I got the behind-the-scenes look at how the Toronto Waterfront Marathon works

I don’t normally wear other race’s swag but when I do, it’s from Toronto.

Being invited to work on the race crew for Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (STWM) is one of the most significant honours a race director can receive. Canada Running Series (CRS) is our country’s largest and most respected road race organizer, with their largest event being STWM attracting over 25,000 participants. The details and planning required to successfully organize an event of this size in downtown Toronto isn’t for the faint of heart. Actually, they have medics and a defibrillator in command center. #truestory

RELATED: Behind the scenes: How Maritime Race Weekend creates their famous medals

Though Maritime Race Weekend is one of the bigger events on the East Coast, it’s tiny compared to this Toronto event. To give you a sense of what I mean, my race has four U-hauls while they have a fleet of 40 trucks. We have 10 police officers along the route, they have 200 plus private security. Our top cash prize was $600, theirs was $75,000. We have runners come from eight countries to experience race day. STWM is a big deal around the world attracting runners from over 70 nations.

CRS has a phenomenal team working throughout the year. On race weekend, the respect they have from those in the industry is evident. Marathon organizers travel thousands of miles, crossing borders and multiple time zones to offer support. Last weekend, I worked next to some of the most well-respected organizers in the business from Chicago, Calgary, Mexico City and Houston just to name a few. These people organize massive races in comparison to mine. For me, it was an incredible experience to be at the table with these heavy weights.

This year, Charlotte Brookes (the event organizer for STWM) gave me a big promotion. I was assigned customer service dispatch in the command center, hidden away in a secret location. Its whereabouts was to be kept top secret: we weren’t allowed to share photos of the room and the doors were guarded by security. All the big decisions on race day were made inside those walls.

I was front-line with their most important people – the runners. On top of that, I was given access to their emails and social media accounts and forwarded their office and 311 telephone calls. The magnitude of this responsibility showed a huge leap of faith in my skills, but also an incredible display of trust. My race has 20,000 less participants than theirs, but Brookes believed I was capable of handling it. I took this as a massive compliment, seeing as she’s the most successful and respected event organizer in Canada.

I always leave CRS events with ideas on how to improve Maritime Race Weekend. This year was no different. I learned more best practices in the command center than I could list in one blog post. The biggest take-away was offering runners support during race weekend. Next year, instead of turning our emails to auto-respond and having calls go to voicemail, our runners will reach an actual person. It won’t be me answering the customer service calls during Maritime Race Weekend (trust me, I have more than enough on my plate…) but a seasoned pirate crew member who I trust. Who knows… maybe it will even be Charlotte.