A race director working at
the Calgary Marathon in September describes runners tossing
their masks at the finish line like “graduation
day, with people flinging them off as quick as they could
after crossing the line.” Masks, not valedictory
caps, dotted the skyline and then, after the runners received
their medals, they walked away, leaving organizers, and
volunteers, to take rakes to the course and sweep up the
discarded masks like so many leaves on an Albertan driveway.
The takeaway? Gross.
“Don’t be a slob,” says
David Papineau, 53, a Vancouver-based runner with a 2:44
marathon time and 31,000 masks picked up on the Vancouver
streets. “Runners are used to grabbing a cup during
a race and throwing it on the ground—that’s
the culture we’re used to—but masks aren’t
the same thing. I just feel like: Don’t throw the
damn thing on the ground.”
We feel the same way. Let’s say
there’s 15,000 runners this spring at the Vancouver
Marathon. And let’s say 50% of participants feel
inclined to wear masks at the start line and in their
corral. Say 30% of these runners toss their masks on the
course like so much rice at a wedding. That’s over
2,000 dirty, sweaty discarded masks for someone else to
have to inhale. “When I ran the Calgary Marathon
last September, the majority of runners just threw their
mask on the ground after starting,” says Leanne
Loney, who was there competing at the marathon. “I
put my mask on my elbow and ran that way. I got a new
one when I crossed the finish line and disposed of my
pre-race mask in the trash.”
This is what we’re advising all
race participants to do. David Papineau has a cloth mask,
and he wears it at the start line and then, when he gets
going, he gingerly places it in a ziplock bag and stores
his mask in his shorts. He puts it back on after crossing
the finish line. A race director captured the unfathomable
thinking of runners who take a different approach with
materials they want to discard.
“I am surprised that runners feel
that on race day you can pretty much treat the city like
a giant garbage bin and toss anything you want on the
ground and expect a volunteer to pick it up,” the
race director said. “How many runners or anyone
for that matter do this on a walk, run or hike? Why do
the rules change on race day?”
The return of in-person racing is a wonderful
thing and equally triumphant, as we head into warmer weather
and spring, is the decline in COVID cases and the general
reemergence of humans, and runners, from their quarantine
and into the world. But with our re-joining society, there’s
a social contract that must be abided by, for the general
well-being of those in the community we love.
David Papineau has picked up more than
31,000 masks. “I have the desire to make the world
a better place,” he says, “I think that’s
ingrained in me as a runner.”
Don’t make David, or anyone, pick
up your mask. It’s disgusting.
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