you know, maybe this is a time that the endurance athlete community can share some of its expertise with the fight for civil rights.
to wit: you don't start with a marathon.
find a nice local 5k, see how that goes, learn from there. if it's something productive and enjoyable, start building up to the longer races.

good one, I'd go as high as a buck fifty (feeling wealthy, white and privileged today, though not too nerdy, and unfortunately not skinny enough).

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

"I hid my face so they couldn't tell I was a white guy"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Which was enough to temporarily block 3 of the 17 gates into the fair. Every person who showed up that day intending to get into the fair got in. They may have had to wait a few extra minutes or walk an extra block or two, but they got in.

Crowd control is hard and Summit Ave. is wide. 500 untrained, unpaid, unequipped amateurs simply have no chance to stop 12,000 people intent on getting through unless the 500 shows up well armed and ready to get violent. The people running BLM aren't that stupid. They'll make enough noise to get the news cameras to show up and then life will go on. At worst they will manage to slow a very small fraction of the field down a couple minutes, but there is no way they're stopping that race.

I hope your right, but runners in a marathon especially near end are really very spread out, I ran that 26.1 and i do recall last few miles were on nice wide roads. Runners would not have the luxury of picking a different road unless they come up with an alternate plan.

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2016:
IMFL #12
http://www.bestbikesplit.com

I can envision a real life version of the zombie apocalypse. Sure you can stop a few, but the unstoppable mass of zombies just keep coming. Instead of crying out for brains, they moan something about finisher medals.

Affirmative action was a step in the right direction but by no means is it some kind of a quick fix. BLM is a worthy cause, though I'm not fond of this particular protest. Even after affirmative action, lots and lots and lots of racism in education, employment and housing took place. lots. No seriously lots.

You are in denial if you think racism isn't so thoroughly engrained in our society that lots of people of color start life disadvantaged. Society need not fix every woe but its unfortunate when being disadvantaged is tied to an immutable characteristic. What's even more unfortunate is things like affirmative action and voting rights act are being dismantled. Our schools are more segregated today than they were 25 years ago and some peoples educations are worse for it.

I am largely sympathetic to the issues being raised by BLM.....but this seems like an especially dumb idea. Mostly because it will harm their efforts more than help.

I am reminded of this.....

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Blacks in this country have a serious obesity problem. Maybe instead of blocking the marathon, they should join in.

#BlackWaistlinesMatter

I was going to go to bed - but not anymore. Popcorn in the microwave.

All races in this country have a serious obesity problem. Whites at 63% should hardly be considered the "gold standard" for blacks at 73%. (Source).

I'm in full agreement that the plan is beyond stupid, but the disturbingly large # of people in this thread using that as an excuse to trot out full-up racism (a good excuse to go beat the hell out of some people!) is kind of depressing.

Right. I started out reading this thread with "wow I hope they don't go through with this," and now think, "well, maybe they should go though with this." I protested against a church that was doing gay conversion therapy in 2003. I left the event thinking that there were a few on my side who were just as intolerant and ignorant as our foes...

You think "BLM is a worthy cause"? Really? An organization that encourages the killing of police officers? Really? An organization that you only hear from when a white cop shoots a black thug usually committing a crime yet silence when a 9 year old black girl from Ferguson is killed innocently sitting inside her home? Silence when 50 blacks are killed by other blacks in Chicago every weekend. Really.....you think they are a good cause? Oh well, guess you have a different value system than I.
ps....And regarding your comment about engrained racism.....no argument. Oh, but guess you don't know blacks themselves admit they are the most racist of all races (look it up).

The fact remains that blacks in this country are the most overweight racial group. Four out of five black women are overweight. Sir Mix-A-Lot was practically a seer.

Don't worry. Your knee jerk inclination to label every mocking comment about this stupidity as racism will put you in good standing with the BLM, which tends to see it under every rock. They might even give you free passage to the finish line.

From the contents of your post, let me make a wild guess: you're a middle-to-upper class, straight, white, male, aged 30-50?

IOW widely condemned by white people who claim to be sympathetic to the group, as long as it doesn't actually inconvenience anyone, especially themselves

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http://www.jt10000.com/

apparently BLM never got the memo about "Minnesota Nice." I know I feel more sympathetic to their cause now (insert sarcastic facial expression here).

Full disclosure, I grew up in the suburbs north west of MPLS (I even did TCM way way back in the stone age). And, living in CA, I'm still a nice guy. How do you know? I finish last all the time (OK, I exaggerated about that last one a little bit).

I've had too much popcorn on this thread, but, it has been good. I'll take seconds please, I'm having a good old time. Beats talking about power, clinchers vs tubulars, which swim course is too fast, who cut what course, etc., any day of the week.

---

I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

So angry at the blacks, my little troll Archie! Good night, fantasize about Sturgis bikers kicking the shit out of some uppity blacks if you have trouble sleeping!

Feeling the same way.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

The great thing about duathlons is that you don't have to worry about this sort of thing happening.....

BlackLivesMatter leader: Yes, the plan is we're going to block them from finishing that 2nd run, damn
right all 50 of them.

People's gonna finally wake up and take notice now. Where's the media? How come
there ain't no news cameras?

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

You know, people have been fighting for civil rights in this country for more than a hundred years, and the BLM is in many ways a continuation of a movement that got very big about 55 years ago. And that movement actually disrupted things, faced condemnation from many white people, and had some small success. Just sayin'.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

I openly admit that I am struggling with this issue...on the scope of things, my finishing a marathon is pretty fookin' insignificant compared to the issues that BLM ar trying to highlight. And I fully appreciate that the point of social protest is to disrupt and make people feel uncomfortable.

That said, I think it is incumbent on every protest prognoses to ask whether their planned actions will be beneficial to their goals and objectives.

In this case, the answer seems a resounding "No".

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Is this still holds true?? "I will clean-up my own backyard before I tell my neighbors to do the same".

yeah. and as a general rule of thumb, the folks on here criticizing BLM now are the same folks who were criticizing MLK back then.

here i tend to agree. is there any concrete demand involved? i still think blocking a marathon is a tactical mistake, but if there were something tangible to work out, like "we demand a civilian review board for police misconduct" then at least you're starting with something that coudl be addressed in a concrete fashion. We're not going to end racism and police brutality against african-americans between now and the start of the race, so the pressure is more on the blm to stop, then on the local gov to do anything.
(note that i have no idea if a civilian review board exists in either twin city or not).