Cancelling the New York Marathon was the right call in the wrong way

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/03/cancelling-new-york-marathon-right-call

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So the New York Marathon, which – even earlier on Friday – Mayor Michael Bloomberg had affirmed was still running on Sunday, has been cancelled, after all.

I actually have my bib number, goody bag and 2012 complimentary jersey on the desk next to me; I picked it up at the Marathon expo at Manhattan's Jacob Javits conference center Thursday night. The cavernous hall was sparsely populated with runners, the atmosphere subdued. It was almost as if people half-expected this decision.

So I am not surprised that – in the wake of the chaos and widespread distress, suffering and inconvenience caused by superstorm Sandy – the event has now been cancelled. The backlash to the initial mayoral decision to go ahead with it was both swift and growing over time. I can certainly understand the initial impulse to push ahead: New York prides itself on its ability to take knocks, dust itself off and get the job done. And the marathon has become more than a running race: a totemic annual event in the life of the city – more a parade, like Gay Pride, St Patrick's Day or Macy's New Year's Day, but with a lot of skinny people in sneakers.

One of those, the president of the New York Road Runners, Mary Wittenberg, tried to justify the go-ahead position gamely, but ultimately lamely. Her claim that the approximately 40,000 runners – getting handed bottled water and dropping paper cups all the way round the 26.2-mile course – would be expressing their solidarity with the communities hard hit by the hurricane who are without water and see their streets littered with storm detritus … well, that didn't hold water any better than a paper cup.

At Bloomberg's Friday lunchtime press conference, it was noticeable that the mayor was already attuned to the gathering outrage: he opened with a long preamble of sympathy and condolence to all the people who've lost power, water, their homes, even loved ones in the worst cases. Then he raced so fast past reaffirmation that the marathon would be run that he would have set a competitive pace in the race himself. This elision was not surprising, since Governor Andrew Cuomo had, Thursday night, notably declined to give his backing to Bloomberg's decision.

Am I, as a would-be marathoner, disappointed? Yes, and no. I trained hard for the race – and I don't even like running that much. I just wanted the experience, once. Now, I'm not sure I can be bothered to put myself through the blisters and sore muscles and sheer drudgery of all that again.

But I was persuaded that for the event to press on this year was a really bad idea – partly by what I'd seen myself (people from public housing in the lower east side of Manhattan collecting water from fire hydrants) and partly by the good sense of my colleague and fellow runner Heidi Moore. So part of me is relieved – not just to be let off a gruelling physical challenge, but to be excused taking part in an event that it would be hard <em>not</em> to feel queasy about. I feel real sympathy for all the runners who've travelled from afar to realise this running dream, but I suspect many feel the same as I do.

The making of the New York Marathon is the huge, enthusiastic crowds of people who come out to yell their encouragement; this year, I think there would have been many miles of empty streets and reproachful silence. Far from inspiring New York to pull together in a show of solidarity and resilience, this marathon threatened to pull them apart.

When Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson went before the press as the fall guy and admitted that the 2012 race had become "divisive", he was undoubtedly right. I couldn't disagree with the decision; it is the right one. I'm mainly disappointed that the mayor sent out his deputy to deliver the news of the U-turn.

Mayor Bloomberg has not shied away from the cameras when it was a matter of looking professional, authoritative and reassuring – and to be fair, on most counts, he's performed admirably. Yes, cancelling the marathon was an embarrassing change of policy, but it was the right call. But not taking responsibility for making it looks cowardly and feeble.

That's not being a frontrunner, Mike. This was another blizzard moment.