Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 10:48 a.m.
The 39-year-old Las Vegas International Marathon is history, but organizers of the New Las Vegas Marathon hope to make history at the Dec. 4 inaugural event.
The 26.2-mile race, announced Monday, will offer what organizers are calling the largest cash bonuses in marathon history -- $1.25 million for men's or women's world records set on the relatively level course planned in part along the Las Vegas Strip, where huge crowds are expected.
"A new record is possible on this course because it is so flat," said the event's director, Bill Burke, who has directed the Los Angeles Marathon since he co-founded it in 1985.
"Also the large urban buildings on the course will block the winds and that also will help the runners."
"This (the record bonus money) is the most exciting news in the world of marathons I know of in the last 50 years."
Race organizers made the word "New" part of the event's official name and have printed "New Las Vegas Marathon" on coffee mugs, playing cards, T-shirts and other promotional items.
The race, which organizers say also will feature fireworks set to the tune of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas," will offer $400,000 in prize money from sponsors, including the race's Chicago-based management company Devine Racing, which will pay the first Clark County men and women finishers $10,000 each.
However, gone from the new event are some popular features of the old race, including the 5-kilometer event and the half-marathon.
Also, event officials say, one of Southern Nevada's oldest track and field records will be retired, the 2:12:37 Las Vegas International Marathon record set in 1986 by local distance running legend Frank Plasso Jr. It will not be used as the standard for the new, faster course.
The old Las Vegas Marathon was long run on a rolling course from Jean to Sunset Park. A news release announcing the upcoming event, which will start and finish at the Mandalay Bay, says "a field limited to 15,000 participants will become the first in history to run the world famous Las Vegas Strip."
That is inaccurate because the course for the Las Vegas Sun Marathon of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which featured world class competitors and was sponsored by the daily newspaper, also was run on the Strip and ended at the old Hacienda Hotel, near where the Mandalay Bay now stands. More recent Las Vegas Marathons sponsored by Strip hotels have been run partly on the Strip.
The New Las Vegas Marathon course will utilize northbound Las Vegas Boulevard lanes, go under the Fremont Street Experience, head into neighborhoods as far west as Alta and Torrey Pines drives and travel southbound on Industrial Road.
"We are going to make history," said New Las Vegas Marathon Chairman Bernie Yuman, longtime manager of Siegfried & Roy and confidant of boxer Muhammad Ali. "We are going to bring in people from all over the world."
Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, who in April signed a resolution of support for the New Las Vegas Marathon, called the race "an extraordinary event (that will) attract the attention of the world."
He said no public money will be used as prize money or to run the event.
The last Las Vegas International Marathon was run in January and featured about 10,000 runners. Olga Kovpotina broke the women's event record with a time of 2:31:53. Gilbert Koech won the men's event, just 1:07 off Plasso's record.
To collect the $1.25 million bonuses, this year's men's champion will have to beat 2:04:55, while the women's winner will have to best 2:15:25 -- the current world records held by Kenya's Paul Tergat and England's Paula Radcliffe, both set in 2003.
Burke said the Las Vegas course will be certified by both USA Track and Field and the Association of International Marathons, hopefully to prevent an incident similar to the recent Chicago Lakeshore Marathon where competitors unwittingly ran an extra mile because organizers mis-measured the course.
Burke said the event's entry fee increase to $95 -- $35 more than for the January race -- is comparable to that of other major city marathons and is necessary to make the race a world class event.
Organizers said elite runners who commit to competing in the race for an appearance fee will be announced by Devine Racing, which is operated by longtime marathon runner Chris Devine, who last year bought the Las Vegas Marathon from Al Boka, who had directed the race for 23 years.
The upcoming race, which will have 26 water stations along the route, will be televised locally on CBS affiliate KLAS Channel 8.
Online registration is open at lvmarathon.com.
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