As a marathon course monitor, one of our jobs after the race is to clean up the sweat shirt, tee shirts, gloves the runner leave behind. We also check for car keys in the hoodies
All runners are cleared be for the race. The runners who are crossing the bridge into Canada— there is a state side half marathon — wear a certain color number. That is one of the things we check for to pull any runners who haven’t been cleared. Once stopped a young man on a bike who said he was just riding to keep his friend company. When I asked if he brought his passport he said no. When I aske how he was going to get back in the country, he seemed confused. Needless to say , he didn’t get to cross the bridge.
I have a jacket for the Detroit Marathon that I was given for being a bridge monitor. People always ask me how many marathons I’ve run. I have to explain I just keep the runners from running to Ecorse instead of Canada. But it is a really nice jacket.
I grew up in Ashtabula Ohio across the street from Lake Erie. There were mornings when we woke to two or three feet of snow at home, and no snow at the school on the other side of town.
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