Lynn Cawker’s morning Tim Hortons run became an airport run when she spotted two athletes standing in their team colours with a pile of luggage and confused faces in College Park on Monday morning.

“They looked at me. I looked at them. I’m thinking, ‘What are they doing here?’ ” Cawker told the Star.

The pair, Michelle Farah, 25, and boyfriend Gonzalo Pons Fleitas, 22, were in Toronto playing rugby for Mexico in the Pan Am Games. On their last night in town the couple stayed with friends; by 6:45 a.m. they were lost. That’s when they spotted Cawker, who was wearing her accreditation badge for the Games.

Cawker works in records management for the Toronto police, but since February she’s been part of the force’s Pan Am planning team. The couple asked for directions to the athletes’ village, where their airport bus awaited. Promising she’d get them there, Cawker loaded the pair and their bags into her little car.

“I didn’t think anything else other than, I have to get them back to the village. I have to get them where they need to go,” she said.

“We’ve been on the planning team for a long time and transportation is a huge issue and getting the athletes where they need to be on time . . . it’s been ingrained.”

It wasn’t until they were loaded into her car when Cawker asked what time the flight was leaving: 9 a.m. Realizing the bus was likely gone, Cawker hatched Plan B.

The pair had no money for a cab, so another Toronto police employee, Peter Ross, took them to Pearson where they caught their flight.

“(Farah) thought I was her angel. She gave me a big hug,” Cawker said. “They were so appreciative.”

With 5 a.m. starts and 14-hour days during the Games, the thanks was welcome.

“We’re exhausted,” said Cawker. “And it’s things like that really make you feel like this is so worth every bit of effort.”

Cawker since added the couple to her Facebook friends and hopes to share pictures of her Pan Am experience.

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She didn’t think to stop for a photo at the time.

“I was just thinking, their flight’s leaving in two hours . . . ‘Do you have your passport on you?’ ”

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