This Hamilton Marathon is making sure everyone gets to the finish line safely after Toronto runners sound alarm

The Hamilton Marathon Road2Hope is sharing the numerous methods it plans to maintain members secure throughout the race after runners in a Toronto marathon reported close to misses with autos.

The annual event brings collectively 1000’s of runners to participate in a 5K, 10K, half and full marathon in Hamilton, ON. 

Whereas runners spend months coaching for the race, Race Director Daniel Pauls tells Now Toronto that he spends his time determining methods to get runners to the end line secure and sound, most of which is completed via a visitors management plan with native police. 

“They kind of give us an idea of what they think is safe from their side when it comes to closing roads with cars. So we meet with the police, and we usually go over a safety plan, which involves closing off complete roads,” he mentioned.

Pauls feedback come at a time when the Toronto Marathon is dealing with backlash from some members on-line, who reported close to misses with autos throughout final weekend’s run, together with an incident the place a automobile allegedly slammed on the brakes forcing runners to divert round it.

Regardless of a lot of the race going down on town’s waterfront trails, Pauls says the sections of the race that do participate on the highway are closely supervised by officers and volunteers to stop autos from driving onto the course.

“Where there are road closures, we have police at every corner along with volunteers with vests, they’ll completely close off certain roads, and then the few that are open, the police will be there to kind of guide the cars,” he mentioned. 

Pauls says implementing security measures is a process that has not solely modified over time, however says he’s additionally discovered from incidents up to now to affect present measures which can be set in place.

“We did have an issue maybe six years ago, where an ambulance took really long to respond and get to a serious call. So we now have an ambulance on site at the finish line,” he mentioned. 

Pauls, who can be a marathon runner, says he’s witnessed incidents involving automobiles and members at a number of completely different races, together with the Toronto Marathon. He even needed to cope with a highway rage incident at his personal race the place a automobile purposely drove onto the course. 

@nowtoronto Toronto Marathon runners are calling out organizers after reporting shut calls with autos. #TorontoMarathon #TorontoRunners ♬ original sound – Now Toronto

He says these are experiences that he retains in thoughts when planning for the occasion, and encourages different cities and organizers to do the identical when implementing security measures, irrespective of how inconvenient it might be for drivers.

“It’s not always popular with the general public, but you got to keep people safe too,” he mentioned. 

Whereas he strives to make sure that all of these taking part stroll away with none incidents, he says there are ideas that runners ought to comply with to stay secure, particularly when participating in a race that’s on a highway or just simply coaching. 

“If you’re running a race in a big city you need to pay attention as well. Don’t just run across the street without looking both ways, even if you think the roads are closed, because clearly sometimes cars still get on the course,” he mentioned. 

Pauls mentioned making eye contact with automobiles can be useful earlier than operating in entrance of them. 

The Hamilton Marathon will run from Nov. 1-5.