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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.
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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 run along Riverside Drive West before crossing back into Detroit via the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.
The fifth mile of the route runs between Crawford and California 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 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.
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