Vigilantes on NY Marathon Course
The NY Marathon employs about 15 people to stand near the end of the race and weed out people who snuck onto the course. They bellow from bullhorns and chase down wobbling runners without bibs. By their own admission, about 95% of the people pulled off the course jumped in to run with friends or family, and the other 5% are after the glory of finishing a marathon and the free Mylar blanket they give runners at the end. I can’t decide if it’s more pathetic to get stoked about yelling at cheaters through a bullhorn, or to try to cross a finish line when you didn’t run the entire race. If someone would just try to finish the race on Rollerblades, then I wouldn’t have that dilemma.
By- rockythompson
This entry was posted on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2008 - 8:24 A.M. and is filed under Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 5th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
You may not be able to decide, but I can. I say forget the bullhorn, they should hire Tonya Harding to kneecap bandits. If a person wants to support a runner, they can run or shout from the sidelines. Bandits, being inherently cheaters anway, most likely didn’t run the whole 26.2 and deserve to be taken out in any manner necessary.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:44 am
I was in NY during the marathon and witnessed it passing in front of my friends apartment; there were so many people who could not run 5 miles attempting that 26 that the race was laughable after the first few group of real runners had passed.
Best show of the day.