It seems that weirder and weirder things are happening at marathons. I
heard about this after I ran Detroit (a friend running the 1/2 was among
a group that got briefly stopped), but I didn't realize this story was on
the web, so I thought I'd copy it and share it:
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MARATHON: Run, wait, run for a few runners
October 24, 2005
BY AMBER HUNT MARTIN
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Gerald Hug was just two miles into his 5.1-mile chunk of the Detroit Free
Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon on Sunday when he and about 30 other runners
were stopped by what they believed to have been U.S. Customs officials.
The problem? Apparently, the runners set off radioactive isotope sensors
inside the tunnel.
Welcome to the post-9/11 world of road racing.
"Customs agents came over with these boxes that looked like big bricks
with handles on them," Hug recalled later in the day from his Plymouth
home. "I assumed they were metal detectors."
Hug -- who ran the marathon as a relay race with his wife, Andrea,
another couple and a friend -- said the agents didn't offer an
explanation, but one-by-one the runners were allowed entry. None was
deemed a security threat.
Pat Ball, director of the race, said Hug's group wasn't the only one
stopped and Sunday's incident wasn't the first.
"I know at least twice when they stopped a group coming out of the
tunnel," Ball said. "They did it last year, too."
Customs officials directed questions to U.S. Customs and Border
Protection Chief Ronald Smith in Detroit, who did not return calls to his
cell phone Sunday evening.
A radioactive isotope is an atom with an unstable nucleus that decays
until it stabilizes, emitting potentially dangerous radiation.
Hug said the runners were allowed to pass fairly quickly. He estimated
that his run was slowed by about 30 seconds.
"I told the officers thanks," he said with a laugh. "I needed that break
after running up the hill. It was a blessing in disguise."
Others, however, weren't as forgiving. Hug said some of the runners who
were stopped alongside him complained that the delay could cost them the
chance to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
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From what I've heard since then, apparently some folks who've undergone
medical procedures involving radiation can actually trigger the sensors
they use to monitor the border. Either that, or there's a whole lot of
radium in somebody's wristwatch face...