Erie Runners Club members have turned their passion for
running into a positive force in the community. BY BERNADETTE WILSON
n 1976, a group of five running enthusiasts formed
an organization, the Erie Runners Club, that has kept
thousands of people from Erie County—and from
around the world—moving.
“Everyone is welcome,” says David Comi, the Erie Runners
Club president for the past 20 years. “We don’t discourage
anyone. Running next to you may be a surgeon, a lawyer, a
stay-at-home parent or a factory worker. No one looks down
on anyone else.”
The Erie Runners Club (ERC) has evolved from holding
events in the 1970s where a handful of runners followed a
vehicle with a cooler in the trunk around a course on Presque
Isle to hosting a Boston Marathon qualifying race.
FROM ERIE TO BOSTON
Runner’s World magazine included the Erie Marathon,
with its flat, shaded course on Presque Isle, in the 2019 top-
ten list of marathons that help runners qualify for Boston.
The Erie Marathon is also known for qualifying the highest
percentage: 46.2 percent of runners in Erie qualified for
Boston in 2018.
Registration for the 2019 Erie Marathon, which was held
Sept. 8, closed in June when the number of runners reached
the maximum of 2,200. Comi points out that only 35 of those
runners are from the Erie area. The rest of the field came from
46 other states and 15 countries, including Chile, Peru,
Ecuador, and Guatemala.
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“That’s about 3,000 visitors eating, sleeping and enjoying
Erie that weekend,” he notes.
ERC gives local restaurants a heads-up that there will be
athletes looking to do some carb loading the night before and
encourages them to offer a $10 pasta dish.
ERC VOLUNTEERS
Hosting the marathon, as well as the larger events on
ERC’s calendar, takes hundreds of volunteers. Comi says
there is a core group from ERC that runs smaller events, but
the organization needs 500 volunteers for the marathon,
about 200 volunteers for the half marathon and about 150
volunteers for the UPMC Hamot/Mayor’s Cup.
At one time, the ERC gave volunteers a T-shirt as thanks
for their help, but the club found that making a reciprocal
donation back to the volunteers’ organizations was a
better way to encourage support. Comi explains that any
organization that provides 10 or more volunteers for an event
will receive a $10-per-volunteer donation from the ERC for
their organization ($5 for the UPMC Hamot/Mayor’s Cup).
Organizations that volunteer for ERC events include ROTC;
school swim, soccer and cross-country teams; the YMCA,
and Scout troops. High school juniors and seniors who
volunteer at ERC races can earn service hours required for
graduation.
Volunteers of all ages are welcome to help, with kids
passing out cups of water to runners as they pass by and older