to think marathons in cities cause too much mayhem?

[Bottlew]

There is a full marathon in my city on Sunday. They will start to close the roads 5pm on Saturday and it is impossible to drive anywhere.

My neighbour is immobile and relies on carers. All his visits are severely delayed and it means he ends up sitting in his faeces and urine for hours and hours. He won't get his meals till a lot later. There is access given for carers, emergency services but this still ends up in a lot of delays.

I know it brings in a huge amount of income for the city but the disruption is terrible particularly for those who are vulnerable. It means I don't get to visit people in need because I can't drive anywhere. Public transport doesn't work as I often have a lot of shopping etc.

Where snow, ice and flooded lanes will often block you off!

If that was a relative of mine sitting there in a state of completely preventable indignity and distress I’d probably be pissed off at some pointless running event too. We don’t give a shit about the elderly in this country. Only the young, fit and dogs. YANBU.

You don’t think that events like marathons encourage lots of people to start/continue running, and gives them a challenging goal to aim towards? I’d be astonished if that wasn’t the case.

It's annoying if you live in the loop. I do, and it gets on my wick. Can't even park elsewhere and walk to the car in the morning because all the middle class streets are permit only. Twice a year I get hemmed in by joggers, can't even cross the street. If they went in in a straight line it would be better.

You wouldn't be pissed off at the care company being paid good money to look after him?

The same care company that clearly won't spend a bit on extra staff one day a year?

Said by someone who clearly has no idea of the complexities and logistics of running a care service. You can’t just magic extra staff up to make things continue as normal. It’s hard enough to make sure everything gets covered normally let alone on busy days.

I wouldn't want the marathon banned, but there is very little detailed information pro-actively put out there by the organisers or by TFL to warn those who live nearby so they can plan effectively. Our station will be shut, and there are road closures near us, but no one told us, I had to look for that information.
Last year one of our friends tried to drive their little boy to hospital on the Sunday morning before it had even started and the marshals refused to let them cross the route, because they weren't in an ambulance! OK, fine, but if that's the kind of thing that you don't find out until it's a problem, and then it's REALLY a problem.
A lot of the people working in the care sector in London are recent immigrants who may not even be that aware of the Marathon as a "Thing" that they need to plan for. It's not a public holiday, and it's not like there's posters up telling people it's about to happen, and to plan accordingly.
I'm not surprised this happens. I just hope the agency is more aware now, and plans a bit better for the future.

Where are all this extra staff going to come from? We’re running on the bare minimum as it is. Nobody wants to do the job. Primarily because people treat carers so shockingly.
Id love for some of you to come and see the realities of running a care business day to day.

I live in Manchester and am affected twice a year for the marathon and half marathon. I live just off a main road that is completely shut from 7am-3pm, there is no access to my home at all, just as an FYI for those who don’t believe that and think everywhere has some sort of access for cars on marathon days, they really don’t.

However, it doesn’t bother me personally. We get so much communication, know about it in advance, and just plan a really nice chilled day at home, which usually includes going out to watch part of the marathon and cheer people on. A little further down the main road is usually a marquee and DJ, it’s all good fun.

Marathons motivate people to train for them, whether that means keeping up an existing running habit or starting and keeping at it. Running is really great for heart health, mental health, and weight management. So it stands to reason that marathons are probably indirectly saving the NHS a lot of money. The dates are announced a year in advance. Care services have a long time to plan out their alternative routes.

Technically yes but but you’re very short sighted if you don’t think that organised events such as marathons, parkruns and everything in between are hugely important in getting people motivated and helping them achieve their goals.

on a very basic level, if I run a marathon by myself, where is the medal, or even the proof that I did it!!!

To be fair, he is doing pretty well to be living independently at 90.

I have definitely cost the NHS tens of thousands of pounds with competitive running related injuries, surgeries and physio.

Access is given to carers. But not everyone has a SW carer. We’ve had events where they’ve closed roads and it has caused havoc because familial carers haven’t been able to get through.

What makes you think that? He can't even get out of his chair. I often get calls from him because he has dropped his spoon and can't pick it up. His family call me to check on him because he can't put the phone back on the hook so they can't get through to him. I have found him on the floor several times and called an ambulance.

No, I read carefully and saw that carers are allowed access. Then the OP started moaning about taking her shopping on the bus.

Driving causes mayhem in cities 362 days a year, a marathon is bringing people together for a great even. Drivers have had weeks to sort out alternative arrangements

tbh I don’t know why carers don’t use electric bikes for most of there calls, far easier and cheaper than a car

A previous poster mentioned only the mall is closed from the day before for the London Marathon. I’ve just checked for Manchester and some of the city centre is closed from 4am but the rest seems to close between 7:30-8:30. Either you are exaggerating or the carers are using it as an excuse to put him in bed earlier the night before. I’ve done Manchester a couple of times myself and found the roads pretty clear because people were avoiding driving around because of the marathon, I got around much faster than usual using back streets - surely for a carer that knows the area they will find it at least as sense me that doesn’t know their way around.

Emergency services normally have to drive around cars, from experience when I’ve seen ambulances on a running route everyone moves to the side pretty quickly to let them through and they end up with more space.

Are you just grumpy? You can either be miserable and ruin your own day, or embrace it and have fun cheering people on.

Manchester and London are 2 cities where 50% of households don’t have any access to a car.

this is very misleading. The actual City of Manchester possibly this could be true. But greater Manchester is made up of 10 boroughs most of which are very car dependent. Most of the marathon goes though Trafford which is Greater Manchester but not the city of Manchester. It’s Trafford that will be ground to a halt tomorrow more than Manchester itself.

tbh I don’t know why carers don’t use electric bikes for most of there calls, far easier and cheaper than a car

Oh I'm sure if you had a wee cursory think you'd realise why carers don't travel by bike. You can't use a bike, electric or otherwise, within the marathon loop anyway.

So the problem isn’t marathons, it’s that he can’t live independently anymore but is refusing to accept that.

How did we survive when everything was shut on a Sunday?

I live right on a marathon route and I’ve learned to just enjoy it. It’s turned into a beautiful event for me and my family. I can’t go out - if you can’t beat them join them - but as other PPs have said - plan ahead. Stay overnight?

It is only one day - we would never live if we all had this mindset.

I do feel for anyone who is majorly effected by the road closures though. It can’t be easy. Perhaps this is something that needs attention- overnight or local carers on marathon days and therefore people on the marathon route can walk to where help is needed? Just a thought - aware it might take some budgeting and planning to implement.

Well thank you for doing this @DivergentTris , but why should you?
It means valuable public sector time is spent organising this so some people can run around a city.
Whats wrong with running around a park/the countryside?

A little further down the main road is usually a marquee and DJ, it’s all good fun.

How do they get in to get set up??!