption the date is pretty much always the 1st Sunday of October. There is plenty of notice and signage in advance so you'd have to be either really new to the city or living under a rock to be unaware of the road closures.

Entirely predictable, and brings thousands of visitors from all over the world (it's a super half) to visit and spend money in the city, possibly the surrounding area too.

As someone who lives in the city I find the constant road closures/gridlock for football, rugby, music gigs to be far more disruptive. Very little advance warning and very frequent.

You're also missing the point that some people only start running because of these big events. They sign to challenge themselves for charity/in memory of someone, start training and realise that running is good for the mind as well as the body. It encourages participation and activity, we need more motivation for exercise, not less.

Cars are far more inconvenient, and they're every where all the time