to think marathons in cities cause too much mayhem?

Of course; notice makes it much easier to access my road if it’s closed 🙄

3:30am road closure

It can be a nightmare in Manchester. A large part of the marathon is in Trafford which has many brooks running through it. This means there are no diversions possible when the marathon is on. Many roads on the route only have one way in or out and they are blocked with the marathon all day. 8am until 5 or 6pm. It’s not as easy as saying use the diversion.

As long as you give them the several months notice like the marathons give I’m sure they will find it easy enough to plan for it.

Poor man. Yes, this does impact a lot of people unfortunately. My DH used to work in an emergency service, and it was very difficult under these circumstances. It must be even harder for carers who don't have the advantage of "blue lights". They work so hard and have so little time between care calls. I'm grateful that people do this work as so many people are relying on them. I'm not sure what can be done however, as this isn't going to change.

There is an unpleasant amount of ableism on this thread.

Do you want me to take my kids away for the weekend?

Do you want me to take them out at 2am when the roads close and back late the following night?

Like @HauntedBungalow says, we cannot go out for the day. We are totally hemmed in, complete with all manner of personal circumstances and disabilities and jobs and appointments.

Go away if you don’t get it. Go away and stop debating something you are not capable of understanding or have not experienced.

Why not? Go out before it starts, come back after it finishes. If it's a marathon it lasts longer but there will be rolling closures and roads will open as the runners pass.

If it's a 10k or a half marathon it's over in between 90 minutes and 3 hours or so. It's really not a big issue.

I don't like carnivals but I don't tell my local town council to ban it. I just don't go anywhere near it. Or I leave town for the day (or weekend).

Indeed.

We often get debates about parkrun on here too. The cheek of runners to use parks for 30-60 minutes a week! (Runners pay council tax too)

We can't go out for the day! That's the entire problem. We can't go anywhere.

We've had this debate before. It's one day.

It's well publicised.

If you don't like it, go out for the day.

There are other things which are far more disruptive than one day (or a few hours) of road closures for a race.

Me too @HauntedBungalow - also cut off every which way.

Of course, I should pull up my socks and be glad of it. Everyone in this vicinity will be stuck sitting at home. Most steadfastly ignoring the “fantastic atmosphere” and “sense of community” which is jogging past.

Pedestrian access too. Here there are a bunch of streets off the main road that are dead end - there's an industrial estate at the back, main road at the front. Can't cross the main road while the run is on, can't get out of the street the back way because there is no back way.

@Sesma I'm glad your husband enjoys running solitary marathons and feels safe doing so. For many people, they'd much rather have run an organised, marshalled event with paramedics on hand if needed. Women have been murdered in broad daylight on busy public paths, so many prefer to run in groups (park run, run clubs and organised events).
There's also a fantastic atmosphere at organised races, medals, and a sense of community. So many great physical and mental health benefits for the public good.

You don’t get it all..sorry for you

OP, please can you nip next door to that neighbour who will be sitting in his own excrement on Sunday and explain to him that he needs to think positively about the marathon? It’s good for some able bodied people’s health, local hotels will be benefitted and lots of charities’ coffers will be boosted.

Tell him not to be so bloody selfish.

And all those people who have worked all week and are hemmed in, unable to go anywhere on their weekend. Selfish gits.

DH does one every couple of weeks and has done for years but has managed to avoid every one of these event ones.

Because that one is what this thread is about. I haven't singled it out either, I've said any so all the me-me-me! events are covered.

I think you have to live somewhere shit like I do that never has events to close roads

You’re not literally dictating that the marathon shouldn’t go ahead, because you’re not in a position to do so. If you were, would you?

"I would find it hard to think either route would completely cut off car access to residential roads."

Maybe you should check then, because they absolutely do
.

There are any number of non-essential activities that encroach on other people’s lives happening every minute of every day. Why single out a large-scale health and fitness event?

I live on the route of this:

https://www.etapecaledonia.com/

So yeah.

What was daft was you stating that events like this are unnecessary.

They encourage people to get active.
They raise huge amounts of money for charity and the local economy.
They are planned months and years in advance so people can very easily work around a road being closed for a few hours.

All the care company needs to do is get in a few agency workers for a day.

The carers will be impacted by the traffic, access and other issues, meaning they are delayed to all their visits that day.

I get this but the carer firm will have known about this for ages and could put double staff on to allow for longer journeys. For one day a year. I used to be a community midwife and when there were such events in my city the managers would double staff the day. I'm guessing a private company prioritises profits though!