Montreal homeless shelter to haul away truckload of marathoners' abandoned sportswear

By the time thepistol goes offSunday morning, thousands of Montreal marathoners will have already taken off ... their warm-up clothes.

As soon as participants are out on the course, workers with alocal organization that helps homeless Montrealerswill roll up behind them in a truck,ready to load it with the clothing the runners discard.

La Maison du Precollects enough clothing at the start lineto serve its clients for a year.

"Last year, to my surprise, there were pallets of really good clothes," saidDominique Pich, the Oasis Rock 'N' Roll Montreal Marathon's race director.

"We weren't ready for that, so we collected it and gave it away the best we could."

Many runners show up atthe starting corrals injogging pants andjackets, to stave off the early morning chill.

But knowing once the starting gun goes off, they'll beheating up their bodies each marathoner will burnabout two days' worth of calories they toss those extra layers off to the side.

It's a common practice in races across North America,and so rather than send all that clothing off to the landfill, marathon organizers in placeslikeChicago, Boston and New York City have launched similar charitable initiatives.

High-quality options

With as many as18,000 people hoping to crossthe finish line in Montreal, both the quantity and quality of abandoned clothing can beexceptional.

Pich said much of itisbrand new, and when he saw that, he realizedhe needed to establish a relationship with an organization that would make good use of it.

"The Maison du Pre was the perfect fit," he said.

Among its services, three times a week, La Maison du Preoffers clients a change of clothes.

That means they can trade in whatever they are wearing for a new, similar article of clothing.

"The clothing that we get is very high quality brands like Nike, Puma, Adidas," said Christine Vill-Valecourt, a spokesperson for La Maison du Pre.

"It's more like summer clothing and little bit of fall clothing, but it's the equivalent of a year of clothing. There are no winter jackets or things like that, but it's a lot of clothing in one shot."

The men's clothing will supply the charity for about a year, she said, with some of the items sold in the organization's thrift shop to raise money for other services at La Maison du Pre.

Bags of food donated

When the runners cross the finish line, tired and sweaty, they getmore thana medal and the sense of accomplishment.

They get a goodie bag, as well, stuffed with healthy snacks.

Organizers must prepare enough paper bags to accommodate all the finishers, but hundreds of bags filled with perfectly good bananas, cheese, chips and other snacks get left behind.

With thepartnership now established with Maison du Pre, it was decided that all the leftover food willgo to the homeless, as well.

"If there are no-shows or people who don't finish, obviously these bags don't get collected and these are the bags that will go to theMaison du Pre,"Pich said.