I'm sure it is, as funny as the article was, it could be a reality someday if some people have their way!

Happy April Fools Day!:)

WayneD

Hey Wayne,

Hilarious story - as we suspected, the "For more click here" link at the bottom of the article takes you to the Wikipedia page for April Fool's Day.

And to think there are likely some readers out there who were salivating over the prospect that this might have been true............

Have a good one.

I did google, found this gem:

-

iPod 'safety' ban proposed for London Marathon

iPod 'safety' ban proposed for London Marathon

Hurting yourself is a great way to learn lessons. We learn to take extreme caution with boiling water as a child, commonly as a result of scalding ourselves at some point. We also learn, albeit a little later in life, that blindfold bondage with dwarfs is a bad idea, because they invariably carry knives and don't tell you upfront. Yes, we've all learned lessons in our time. But if a proposal to be discussed this September at the IAAF Road Running Commission's annual meeting gets enough support, Britain will reach new levels of hectoring over-caution and important lessons will be missed. The proposal to be considered by the global organisation that governs the world's marathons is that iPods should be banned from the London Marathon because, diddums, someone might trip over if they can't hear another runner coming up beside them. No, it's not an April Fool. This rule is already in place for marathons in the US, where the governing body blamed insurance companies for jacking up their rates if iPods were allowed. In an interview with the Guardian, David Bedford, the race director of the London Marathon, said: "It's a rule that will not be picked up in this country. It is completely unenforceable." We think this is a shame. In fact, we think deaf people should be banned from marathons too, because they're a liability for similar reasons. Old people, as well, obviously. And let's ban the Sun. Not the highbrow tabloid, the big ball of flame: it gets everyone hot and sweaty. If anyone wants us, we'll be in a sealed, padded, reinforced box to protect us from falling insects that might get in our mouths and cause us to choke. PS. Please ban insects. They're a liability. -Nate Lanxon

Hey Kim,

You should have been in the thread a month or so ago.  It was crazy.  Just read some of the stuff NHS wrote - his mind is quite possibly the narrowest in human history - no more than 3 or 4 nano angstroms.  Conjecture backed up by opinion, presented as fact.  And when politely pressed for source information -  WHAMMO - subject change.

Life is too short to get wrapped up with twits, but he did provide some amusement.  The spirited repartee between him and parker was hilarious.

But hey, it comes down to this - if the race allows ipods, I will listen.  If the race doesn't allow ipods, I won't run in it.

I'll just slap in some late '60s Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident and Widespread Panic and off I go.

Peace.

And I was warned about the IPOD police taking medals away from winners. Well, that was wrong. I ran across the finish line in my first event of the season with my IPOD rocking and grabbed a bronze! Accepted the medal with my headphones around my neck. No IPOD police anywhere!

WayneD

"Age is an Attitude!"

<<<<to start running these USATF races as BANDIT RUNNERS. yep i just said it. don't pay for the race, don't wear a number, just show up and run and laugh when you run across the finish line knowing in your heart you accomplished this race.

And, you lowlife weasle, you will just have screwed up the finish order and scoring results for others. When it is not a chip race you create a real mess for everyone. Aren't you just ever so special. Yessiree, the other runners who paid and volunteer race management are just folks that you feel you can screw over.

<<< it's a free country and you can run where you want.

Lovely incorrect assumption that bandits always make.

When events get permits to encumber roads and other areas for special use, one of things they get is some control over who can be included and how can be excluded. Ever notice that protesters get arrested at events. How do think that happens and under what set of rules. Since, as a bandit, you don't become an official part of the race, your are not covered by the event insurance. That may be fine with you, but the city and town are not so happy about uninsured peole so that is just one of the many reasons why the "official" police can and sometimes do become an official arm of the event. "If" a race got upset enough they could have your sorry butt arrested if you made enough of a public stink about not leaving the area if asked.

So just because most RDs are too timid to deal with you, they can if they wanted to. In this life, you need to know where you stand before you make bold moves. Way too many people hear rnd believe the urban legends about "rights". You have fewer than you think when you decided to act like an AH, and it should be no surprise to many following this thread that I just love it when your type get a real world education at an event. Doesn't happen often enough for me but when it does, it is ever so sweet.

BTW, if you and others don't like my tone, perhaps you should not be or support (by shooting the messenger) lowlifes like this guy.

i ran a marathon this weekend and chose not to wear the ipod because of fear of disqualification...well guess what, tons of people had them on everywhere i looked and everyone recieved their medals etc.  i had a new pr but i think it was just because of better training.  the fact of the matter is i would of enjoyed the race much more with music and not hearing people gassing it up around me

<<<I guess I don't understand the big stink.

The only stink is the one rule breakers bring. It's the same stink that socially uncooperative people bring to any gathering. The stink isn't there until you get there. Not much to understand. Seems pretty clear to me.

<<< I would imagine "elite" runners are mentally absorbed with stride counts, breath counts, listening for footsteps, etc.

"Imagination" can be faulty. "elite" folks in any endeavor generally do what they do without all the seemingly conscious stuff that people like you attribute to them. Just another example of things you don't understand.

<< Therefore, I look at the rules that say "no iPods" and ignore them, which is as it should be.

So, it's all about you. Right?

<<<I can tell you one thing, the first race to actively kick someone out for using an iPod would be a freakin' ghost town on the next running.

Well Mr rocket scientist, you'd be wrong because the events that are enforcing the rules are selling out earlier and earlier as they always have.

You see, the IPOD thing really doesn't matter in the end to you loud mouths because you are not going to pass up the better races just to spite essentially nobody but you. More and more races have figured out that the PR has not hurt any race yet because you twits are spinning in the wind independently with no way to really cause any sizable group problem. And there are plenty of runners to replace you in the registration queue anyway. You complainers are being seen as insignificant when it comes down to it. Emotional blackmail is seldom effective after the initial assault. It just takes most managers longer to realize they were pandering to you guys when their event is more important in the end. You loose.

<<NHSenior, I can understand your objection, and if your goal is to keep running "pure" and unsullied by the unwashed masses (myself included) then you are destined to be running in very lonely races.

It has nothing to do with purity, it has to do with safety and liability exposure in the end. You guys bring up all the other issues and because people like me happen to comment on your other issues you so you incorrectly say that we think they are germane to the main safety/liability. there are not germane at all.

<<<< You won't meet a bigger bunch of rule-oriented people than the Marine Corps. If they don't have a problem with it, then why should you?

Well a personal real world answer would be one your parents probably told you (or should have told you) many times. "If Johnny's parents let him jump off the cliff, that's up to them. We aren't going to let you do it." . Should I continue to talk to you like the denied child you are acting like?

Perhaps the MC doesn't get involved in the rules because the MC does not own nor manage the Marine Corp Marathon (Did you know that?). Not enforcing rules does sound a bit out of character for the MC which should have had bells going off in your head that maybe the MC does not call the shots in that event. They bless it but don't manage it. Closed courses are a different issue when it comes to safety, but the increasing congestion and increased ipod use are conspiring to make "incidences" more noticable even on closed courses. What's happened is that non-ipod users are actually paying more attention to the misqueues, cut offs and cluelessness that ipods carry around them like a fog. Like I've told many of the previouse pro-ipod posters, more noise about the issue please. It's working.

Got any more well thought out stuff for us.