If you live in a big city on marathon day, you know to cancel all of your morning plans until the afternoon due to road closures. Such was not the case for the 2024 San Francisco Marathon.
A photo taken on the day of the marathon was posted to r/f***cars and received 20,000 votes for good content and over 850 comments.
The photo shows the marathon runners crossing over the Golden Gate Bridge. Since the bridge was left open to traffic, the approximately 31,000 runners were forced to run along the footpath, per the San Francisco Chronicle.
"What an amazing use of space!" the OP wrote in the caption with blatant sarcasm.
Several commenters shared images of big city bridges on marathon days, including Sydney; London; Vienna, Austria; and New York, where runners were given full road access. One photo showed the San Francisco Marathon in 2017, when the bridge was closed for the route.
"They used to close half the bridge for this race annually," one runner wrote.
On another subreddit, marathon runners responded to what it was like running in the allotted space. Many seemed unfazed, while some reported that the congestion negatively affected their pacing.
Apparently, that wasn't the only mistake organizers made, as the second half of the course was actually short of 13.1 miles, only amounting to 12.6 miles, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
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Walking, biking, and running are great ways to stay healthy and reduce stress. Using these modes of transportation when possible also saves money and reduces pollution — thus helping to cool down our planet in the long term.
Marathons should be a celebration, and San Francisco missed a real opportunity to give their runners full access to the Golden Gate Bridge for a few hours — especially for the price of a bib.
The photo of the runners on the bridge was shocking for many.
One Redditor asked what everyone was thinking, "Do they not close the roads?"
"Wow. This is truly bizarre," another wrote.
"EVERY city closes major roads and bridges for marathons... except for San Francisco, apparently," said a third.
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