Marathon Cancellation -- What's Next?

Okay, so they cancelled the NYC Marathon.  It was the right thing to do.  As a legal matter, they're probably entitled to take our money and not refund it.  I'm a contracts professor, excuse as a result of impossibility/force majeure, blah, blah, blah.  To the extent that folks relied on the statement on Tuesday that the marathon would be held, they might have some sort of a claim based on promissory estoppel.  Not me, though.  I did not change my travel plans.  I just slept in on Sunday morning.

Given their usual cancellation policy, I have generally assumed that they would give folks the option to get a refund, or to eat the registration fee and get a guaranteed entry into either the 2013 NYC Marathon or the 2013 NYC Half Marathon.  That way folks who had already qualified for the 2013 Marathon (by running 9 NYRR races) would still get something nice in return for their trouble.   Obviously, this would create some ripple effects.  Nobody would get into the Marathon by lottery next year, but they wouldn't lose much money, because the 2012 folks would end up paying twice.

There's some risk that this would still cause 2013 to be oversubscribed, but that would pretty easily be handled by giving folks the option to use the admit in 2014 and thereby space everybody out.  This isn't rocket science.

Today, the NYRR posted the following message on their website.  It's a lot like the message they posted last week:

We are still working through the many issues surrounding the cancelation of the Marathon and promise to update everyone as soon as we can. We know many of you are looking for information about our weekly races, and winter training. We would love to get back to talking about running – starting with Join the Voices 5M on Sunday and our Live Chat with Coach John on Wednesday, December 5. We look forward to your race comments and photos in the coming weeks – thanks for helping us to keep the conversation going.

Um, this is pretty lame.  I'm not quite sure what information they're going to have next week that they don't have this week.   In short the NYRR's rolling PR disaster continues. . .  

Rome

Okay, so I've started thinking about Rome.  I just got an e-mail saying I would indeed need to provide a certification from a doctor that I am fit to run.  Unfortunately my primary care doctor just moved to Phoenix, so this is going to be a bit of a process . . .

More importantly, I recently had to provide an abstract to Law and Society for a program on comparative consumer law, and I thought to myself, thought I, what time like the present to write an abstract for my Antitrust Marathon presentation.   Here's what I came up with:

Comparative Consumer Financial Protection -- The Allocation of Enforcement Power

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  One of the goals of the CFPB was to centralize regulatory over consumer financial products in a single agency.  The centralization of enforcement power was less complete, with prudential agencies retaining some enforcement power.  The first task of this paper will be to describe the balance of centralized and decentralized enforcement power within the CFPB.  The second task will be to compare the Dodd-Frank architecture to the enforcement structure used in other countries, both with regard to competition law and with regard to consumer protection (which are frequently handled by the same regulator).  An advantage of centralization is that a single agency is charged with consumer protection (financial or otherwise).  A concern is the enhanced possibility of capture created by a single regulator.  This paper will consider the balancing of these concerns in the US and EU. 

I had told Spencer that I would focus my remarks at the Antitrust Marathon on the CFPB's enforcement power, but any thoughts you all might have on the comparative angle would be most helpful.  

What are you all thinking about??

Does it end at 50?

My various running and academic mentors -- co-bloggers included -- might argue otherwise. But a dour article on p. D6 of today's WSJ counsels that after age 50 running fast and far may be more stress than benefit. Running some is apparently a good thing. But running too hard apparently makes you age more quickly and overstresses the heart. One more source teaching "moderation, moderation."

As I stand here it's still drowned out by the Highlander theme song by Queen and the lure of a marathon starting line

I pinched my plica

6 weeks out I finally got in to see my sports medicine guy.  I swear by Dr. N who is the former medical director for Chicago Marathon and a 2:30 marathoner back in the day.  After much poking, prodding, stretching and manipulating by various residents and fellows, he swoops in presses in a couple of key places and following my painful grimace announces that I pinched my plica, a membrane extending below the knee which is being pinched by the sharp edge of the patella.  "Almost missed that one," he says, "It's like when you bite the inside of your cheek, quite minor and easily fixed."  I am icing, doing a small manipulation of the kneecap a couple times a day and doing two weeks of PT and he claims I will be running well before the end of the year.  Even thinks there is a shot at a Rome Marathon if I am willing to do some crazy bike work when the weather gets lousy. 

James Bond Competition Enforcer?

At least this is the opinion of a very clever Marketplace.org story which argues that most Bond villains are attempting to monopolize a world market or the world itself, albeit in an implausible way. 

Everything is Relative

At the gym this morning.   Still feeling good about 3:42 in the Brooklyn Marathon. Gave directions to a new member.  Chatted about running, marathon times, etc.  Guy does 2:30ish for the marathon 1:08 for the half. . .  Crawled back into my hole.

Sowing is done. What will I reap next Sunday?

Last good workout today of this marathon training program -- 10 miles, supposed to be at marathon pace but for the second time this week several or more seconds per mile faster than I had planned. 35 degree temperatures and a flat stretch of the Mt. Vernon trail can't have hurt. It felt phenomenal.

I'm not going to get faster between now and Sunday, when we start in Folsom, California and run downhill 26.2 miles to Sacramento. Gotta stay loose, gotta keep from gaining weight, and gotta get excited, but not too excited.

Ted, whatever you did in both of your big fall races worked. Any thoughts would be most welcome.