By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Collecting his 11^th New York City Marathon medal, Jorge Serrano, a senior accountant for Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375, said this year’s race was special because he completed it with his son.

“Ramon is a doctor in Boston, but we planned to do this together,” Serrano said. Serrano has been a long distance runner since high school. He preps for the 26.2 mile, five borough race by logging dozens of miles on predawn and weekend runs.

The marathon is a major revenue generator for New York City that attracts over 50,000 participants and millions of spectators and tourists.

DC 37 members make sure the event runs safely.

Union members in the Dept. of Transportation and the city Parks and Recreation Dept. map out the marathon course. Blue Collar Division Local 1455 members paint the blue line that guides racers, Parks locals 983 and 1505 install barriers to control crowds, and Local 1931 members shut down the bridges and tunnels that are part of the autumn race course.

Emergency Medical Service employees in Locals 2507 and their Supervisors in Local 3621 work hard to keep runners and spectators healthy and safe.

DC 37 counts members and staff among the thousands chosen to be in the international runners’ competition.

Others like Supervising Attorney Sheldon Barasch, who works at DC 37 Municipal Employees Legal Services, help out each year to make the event a success. He said, “I no longer run but I volunteer because I love this event so much.”