Incredibly Oblivious Driver Invades Marathon Route, Because She's Late

Now, I don't have a detour in the first situation, and for the 2nd, if you see the map, you can have the notion of how out of hand the "detour" is... I would love to see you guys in that situation, see if you like it.
I'm sure most of us have had a significantly delayed travel experience due to some sort of public event at some point in our lives. It's not a particularly impressive way to justify your sociopathic outrage about how no road should ever be used for anything but traveling to and from destinations in an automobile.
 
I'm sure most of us have had a significantly delayed travel experience due to some sort of public event at some point in our lives. It's not a particularly impressive way to justify your sociopathic outrage about how no road should ever be used for anything but traveling to and from destinations in an automobile.
I know... most people feel its normal to do certain things I can't even grasp to understand why... this is only one from a long list. I can't understand why people would think it is fine and normal to inconvenience other peoples lives for a few to have fun running, and why not cycling, and why not adding karting to that, and motor bikes, and old car, and religious processions, etc... etc... when they could easily do that in much more appropriate locations... well, anyway, I must have come from another planet...
 
Of course emergency vehicles can pass through.. You have marshalls working at these events for a reason.

They don't have to take a detour - in exactly the same way that they don't have to obey speed limits. That's why races like this have marshals.

Basically.

I am totally against any road circuit, by the way, and I could sympathize with angry locals any day (and I like F1).

Getting tipsy in a city watching race cars.. Road circuits are fun..
 
Yep, Monaco GP is an atrocious circuit. It got iconic over the years (God knows why, probably because it is a stupid "track"), but forgetting the history, I bet if Monaco was applying today as a F1 track, it would never been accepted. I am totally against any road circuit, by the way, and I could sympathize with angry locals any day (and I like F1).

Yeah... they should just hold F1 races at Circuits instead... like Silverstone... because they don't shut major roads for a total of 43 hours during the Grand Prix weekend at all... /sarcasm
 
I would love to see you guys in that situation, see if you like it. Oh, and the notice for those events can totally slip by

It has happened to me, a few years ago I set off to leave Brighton and hadn't realised there was a marathon taking place. It added 2-3 hours onto my journey time (and we missed our ferry home, we had to catch a later one in the end) and the road closures weren't advertised ahead of time (I'd arrived the day before and there wasn't a single sign on the route). It was VERY frustrating, but not once did I consider that I'd remove the barriers and drive into the path of the marathon!
 
Last edited:
These events bring in a bunch of cash when they are successful, the closed road velothon in Cardiff has people flocking in from all over the place to take part. Hotel's and restaurants fill etcetera.... So the road closures have more of a knock on effect than just people having fun....

Unfortunately they had an incident of people taking a car onto the route in 2016 but they were crooks before doing it as they had committed a burglary earlier. Nobody was hurt though :-).
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/moment-car-speeds-past-velothon-11376090

Back to the Plymouth incident. Good thing she didn't encounter any roadworks on her journey! Reading her sob story just makes me hope she is visited by the police who take the time to strongly remind her that driving is an entitlement and not a right....
 
I would love to see you guys in that situation, see if you like it.

I live in an area that is regularly affected by these sorts of things. Marathons mostly, but I'm also within earshot of the Honda Indy every year.

I plan around it. It's not like any of these things are a surprise. It's also great for local economy (well, the Indy — not so much the marathons).

Problem is, who cares about other people?

Not you, evidently.

I'm with you on this. Makes me waste on gas, time and adds unnecessary stress. Just to see 90% of the runners being overweight and/or just walking while on their phone.

Other things that cause you to waste time/gas:
  • Accidents
  • Stoplights
  • Regular traffic
I can't see how a participant's weight has anything to do with it either. They're out at the event — would it be better if they were sitting in a car, driving? :confused:
 
What theres no place to buy tiny shorts, a pair of Asics and lots of water where you live then?

Oh there are. But my comment is more about the spectators. There's only so much Gatorade friends-of-runners can buy!
 
I can't understand why people would think it is fine and normal to inconvenience other peoples lives for a few to have fun running
I'm sure they don't do it to annoy you personally, but given your massive overreaction to a few hours of disruption out of the other 8700-or-so hours in a year, it'd be justification enough if it was.
 
These events bring in a bunch of cash when they are successful, the closed road velothon in Cardiff has people flocking in from all over the place to take part. Hotel's and restaurants fill etcetera.... So the road closures have more of a knock on effect than just people having fun....

Agreed, in the case of our local road closure event (the Soap Box derby), it's a great day for the local economy, with 2000+ people turning up... e.g. The Pub usually makes a truck load of money, local food vendors make their livelihood, the Village hall generally makes out of it, and once the minimal costs (because it brings the community together to work together to lay on the event) have been covered, a healthy donation is normally made to a local charity...

... how selfish!
 
the potential to cause panic given the current situation with terrorist attacks. It's that sort of situation that can cause a stampede or people running for their lives and injuring others in the process.
This reminded me of a story here in the LA region where after an opening night screening of Infinity War a guy stood up and started preaching very loudly about whether everyone would be happy with how they'd be judged by god at this moment in time and what not and everyone thought the worst and tried to flood out in a mass panic.
 
I would love to see you guys in that situation, see if you like it.
Not liking it and deliberately driving into a crowd of people are two very different things. About a week ago (specifically 9 days ago) I had to get somewhere and unfortunately a great deal of the roads in the city centre were closed for a running event. I'd forgotten or missed the notifications and drove right into the city only to find myself stuck in traffic for an hour. Was it frustrating? Sure. Did I ever think about driving through the barriers and putting people's lives at risk? Of course not. Events like this are a part of living in a large city. If you want to have the convenience of living in a city with all its amenities and activities then you'll have to put up with those activities when they don't suit you. Don't like it? Move to the countryside. Nobody is forcing you to live in a place where such activities take place regularly; if you hated it so much then you'd make the effort to move somewhere else.

Problem is, who cares about other people? Yes, catch me in my car in a bad day, and you'd better stay out of the road when in Lisbon :lol:
Am I supposed to take that as a threat against marathon runners in Lisbon? Because that's what it sounds like.
 
I live in Charleston, SC. We have a HUGE run every year (and by "we," I mean those crazy souls that have decided that running is somehow entertaining) - The Cooper River Bridge Run. It's a massive, International event. It basically shuts down the main bridge between Charleston and the entire Eastern side of the city for at least half a day. Y'know what we do? We plan to not go downtown for that period of time. If we need to get somewhere, we take an alternate route. Unless you're driving an emergency vehicle, you're not so frakin' important that you can't make allowances for this, in the grand scheme of things, small amount of time. People need to get over themselves. And lighten up.
 
I would love to see you guys in that situation, see if you like it.
It happens to me once a year for our local marathon.

I either work from home or take an alternate (10 miles longer) route, neither of which causes the level of stress you seem to be inflicting on yourself.

It happens to plenty of people, most are more than able to deal with it (mindfulness would be a great idea if you find situations like this to overwhelm you).
 
Damn, there are some entitled SOBs in here.

While we're at it, we should shut down all sporting events that cause even the slightest bit of traffic, ban all festivals, circuses, rallies, concerts or charities events that take up ANY public space, and publicly hang any and all street performer that dares to slow our passage from point A to B. I'm actually kinda serious about the last one.

NO FUN YOU HEAR ME!

PS: I'M LATE FOR MY ****ING POETS WORKSHOP, THIS IS A CRITICAL EMERGENCY THAT REQUIRES I DRIVE THROUGH A MARATHON. NO I HADN'T THOUGHT ABOUT JUST CALLING AND CANCELLING. ****.
 
Am I supposed to take that as a threat against marathon runners in Lisbon? Because that's what it sounds like.
If I have a gun next to me to blow my brains out after the deed is done, maybe it's a threat. Otherwise, I'm not too keen of ruining the rest of my life over something like that... Seriously, it was supposed to be a joke man, even put the :lol:... I never said I would do it, only said I would laugh if someone else did it, more like in a way to say I wouldn't spare much pity for the victims, well at least I'm honest, blame me (actually, i'd pity them a bit, since the organizers and the ones who authorize such events for monetary reasons, are the ones to blame).

People just love to put words in others mouths using weird logic, but oh well, it's typical. Next, people will say I support those terrorists that run over people on the sidewalk, typical again. :rolleyes:
(And before that really happens, if you want to know, I always wish those animals are caught alive and condemned to death in the most painful way possible at a public display (even if a road needs to be closed :lol:). Again, polemic :sly: but far better than the hypocrisy of saying "oh gwad, so awful, such a tragedy" and never spare a thought again (unless it happens to them or someone close to them, then, it all goes back to the "kill him in the most painful way").
 
If I have a gun next to me to blow my brains out after the deed is done, maybe it's a threat. Otherwise, I'm not too keen of ruining the rest of my life over something like that... Seriously, it was supposed to be a joke man, even put the :lol:... I never said I would do it, only said I would laugh if someone else did it, more like in a way to say I wouldn't spare much pity for the victims, well at least I'm honest, blame me (actually, i'd pity them a bit, since the organizers and the ones who authorize such events for monetary reasons, are the ones to blame).

People just love to put words in others mouths using weird logic, but oh well, it's typical. Next, people will say I support those terrorists that run over people on the sidewalk, typical again. :rolleyes:
(And before that really happens, if you want to know, I always wish those animals are caught alive and condemned to death in the most painful way possible at a public display (even if a road needs to be closed :lol:). Again, polemic :sly: but far better than the hypocrisy of saying "oh gwad, so awful, such a tragedy" and never spare a thought again (unless it happens to them or someone close to them, then, it all goes back to the "kill him in the most painful way").
Please see a psychiatrist, you sound unreasonably angry and shockingly okay with violence and death.
 
Please see a psychiatrist, you sound unreasonably angry and shockingly okay with violence and death.

I think it's just a case of this:
Ow_the_edge.jpg
 
It's a half-mile marathon... it really, really can't be such a huge detour that you're forced to drive right through it. I mean, I've been caught out twice by the Robin Hood Marathon that basically divides the city of Nottingham right down the middle, and both times I was miraculously able to restrain myself from driving through a group of marathon runners AND I've remained a relatively stable individual who doesn't fly into a blind rage when something other than a car is on a public road.

As for the event itself it does sound like the marshals handled the situation very poorly, but for the love of god that's not an excuse to drive a car into the path of a running marathon with little to no warning.
 
Looking at the map, it seems that people who were on the quay side of the route literally didn't have an alternative route.

I can't seem to find a link to the map of the location, but again, it points to poor marshalling and poor organization... still, in that situation she should've found somewhere to park, found a marshal, explained the problem, and I'm sure they'd let her through. A poetry workshop isn't exactly an emergency, I'm reasonably certain people would understand if she had to cancel due to a marathon blocking her in.
 
I can't seem to find a link to the map of the location, but again, it points to poor marshalling and poor organization... still, in that situation she should've found somewhere to park, found a marshal, explained the problem, and I'm sure they'd let her through. A poetry workshop isn't exactly an emergency, I'm reasonably certain people would understand if she had to cancel due to a marathon blocking her in.
The junction in the video is where it says "Mayflower House Arts":

stupid-plymouth-driver-003.jpg


The entire quay area is blocked off by the marathon. However, the route changes very little and residents are informed well in advance by the council (over a month) of the road closures, accessibility and where to park - for free - in alternative locations to retain access to their cars.

She claims that this happened in 2014, and marshals allowed her to cross with her car at 8.30am (which is probably nonsense).
 

Latest Posts

Back