Marathons and inconvenience to the public

[Münchner]

I had the pleasure(?) of partaking in the Munich marathon on the weekend. At one point roughly 2/3 the way through two lanes of a major road had been closed and traffic was restricted, thereby creating some serious traffic jams. At this point a couple of motorists wound their windows down and delivered tirades to the order of 'thankyou you arseholes for inconveniencing the entire city so you can run your stupid 42km'. They were corpulent middle-aged men driving BMW SUVs or similar so one can imagine the rather er....robust response from the running pack on the other side of the temporary fencing.

It was late in the race and I was too tired to think anything sensible but looking back the encounter has made me realise (understand) that these marathons - and other road running races - require a large use of public resources (police, medical etc) as well as serious inconvenience to the 99% that do not participate in such things. The road closures alone are significantly more extensive and longer than those required for, say, a protest or a parade etc. This point is even more relevant with running races; in theory they could just be held on forest tracks and paths where no road closures are necessary.

To my question, is it really necessary to hold running races like marathons in the middle of cities at significant inconvenience to the majority who do not run? You wouldn't close down half a city for a say hockey tournament for example, so why do we runners get special treatment, especially when there's a viable alternative. Are we just selfish, narcissistic pr..cks?

Are we just selfish, narcissistic pr..cks?

I'm afraid so.

There was a thread just about a week ago discussing the exact same thing.

https://www.sportive.com/cycling/543661/ridelondon-2025-cancelled-as-organisers-consider-future

Usually there will be an economic impact assessment which measures the spend coming into the city - nights in a hotel, travel, meals out for runners and supporters. Cities who choose to go ahead do so because of positive economic benefit or for more general health reasons (eg Glasgow trying to shake off their unhealthy image).
city centre races always attract more participants than trail runs. Personally I prefer trail runs of a thousand runners or less but there’s no denying that the Great North Run with its 45,000 fills every hotel in Newcastle.

Isn't it just part and parcel of living in a society? There is ebb and flow.

Big football matches cause major traffic inconvenience every week. Hordes going Christmas shopping /going to Winter Wonderland/doing the school run also inconveniences others

As a non-runner I love the atmosphere when my city is shut down for the annual 10k, and also loved it in my previous city when we had our annual marathon.

I think it's great that society takes a break from the daily grind and does something different. It's one day of the year, not even a full day usually, warned well in advance.

Also if you're local you generally know a few participants which adds to it :D

Are we just selfish, narcissistic pr..cks?

No, the local tourist boards and others will have concluded that the publicity for the cities and revenue brought into the areas outweighs a few hours of inconvenience to the residents.

Where are these forest tracks and paths? I don't really want to be doing 5 loops of the same route.

I'm not a runner but I'd turn it round and say why is the car and the roads king. It's a minority that are truly dependent on road access to get around. Cars are prioritised 360+ days a year, pedestrians can take over one day. It's better for the environment to have fewer cars anyway.

Also, doing things for fun is valid. Any major public event involves the services you've listed: concerts, parades, fairs. We could cancel all large scale events on the basis that they drain resources and cause disruption for the minority who aren't participating, but no one is suggesting that (well, not outside Mumsnet anyway) because of the economic and social value they bring.

During half-term my bus trip was re-routed and overall time changed from 1hr 20min to 2hrs 30min because of a cycling event in London. There were also massive traffic jams probably consisting of people going on holidays with their families.
We have so many transport disruptions in London all the time - trains, tubes, even flights - why add even more misery to it? And why those cyclists are more important than normal families?

I agree. And the inconvenience is also pretty infrequent. It's not like it's every week, it's once a year, maybe twice, per area. The annual half marathon in my town causes a few hours of disruption out of a whole year.

And I've no intention of ever doing a marathon/half marathon/10k, so I'm not defending my own hobby here.

I live close to where a major music festival is held yearly. The disruption due to additional traffic lasts almost a week with 2 days where locals just dont even try to travel through the area. There is also an annual running race, causing road closures on a Sunday morning. The festival is far, far more disruptive. I also imagine the police and NHS pressure is far greater from the festival. But it brings a lot of money to the area and I love seeing all the people coming in, nostalgic vibes from my youth! I have participated in both events in the past. The minor inconvenience once a year is outweighed by the positives ro the local economy IMO.

Long-term, UK cities need to start developing better public transport and moving away from private car use anyway. The vast majority of cases of congestion are caused by too many vehicles - shouldn't we be more concerned about that?

Marathons and sporting events usually generate a lot of revenue for the local economy and are therefore well worth some short term inconvenience.

I find I don’t really trust the councils and local governments as much as I used to. They seem to make peculiar decisions and constantly misread the public mood. Things that used to be well thought and well managed inexplicably turn into shitfights

We used to live close to the Great North Run route. I know for some it’s rather annoying and the traffic can be bad but I loved the atmosphere. Bar torrential rain we’d take a picnic and sit by the toute cheering everyone through. We’d host friends running and ferry them about as we knew the roads and had a great system to get to and fro. There will always be angry people in the world we can’t do anything about.

I live near a marathon route. Twice a year everything is shut down. I'm no runner but I love it! The shut roads, the less traffic, everyone supporting, the cafes and pubs are full all day even though we are halfway down the route.

Also love near a major football club and rugby stadium. This causes far far more weekly disruption.

I work in care- when marathons happen in my town, carers find it very difficult to get to those who have home visits. These are vulnerable people who need visits to get their meals/medication etc. Its easy to say "just get rid of cars" when you are fully mobile and dont rely on people visiting you to stay alive.

They arent rare either- they close the roads off approx every couple of months (sometimes monthly in summer) where I live for marathons, bike rides, festivals, events etc- it happens regularly

I live in the middle of a marathon route (this weekend - really looking forward to it), which means we can't get out for the full day. So many moan about it, but it's every year, so plenty of notice, and the roads don't close that early. If it's a problem people should go out earlier, or park their car slightly further away and walk to it, and I'm saying that as someone who would have to park about 2 miles away from home. We love marathon day - everyone from the village (who isn't complaining) goes out to cheer them on. Loads of money is raised for charity too.

I do understand if you have carers it must be very difficult to plan for.

The London Marathon goes past the bottom of our road. On Marathon day if you want to drive anywhere you need to be out by very early morning, or else stuck until early to mid afternoon.

There is the occasional moaner, but the majority of the street gathers on the main road to clap and cheer participants. It’s a great day to catch up with the neighbours and inspiring to watch the runners.

Most people would be gutted if it stopped to pander to people’s need to drive 365 days per year

We also live near a marathon and half marathon route. At least twice a year we are completely cut off. I live in a suburb of around 15k people and there is only one road that we can use to exit, and this road only let's traffic towards town intermittently. The other two heading towards town are closed. It causes chaos for anyone who works in town, public transport stops. We also can't get to the local hospital which is a 5-10 minute drive normally - it is a 25 minute detour on race days.

No other event ever closes so many main routes into and out of town.

Its not just runners, bikers too! My sister lives in Zurich and they had some bike race there just recently. Everything was blocked, traffic everywhere. She couldnt drive to or from her house for 2 whole days because her street was fully blocked. They ripped out trees and traffic islands and are planting and building them again now 🤦🏻‍♀️ She gets to pay for it though through the taxes 🤣

There’s an annual cycle race near me, lasts two days and almost all the main roads are closed, it’s been despised by locals for years.

Happily, it’s been cancelled.

There are various events that necessitate road closures, not just races. Like a pp has said a town local to me had a festival earlier this year and surrounding roads were closed for 3 days. Markets, parades, carnivals, music festivals, cycle races etc often close roads.

Road works are obviously different although some appear to be closed for weeks when it doesn't appear that anything is happening.

But I do understand it must be frustrating if you live on the route and need access for carers etc.

It's discussed at length on a separate thread. (Although as a runner I'm intrigued at the towns allegedly having 5 closed road marathons per year...)
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5182636-aibu-to-be-fucked-off-at-road-marathons?page=1

I just did out local half marathon on the weekend. They do close roads but give loads of notice. I live on the route and it's a couple of hours disruption. Where I live there diversions mostly rather than complete road closures.

I think the city really benefits from the race. It puts us in a good light. Also had a couple of people ask about taking up running o'r doing some exercise so there is a positive impact on people's health too. That's not even thinking about the fun run or charity impact