The 47th Detroit Free Press Marathon turned tragic Sunday when a 57-year-old male runner died after collapsing on the Windsor side of the cross-border route.
The male runner collapsed near the fifth mile of the 26.2-mile race, a race official confirmed to the Windsor Star.
He was transported to Windsor Regional Hospital’s Ouellette campus where he was pronounced dead.
The marathoner’s identity or hometown have not been made publicly available.
The 26.2-mile race, which starts and finishes in downtown Detroit, brings participants across the Ambassador Bridge for a stretch along Riverside Drive West before crossing back into Detroit via the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.
The fifth mile of the route runs between California and Crawford avenues on Riverside Drive West.
In 2009, three male runners — Daniel Langdon, 36, of Laingsburg, Mich., Rick Brown, 65, of Marietta, OH, and Jon Fenlon, 26, of Waterford, Mich. — collapsed and died during the race’s half-marathon.
Two of the men collapsed at the finish line, while the third collapsed at a fluid station, between the 11th and 12th mile markers on the Michigan side.
The 2009 deaths were the Detroit marathon’s first fatalities in 15 years. A 42-year-old male competitor died of a heart attack in 1994.
About 20,000 participants took part in Sunday’s marathon and international-half marathon.