Health and Safety issue forces a Charity Half-Marathon to be shortened: Does it really matter?
Marathons are very popular running events that take place all over the world and are contested by thousands of people. They are a sport in the Olympic Games as well as being used for numerous charities to raise awareness and money. Recently one such charity
marathon was staged but to the horror and dismay of both the organisers and the participants, the length had to be shortened by a tiny amount and this caused a lot of problems. The question to be asked here is does it make a difference if the length was shortened
slightly? It seems it does to a lot of people and it needs to be explored further.
The marathon race has a very interesting story behind its origin. It is actually named after the story of an ancient Greek messenger named Pheidippides. A battle was being fought between Athens and the Persians at Marathon. After the Persians had been defeated,
Pheidippides was tasked with bringing the news of the victory to Athens. He had just fought in the battle but still ran all the way to Athens to deliver his message. He reached the city, burst into the assembly hall and proclaimed that they had won, before
collapsing and dying. The route he took was said to be about 26 miles; about the same length it is today.
There is some debate about the accuracy of this story though. Some historians claim that the messenger ran all the way to Athens and then to Sparta asking for help before running back. Even the route the classic runner is meant to have taken is disputed
with some saying that he ran around a mountain and other saying he ran up a very steep hill and down again. Even though the truth of this story is buried in history it is still a great backdrop to the modern day race that takes place today.
The marathon race became a part of the modern Olympic Games because the organisers at the time were looking for an event that would be very popular and easy to contest. It was also meant to give the spectators a sense of the ancient Games. The marathon grew
into a very popular event over the years. The women’s marathon was introduced in 1984 and has proven to be equally as popular as the men’s event. The current fastest time set in the men’s event is 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds which was set by Haile Gebrselassie.
The women’s record is 2 hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds which was set by Paula Radcliffe in 2003.
Recently, a charity half-marathon which was organised by the charitable organisation Barnardo's came under fire for being shortened due to health and safety reasons. The event was set up in order to raise awareness and some much needed funding for the charity
and it took place in Cardiff. The length of the course was set at a standard 13.1 miles for the half-marathon, but due to unforeseen building works scheduled for the day of the race, the course had to be diverted slightly and the race ended up being 193 metres
too short. Runners were very upset and they felt cheated and hard done by after the race finished after they were all sent an apology email confirming the fact.
There are two sides to consider in this story; firstly the side of the runners. Many of them had trained for months and had devoted a lot of time and effort into running in the race. They expected it to be a full distance for a half-marathon but fell agonisingly
short in the end. On the other hand we have the charity, an organisation that tries to do good for others.
If for whatever reason they were not able to provide a full race to the participants did it make such a big difference in the end? The race was still a lot of fun and it helped to raise a lot of money for a good cause. They had to put the safety of the runners
over a few disgruntled folks after the race. If someone would have been injured or even died, in a worst case scenario, the charity and the event would have both been blacklisted and it would have turned into a disaster.
So in the end, the race was short and the charity apologised. Maybe those angry runners should realise that they were only running for charity and get on with their lives and try to run another full one for a good cause again in the near future.
Tags: