A Marathon effort draws to a close but would you run on Sunday?

Boston

This blog is a bit of departure from the norm. I tell my clients to keep their blogs and any content 80/20 in favour of useful info v selfish ends (i.e. blatant promotion) . It is crucial with regards PR and editorial too – journalists want things their readers will read, not glorified advertising copy.

Nearly there - £500 to go
Nearly there – £500 to go

This one is a little more selfish (I suppose) as within it I am giving a gentle nudge to remind you that I will be running the London Marathon on Sunday. Do I want sponsoring? Sure I do! I am £500 short of my target which means if I fail to reach it, not only will I have to run 26 miles but I’ll also have to pay the balance. Harsh hey?

Anyway, there is a PR angle to this too. When the bombs went off in Boston on Monday , many people I know and many others here in the UK (me included) immediately felt a pang of sorrow for those affected and then a surge of anger. How could this happen? Who could do this to those innocent people?

Minutes, or perhaps just seconds later, many of us then thought “what about London on Sunday? Should I run?” Doubtless friends and families of runners who have spent hours and hours on the roads this longggggg winter felt the fear and perhaps hoped that their loved ones might not take part.

That is how terrorism plays the game. The “end” they seek is not the physical wreckage and death-toll of 9-11, London or Madrid, it is the mentality shift in the minds of the innocent bystanders and the populace at large. That gives them them the ability to pressurise governments or other power-brokers that they may be targeting with their agenda.

Essentially, if we start to think about not racing on Sunday (or in my case crawling), if the marathon gets cancelled, they win. Now, in this case, it seems to be a smaller focus, (an arrest has been made this morning) centered on the US rather than London and a global campaign.

Boston suspects
Boston suspects

That isn’t to take any threat to Sunday’s race lightly, it is doubtless that there will be a cloud of doubt and worry hanging over it but the show must go on.

Still, I’m interested, if you were a runner on Sunday, would you run? Would you rather a loved one didn’t?

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