On the Mets, the Marathon, and NYC in general

Hello I thought I’d check in since I have been quiet all week.

I don’t have it too bad. My family is safe, my home is undamaged.

I’m on Day 5 of no power. The first few were OK (although the lack of data service drive me nuts) as I fired up the generator. Now with gas hard to find I just run it a few hours a day. I’m down to my last log for the fireplace. It’s chilly.

But so many have it far far worse I’m not going to complain.

About the Mets: they are the furthest thing from my mind right now. I’m thankful for Goon and the others keeping the blog up and running, if anyone is even there to read it, but I find it hard to sit in a dark cold house making up generic posts about 1982. They will or won’t sign Wright (they will) and this week is definitely not the time to announce you gave a baseball player $100 million. Kay low Mets.

I’m running the marathon Sunday. I don’t think it should be held, and I say that with the perspective of someone who put a lot of time and work into preparing but also as someone who grew up in the city. It just doesn’t seem right to have it. Maybe push it down two weeks, maybe don’t have it at all. The thought of 40,000 people like me heading to Staten Island for some fun seems crazy. I think the Nets were right to postpone. I think the NFL is tasteless in playing the Giants game in New Jersey on Sunday.

Some of you will fight me on that, especially the Giants part, and I bet you are writing that on your laptop in a nice warm apartment. Enjoy the game.

I didn’t head into New York City today because the mayor made up some unrealistic HOV3 rules. I’d love to take mass transit but there really isn’t any. So the only choice was to drive, and the psyche-switcheroo they pulled at the George Washington Bridge yesterday was unconscionable.

So I won’t be contributing to Mayor Bloomberg’s precious commerce today. The marathon will. Apparently commerce is the given reason for why we should run. I’d pull up a quote here but the 3G is barely working to even write this.

I had planned that I would spend the week nagging people into supporting my fundraiser. I hope you do, but everyone has their own to worry about this week. A few people did donate and I thank you whole-heartedly but I need to get into the website to send the thank yous. I will.

Dan is also fundraising for Movember, please support him as well if it can in these awkward times.

I hope you and your family are safe.

2 Replies to “On the Mets, the Marathon, and NYC in general”

  1. Thanks for the post, Shannon. We discussed this on Twitter a bit this morning but I’m with you, the race should be canceled. Maybe just postponed but a lot of runners plan their training schedule to be ready for 11/4 and postponing 2 weeks isn’t healthy. Still, the biggest and best reason to run the NYC Marathon and not “Joe’s Marathon”or some other small city’s race is the celebration. And this weekend there simply won’t be any. So we’re not only dividing the city on this issue and possibly straining our resources (I have real trouble believing we won’t despite the politicians word) we’re taking away the best part about this race, the people cheering, the music playing the celebrations, before, during and after. To paraphrase Office Space, people can run a race anywhere. they come to NYC for the atmosphere and the attitude.

    Again if the race is held, good luck to you, I support your decision and anyone else’s to run and have fun,but I hope this decision is taken out of your hands and the higher ups cancel the event. And then next year when you run, you truly get the NYC Marathon experience you and so many others have trained for deserve.

  2. Is there any news on anything the Mets are doing for victims of the hurricane? Parts of Queens including the neighborhood I grew up in are absolutely devastated. The Mets need to step up. I know they have done in the past and were swift with their help which makes me wonder if they have any plans to now.

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