The controversy surrounding the 2012 New York Marathon is over. Late Friday afternoon NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the race has been canceled.
The marathon has been held every year since 1970. The city considered the 2001 race a badge of courage for New Yorkers, with the event going off without a hitch just two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in Manhattan.
Despite growing criticism, Bloomberg and Mary Wittenberg, the chief executive of the New York Road Runners organization, continued to push forward with the marathon as a way to boost moral and help the economy.
They buckled under the pressure early Friday evening and issued this statement: “It is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division. We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it. We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track.”
We sat down with Angie Hatch from Wisconsin who was registered to run in the New York Marathon but decided to cancel her travel plans after Hurricane Sandy totally disrupted the region. Instead she will run the marathon in her hometown of Hudson, WI, where she has been busily raising funds for charity from local supporters. You can view the interview below:
Photos: WENN