AIBU to be fucked off at road marathons?

I forgot that I had seen signs for weeks and tried to drive to the in-post. I turned back and decided to make it my dog walk. I was glad I had - it was lovely to see such a community enjoying running and everyone lining the streets to cheer them on. It's one day a year.

I run three times a week, and manage to do so without blocking more than a single track footpath. So I sympathised with the OP. I don’t think it’s necessary to get in other people’s way to keep fit.

Once a year is fine. Imposing your hobby on a public space every week (Parkrun) is annoying.

I came here to say the amount of disruption in Trafford due to marathons, cycling events and whatever the hell else they do is ridiculous. I lived in Stretford for a year, and it was about 4 or 5 times during that period. Way too much.

Yes this happens near us as well, makes me laugh when they start banging on about the way it'll boost trade for local businesses - oh aye, only if the bloody staff can get there in the first place and get parked. No public transport from my way goes to the town I work in on these days, there's park & ride but it's the other side of the town, where the diverted bus drops you off, and there's no buses at all after 7.30. The park & ride is temporary and locked after 8pm, not great if you finish work after 7.30 because it's about a 30 minutes walk.

They're great days but they remove already restricted parking from the town, then invite more people in. The organisation is rubbish and yet it's the same every year, with the same "It's on a Sunday, enjoy the race and chill out!" Like they won't be expecting the shops & hospitality businesses open on that day for their pleasure and fully staffed with people who will find it nigh on impossible to actually get there and do it!

Although when these races (mainly cycling) were planned the potholes got finally fixed on the routes - so that was a bonus 🤣.

So, those of us who object to having the inconvenience of road closures for people's hobby....are obese?🤔
I fail to find the logic there.

The split in this poll nearly identically reflects obesity rates in this country, but surely that's a coincidence 😂

City centre is flats lots with their very own car parks or permit only. Mostly converted old offices or built ontop of stores.

Further out where its houses is all permit parking only, untill you are talking a good 20/30 minute walk.

@Wellingtonspie Does nobody live in your city centre then?

I'd say it's fairly unusual to have a large designated area for events / circus / bonfire that everybody lives far enough away from not to be affected at all by additional noise and traffic. That's not the case where I live.

Our Christmas market is in the town centre with all the normal car parks operating. Same as the light switch on.

festivals city centre

music festival/show field in the centre again or same place as the fireworks

Fire work display again held in a place that was built and designed for large volumes of traffic and parking.

circus in that above field

Beach well yes we tend to visit beaches when away from our own city. We park in designated car parks however and actually prefer to use ones a bit of a walk from the beach itself. Though I’d guess they want tourist's paying to park, buying food and drinks and going in arcades and buying nick nacks.

Nobody wants to be blocked into their own street or a designated circle.

It's not like it's every week, and at least a good amount of the runners will be raising money for charity.

We live near a big stadium and if there's a big match or gig on it's a nightmare round about. If, God forbid, we had to get out of our estate in a hurry at the same time people are leaving the gig/match we'd literally have no chance. I still curse Ed Sheeran after a particularly nightmarish experience trying to get home after he played at ours!

@TempestTost You'll notice that I very deliberately excluded events at permanent event venues from my list.

Something (like a Christmas market) taking place in a dedicated area doesn't mean it's not inconveniencing anyone. Our local one is only small and takes place in a pedestrian square, but surrounding residents still experience hundreds of people turning up / creating traffic / parking / making noise / dropping litter in the surrounding streets every evening for a week or more.

My road was closed because of the London Marathon back in 2016 and there were so many people that the "runners" could only "run" at walking pace anyway!

Most of these things, in my experience, are much more localized than city runs. Some are permanent features - if you live near a concert venue or exhibition ground, of course you will get traffic during a concert.

Most things like markets are in spaces that are normally set up for such things. When they aren't, yes they can be a problem. For years my city did events along the harbour in a particular parking area. This was the parking are also for the farmer's markets, the library, the ferry, and a major bus interchange. The fact that it was an event space five or six times a year was really a problem for people using these services, especially since it meant street parking was already overwhelmed.

But why anyone ever thought, oh, lets just close a bunch of streets in a city so some people who like to run can do it there in a giant group, I don't really understand. If my neighborhood wants to have a street party (which we do yearly), we have to get a permit and that means getting a signature from every house on the street. Somehow the runs don't have to, and the problems they create go well bend the street that are actually closed.

The weekday events are cyclists. Usually in teams with support vehicles, so I assume professional or semi-professional? These irk me far more than the runners, as they put big barriers up for these ones so we can't cross the road. The running events, you can take your chances and dash across.

Map of Gtr Mcr marathon route. Black area - which I live in - is completely encircled. Because my street is a cul de sac onto a closed road it's not possible to drive to crossing places.

I don't see why these runs are in cities, myself. They aren't a very good place for them.

I suppose I would prefer it if there was some rotation of the circuit - we cannot be the only possible 26 and 13 mile course in Greater Manchester - or failing that if a little extra of the money generated came to those districts who are inconvenienced. At the moment it's the same streets every time but the money generated is divvied up at GM level with no sweetener for affected zones.

People drive to hobby activities in their cars, are they allowed?

I agree, @Hoplolly . It's ridiculously inconvenient for no good reason.
Run somewhere else where you don't put main roads out of commission and force people to accommodate your hobby.

Agree @Wellingtonspie. Where I live it complete seals off the area, there is no option to drive your car somewhere the night before and park slightly further way because it's a semi-rural location.

People post on FB asking questions about how they can get to work, get to the people they care for and get told to pipe down, enjoy it, watch the race...it's so patronising.

I think the races would be perfectly fine if they didn’t completely block some people in.

In our case even if we had parked streets away, they where mad we where even walking across where runners may be. Thats not on to be trapped in a circle because thats where they decided the race would basically turn around and head back to the city centre.

We no longer live in that circle thankfully but I still feel for those who do we live along part of the straight now. I can still get to anywhere I need though there may be a diversion but I’m not stuck.

Lots of things cause inconvenience to people off road and on road, that's life.

I'm a runner and I take part in all kinds of races (well I plan to, only done 2 so far) The one I did off road was still an open path so we were still inconveniencing those walking. The road one I did was on closed roads so causing problems to people who wanted to drive on the road.

Unless we don't do any running races anywhere?

It's also not just running, we had a nightmare in Singapore trying to navigate the roads because they were closed because of the Grand Prix (which we were there for so we couldn't complain but perhaps the locals do?)

Download festival causes chaos every year and used to be a pain for me to get to work.

Roadworks that seem to be a speciality near me are constantly causing issues although our issue with them is the lack of planning and consistency.

Tourist hot spots can be jammed in the summer because of out of town visitors. I'm definitely guilty of visiting these kinds of places and causing part of the problems.

However, what is the alternative? Nobody does anything that might cause a problem? No races, running or otherwise, nobody visiting anywhere out of their area, no festivals...

I was running Cardiff on Sunday and road crossings for pedestrians were definitely plentiful, and - from what I could see as I ran past - well organised. But there would have been quite a few places where crossing the road just wouldn't have been possible.

Cardiff is one of very few events that have a LOT of runners (in excess of 20k). Only the Great North Run has more (and London Marathon). I can see how it's very difficult to police road crossings (for pedestrians/spectators) because the chances of you getting in the way of runners is high. When you're running in a crowd, you can't just stop suddenly, or swerve to avoid someone. People crossing a stream of runners would likely involve a big pile up!

Smaller events (which the vast, vast majority are) have a much slower stream of participants and it's much easier to cross the road.

The Scouts aren't paying £50 a head to do that walk.