Valley man cancels trip to New York City for marathon prior to Mayor Bloomberg's announcement

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - A Scottsdale man will spend his weekend here in the Valley after canceling his trip to run in the New York City marathon.

Octavio Heredia and his girlfriend Johanna made the decision to cancel their trip to the Big Apple even before Mayor Michael Bloomberg pulled the plug on this year's race.

"It came down to just trying to put everything in perspective, our own travel arrangements and everything that was going on in the [New York City] area," said Heredia.

Bloomberg came out Thursday to announce the race would go off as scheduled, but many people criticized that decision, saying it would take resources away from clean-up efforts.

Heredia closely monitored the developments from here in Arizona.

"Even if resources weren't being taken up, you could tell it was becoming a very divisive situation," said Heredia. "It was a distraction for everybody."

As much as he wanted to run the marathon, Heredia ended up canceling his flight to New York, scheduled for Friday morning.

A few hours later, Bloomberg announced the race was off.

"We looked at all the factors, everything and all the uncertainties associated with the trip," said Heredia. "We made the decision and are comfortable with the decision."