Oct 22, 2007 Barbara Bennage - Woman Behind the Marathon By Doug Kurtis

Barbara Bennage, currently the marketing director and overseer of the Marathon, has worked for the Detroit Free Press and its media partnership for the last twenty two years. She originally signed on as a volunteer with the marathon in 1988 and has been involved ever since.



In 1989, she became the race coordinator, working with director Ed Kozloff. Other roles on race day have included volunteer coordinator and gear check. Today, she ensures that the event follows the goals of the Free Press that the race stays within its budget, the staff and volunteers follow through with their responsibilities and the event is a safe one. On race day her goal is to be able to just observe but she will step in to help if an emergency arises.

Memories that stand out for her: “We have had different courses almost every year as well as many different finish lines. Bad weather race sticks in my mind, the year the tunnel was under construction and we had to keep the course in the U.S. We used Cobo Center as our staging area and it poured rain. I broke into hives because no one wanted to come out to the starting line. The growth in the use of technology like chip timing, web site information and on-line registration (almost 90%) has improved the event significantly.”

“I can’t forget the Tiger Stadium year when runners and volunteers were confused about where they were supposed to be at the start.”
Bennage worked to get the course off of Michigan Avenue and tried to put it back through the Grosse Pointes, instead it ended up at Hart Plaza.

She gives a lot of credit to the Detroit Free Press for supporting the marathon over the last thirty years. She wants runners to know how passionate the newspaper is with the event. “If it wasn’t for the Free Press and the Detroit Media Partnership there wouldn’t be a marathon. If you look at all the other marathons in the country, there is not one that is owned by a major newspaper. For a newspaper to put on an event of this size says a lot about how much we care for fitness and the running community. It’s a huge undertaking, especially on the international scale.

The Free Press does a lot editorially to the event, such as the special section, the results, advertising and certainly financially, plus many Free Press staff members work on the race all year round. Many volunteers come from the association the newspaper has with the community. “It’s phenomenal!”

Bennage has always preferred to be the behind the scenes person. “I didn’t want to be the face of the marathon like Ed Kozloff, Doug Kurtis or Pat Ball. With so many pieces that have expanded to make the event the huge success it is today, I knew it was too big an undertaking for me to handle with the rest of my responsibilities at the newspaper.”

Bennage wants runners to understand that it’s the volunteers that make the marathon happen. There are really only three people that are paid to work on the marathon the rest volunteer. It’s a huge undertaking that requires work all year round. She is concerned that with so many options for runners and walkers to participate in the event they are losing a number of core volunteers. She would like to plead for runners to take the time to help even on Saturday at the expo or course set up.