Cold weather for the marathon should yield a bonanza in clothing donations to charity

With strong winds and temperatures expected to drop into the 20s by the time the Philadelphia Marathon kicks off at 7 a.m. Sunday, more than a few of the thousands of runners gathered for the challenge are going to bundle up before taking off along their 26.2-mile odyssey through the city.

But all those sweatshirts and gloves and hoodies will not make it far into the race. Some of the participants shed garments in the starting corral, anticipating working up a sweat. And as runners quickly heat up, caps, pants, jackets, gloves, and sweatshirts will fall away, peeled off in an epic disrobing that will transform city streets into a Gap wasteland.

And that makes for a great bonanza for charitable groups who collect all the cast-off clothing and distribute it to those in need.

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We are not talking a small thing here. Throwaways from about 28,000 runners will probably top four tons of old sweatshirts and T-shirts and maybe even an oxford or two by the end of race day. That’s on top of what was left behind in the starting corrals at Saturday’s half-marathon.

The city used to just pick it up like litter and ditch it.

But now the Sanitation Department and the marathon sweep it up and pass it along to the Salvation Army, which distributes it to shelter residents and other needy folks.

This will happen Tuesday, according to Jenn Sherlock, a spokesperson for the marathon.

Last year, race officials said they donated about $200,000 worth of clothing to the Salvation Army.

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The tradition began 15 years ago when a father and his teenage daughter noticed all the discards and decided to collect them and donate them to charity.

Runners are likely to show up even more layered than usual on Sunday. It will almost certainly be the coldest run in 14 years, and perhaps the chilliest since the marathon became an official city event, in 1994. In 2008, the start-time official temperature was 27, and that happens to be the National Weather Service’s forecast temperature for 7 a.m. Sunday.

Winds of 15 to 18 mph will make it feel as if it’s closer to 20, the weather service says, blowing from the west, more or less from the Schuylkill to the Delaware River.

But the agency says the most robust gusts, approaching 30 mph, should hold off until after the race.