#Handsoverhearts at London Marathon

Dear Runners of Runner's World,

I just wanted to let you know about a campaign we have started called #Handsoverhearts. The campaign urges runners of this Sunday's London Marathon to cross the finish line with their hands over their hearts in tribute to the tragic events that unfolded in Boston on Monday.

 

Running is a solitary sport, yet as runners we are greater than the sum of our parts, we are a proud community enabling, motivating and supporting one another to achieve greatness. The tragedy that unfolded at The Boston Marathon reminds us of the importance of our community and the love, compassion and camaraderie of runners across the globe.

 

This small personal gesture will act as a mark of respect and a demonstration of a running community united in tragedy. Photographers capture every marathon runner’s finishing moment and we are asking runners to dedicate that moment of personal achievement to those lives whose lives have been irrevocably changed by events at Boston Marathon.

 

Please spread the message and follow on twitter #Handsoverhearts

 

Best Wishes,

 

Lucy Fraser-Macnamara

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1088946/thumbs/a-HANDS-OVER-HEART-640x468.jpg?6

 

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Comments

  • Grendel3Grendel3 ✭✭✭

    I thought the runners were being asked to take part in 30 seconds silence and wear a black ribbon - although not running, I know in the days when I did run marathons the last thing I was thinking about when I finished was making a gesture of any kind.  Good luck though a nice idea.

  • agree grendel .....crossing the line is a very personal thing......

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    Why do people try to get folk to all do something?  There was some other poster wanting people to all wear a race medal to work next Monday!

    Do they want to feel they've influenced events or something?

    I feel that the black ribbons, and a 30 second silence are enough.

  • Agreed, crossing the line is a very personal thing, and would have been for all those runners in Boston who didn't make it past the finish line, for those who were injured or lost their lives watching that personal moment.

    30 seconds silence and a black ribbon could be seen as an obligatory arrangement by the race organisers, #Handsoverhearts is not. It's a personal gesture made by runners if they choose (and remember) to do so.

    We want to get people all to do something to show our solidarity as a running community, our love. compassion and commitment to our sport. A running community united in tragedy.

    The #Handsoverheart campaign was also started before any official confirmation of ribbons and silence, it’s a runner's reaction to a very personally affecting tragedy.

     

    Best Wishes,

     

    Lucy

  • Are you going to show people where their heart is before hand ?



    Few Yanks seem to know
  • i personally think the silence is enough........I am uneasy with mass shows of anything....not sure why but to me grief and remeberance is more of an individual thing.......it seems that others need an obvious outward sign that they are affected by it.........a bit like telling everyone that you give lots of money to charity...

     

  • seren nos wrote (see)

    agree grendel .....crossing the line is a very personal thing......

     

    I agree too. I think if you are doing a race in memory of someone close you probably think of them, otherwise you are wrapped up in your own pain/triumph/disapppointment/relief. 

    Both times I've crossed the line my main thought was that I survived and thankfully could stop at last. 

    It's a nice idea but solidarity with those in Boston is, quite rightly, for expressing at the start, not the finish.

  • Lucy Fraser-Macnamara wrote (see)

     

    The #Handsoverheart campaign was also started before any official confirmation of ribbons and silence, it’s a runner's reaction to a very personally affecting tragedy.

     

    Best Wishes,

     

    Lucy

    so peoples reaction should be an individual thing....once everyone starts doing the same thing.they are doing it because someone has told them to do it and they are being made to feel guilty if they do not........
    if someone does a gesture because they have been told to do it.to me it just loses all meaning...it loses the emotion and the meaning.......

     

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭
    Lucy Fraser-Macnamara wrote (see)

    ...

    30 seconds silence and a black ribbon could be seen as an obligatory arrangement by the race organisers, #Handsoverhearts is not. It's a personal gesture made by runners if they choose (and remember) to do so.

    ...

     

    How can giving a ribbon to runners be seen as making wearing it obligatory?  Complete nonsense.

  • Lucy Fraser-Macnamara wrote (see)

    Agreed, crossing the line is a very personal thing, and would have been for all those runners in Boston who didn't make it past the finish line, for those who were injured or lost their lives watching that personal moment.

    30 seconds silence and a black ribbon could be seen as an obligatory arrangement by the race organisers, #Handsoverhearts is not. It's a personal gesture made by runners if they choose (and remember) to do so.

    We want to get people all to do something to show our solidarity as a running community, our love. compassion and commitment to our sport. A running community united in tragedy.

    The #Handsoverheart campaign was also started before any official confirmation of ribbons and silence, it’s a runner's reaction to a very personally affecting tragedy.

     

    Best Wishes,

     

    Lucy

    My personal feeling on this is that your opening sentence sounds like something of a guilt trip.

    I'm not sure I 'get' what you are trying to acheive to be honest.

  • No guilt trip intended and there is nothing to ‘achieve’ in doing this.

    Runners will choose whether or not they make the gesture making it an individual statement but communities and solidarity are about groups of individuals coming together.

    I respect everyone’s opinions and only hope that we can as a community show our respects in as many ways as possible, gestures, ribbons and silences.

    Best wishes,

    Lucy

  • I would of thought anyone with a genuine sense of grief over the events of Boston would have already considered making a "gesture" without being corralled into some organised gesture.

    Why not do something useful like donate blood say rather than a bleedin heart look at me and my caring ways self aggrandising gesture? Why not just run the race as an act of defiance and cameraderie?

  • if you have to tell someone to make a personal gesture, and then tell them when to make it, and what that gesture should be, then it's not a personal gesture at all.

    I'm sure your intentions are kind and the sentiment is well meaning, but as with the Kony2012 campaign last year, this type of flashmob organised sympathy comes across as self-aggrandising.

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭
    AgentGinger wrote (see)

    if you have to tell someone to make a personal gesture, and then tell them when to make it, and what that gesture should be, then it's not a personal gesture at all.

     

    I think that's a little unfair.  The whole point of the gesture is a show of solidarity, which is only going to be recognisable by having many, many people (voluntarily) doing the same thing.  Which is beside the point - there's certainly more choice in something like this than with the officially observed 30 seconds silence.  I'll be observing the silence out of respect for other people's sensibilities. I won't be joining in this campaign (with respect I think it will be the last thing on my mind when I cross the line on Sunday) but I respect other people's choice to do so. 

    To the OP - I've got no problem with you publicising this campaign, but I would be careful with any language or approach which may meet accusations of emotional blackmail or cajoling - words like "urge" for example.

  • stutyrstutyr ✭✭✭

    Lucy, can I ask if you are a runner?  You talk about the running community but you have never posted on runners world before?  Are those your words in the original post or have you cut & paste them from somewhere else?

    Also the "we" behind this campaign - are they runners?  As a few others have mentioned, at the end of the marathon most people are struggling to remember their names, never mind remembering to perform a symbolic gesture.  I honestly can't tell you what I will do as I cross the line (except for stopping my stopwatch) - in my last marathon I gave a seemingly nonchalant wave as I only had enough energy to raise my hand to just above waist height

    I sympathise with the motivation behind this campaign, but the language makes me uneasy and it doesn't seem to understand the challenges of marathon running.  

     

  • stutyr - if you google her name, then you will find links to various charity fundraising pages for her showing she is a runner and doing VLM this year

     

     

  • Hi,

     

    I can confirm I am a runner and will be running on Sunday at The London Marathon. This is not my first marathon or other running event.I am part of a running community/running club in London and also volunteer with a not-for profit charitable organisation who use running to engage young homeless people. The 'we' is runners, runners in our community and the running scheme for young people.

     

    I'm sorry if the language doesn't suit all, I'm no communications or marketing expert just a runner speaking passionatly too far way away from an incident to be able to feel like I can physically help (ie giving blood).

     

    Best wishes and good luck to all running on Sunday,

     

    Lucy

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Nose NowtNose Nowt ✭✭✭

    Whilst I've got sympathy with the OP.... who's heart is clearly in the right place, I am pleased to see that people are prepared to reject the idea - even though it sounds cruel to do so.

    I recoil at this sort of thing - for all the reasons that others have expressed.

    In recent years, there seems to have been a fashion for emotional inflation, where everyone has to outdo the previous high way that a tragedy has been marked.

    For example, I watch football and when a 17yr old fan tragically died (natural causes), and a minute's silence was not considered enough. There was a campaign for everyone to clap throughout the 17th minute of a match.  The club backed it... and announced it at the appropriate time during the match.   It was strange, because after about 10 minutes, people were clock-watching.  And during the minute's applause, it was like the players didn't quite know what to do, as the match continued.  

    I know there are differences here, but I think there is a time and a place for remembrance....   and in sport, that place is definitely pre-race / pre-match.  Once the event is underway, it is good for the human soul for people to let off steam, get on with the game and move on with life.

  • Well said RW, that's how I see it.

  • Wilkie wrote (see)

    Why do people try to get folk to all do something?  There was some other poster wanting people to all wear a race medal to work next Monday!

    Do they want to feel they've influenced events or something?

    I feel that the black ribbons, and a 30 second silence are enough.

    Couldn't agree more. I'm a bit suspicious of organised grief - partly because I don't like it, partly because all this hysteria plays into the hands of terrorists, giving them more publicity than they deserve. I'll observe the silence and wear the ribbon. It's enough.

  • "Organised grief" - good phrase and only a few degrees away from "professional mourners" IMO. 

  • Grendel3Grendel3 ✭✭✭

    The other thing that crossed my mind in this, is do they still take photos at the finish - I haven't run the race since 1998 - but surely the official photographer is not going to be to happy with people covering up their numbers.

    On FB I am being encouraged to wear a race t shirt for the day to show my solidarity - not sure what it will achieve - (or how my boss will react to me sitting all day in an old Southend 10K T Shirt.

    What happened in Boston was a terrible event. But to me, the fact that the organisers of London did not consider cancelling the event and the fact that 35,000 people will show up on the day to run, watched by 100,000s of supporters and spectators,  shows whoever, or whichever organisation was responsible that they can never win.

    But as others have said - it is down to the individuals themselves how they choose to deal withany personal grief. If nothing else the 30 seconds silence will shut Brendan Foster up briefly.

  • Grendel3 wrote (see)

    The other thing that crossed my mind in this, is do they still take photos at the finish - I haven't run the race since 1998 - but surely the official photographer is not going to be to happy with people covering up their numbers.

     

    That is a seriously good point Grendal. More importantly it means people won't get a finish line photo either! 

  • I'm always happy not to get a finish line photo.. I generally look like I have been blown up. image
  • I look more like I have been blowtorched image

  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭
    Peter Collins wrote (see)
    Wilkie wrote (see)

    Why do people try to get folk to all do something?  There was some other poster wanting people to all wear a race medal to work next Monday!

    Do they want to feel they've influenced events or something?

    I feel that the black ribbons, and a 30 second silence are enough.

    Couldn't agree more. I'm a bit suspicious of organised grief - partly because I don't like it, partly because all this hysteria plays into the hands of terrorists, giving them more publicity than they deserve. I'll observe the silence and wear the ribbon. It's enough.

    Agree with both Wilkie and Peter.

  • There's a real response from core poster's here and that's fine because you guys are what help's new runners learn the ropes but from the outside.  I'm just reading this thread for the first time in ages it seems like you're giving Lucy a hard time for something which is coming from a good place - up to and including a veiled challenge to her "running credentials". 

    I for one ran Brighton on Sunday and was disgusted by Boston which happened so suddenly afterwards - at that point I felt a massive feeling of solidarity with those guys and mainly because our community is above this sort of c**p.  As runners (even those who don't use runner's world forums every day) we love what we do and enjoy the company of others who love what we do. There's truth that we have at time some over the top emotional responses in modern society but this is coming from a good place and sincerely its the same type of emotional response which helps raise millions for charity each year.

    Lucy - stick with it.  For personal reasons some may identify with your efforts and some won't but all you can do is ask.

     

  • To be fair, no-one said it wasn't coming from a good place J-A-R. The value and practicality of the gesture has been questioned, that's all.

  • Agree with Wilkie and Peter too.

    30 people were killed by car bombs in Iraq on Monday but it has hardly even registered on the news. Terrorist bombings are tragic wherver they happen. It baffles me why people only care when it happens in the West?

     

    "all men are created equal but some are more equal than other" - George Orwell

  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭

    JAR - I have nothing against what Lucy is trying to achieve, but (to steal Peter's phrase) I don't really liked organised grief or the need for people to have to do something in response to it.

    I am certainly not trying to pursuade anyone not to do it if that is what they feel they need to do for whatever reason, I was simply agreeing with other posts on the matter.

    The 2 posts I quoted sum it up well, in my opinion.

    As chunkymunky says, we have a lot of incidents throughout the world such as car bombings that dont even make the news, certainly not front page anyway, but I don't feel the need to perform an acknowledging act everytime I park.

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