Jul 21 2009
L.A. Marathon Will Break The Sabbath From This Day Forward
So, for those of you who know anything about Marathons, you know that there is a huge difference between March and May when it comes to running conditions. There is a reason why most marathons happen in the spring months, with May being a huge gamble in any city across the globe. So, when churches asked the City of Los Angeles to switch the marathon from a Sunday in March to a Monday in May… well, this caused all kinds of problems.
- The city actually made the change… to a marathon that has been happily run on Sunday’s for years.
- The runners who had been training for the marathon had been training for March weather, not May weather (which can easily hit the 80 degree mark in May, in Los Angeles).
- The churches bullied their way to get this because they knew that those elected officials who would ultimately decide would not want to piss off the religious voters.
- The city, in general (its residents, business, etc.) was always planning on a Sunday run, not a Monday run… in the most gridlocked city in the United States.
- Fans and spectators always come out on Sundays for marathons… it’s how all cities do it. They generally don’t show up on a Monday, when they are… oh, I don’t know… working.
The city fo Los Angeles now sees that it was wrong in its decision. They are voting this week to move the marathon back to a Sunday in March… permanently. This whole thing is just one more example of how stupid decisions are made to keep the religious groups happy. These types of decisions almost never have a positive outcome.
One response so far
So incredibly stupid. I get the issue with having the race on a Sunday, but why change it to a random Monday? Couldn’t they have tried a Saturday? Are there a lot of devout Christian marathon runners? And aren’t marathons sort of a pagan event in the eyes of Christians, having its roots in Greek mythology?
In the city where I live (not very big, but big enough) they have a bike race ever spring…and for several years it was held on a Monday afternoon beginning around 4pm and running until about 6pm. They closed every major street downtown for the race, and all detours were crowded by poor people trying to get home during rush hour and others driving into town to try and watch the race. The first year my apartment was in the city I left work at 5pm as usually and it took me almost an hour and a half to drive the 8 miles from my office to my apartment.
After years of city dwellers complaining to the city government, they finally moved the race to a Saturday. So incredibly stupid.