Happy runners: Marathon corrects last year’s mistakes

Special events are this city’s bread and butter. Providing an enjoyable, convenient experience to visitors is the minimum standard. And if things go sideways to the point of making national news, they need to be corrected immediately.

Credit the organizers, sponsors and volunteers of the Zappos.com Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon and Half-Marathon with learning lessons in a hurry. Last year’s race was a sporting and public relations disaster, leaving participants furious and putting the event’s future in jeopardy. This year’s run, which took place Sunday, was such an improvement the race looks like a December mainstay for years to come.

Last year’s race took over the Strip and was moved to the evening, offering athletes a more scenic, memorable experience. The race sold out, attracting more than 44,000 runners and immediately making the Competitor Group event one of the biggest runs in the country.

But runners weren’t staggered enough at the start and the course was flawed, forcing many marathoners to merge into miles-long traffic jams of half-marathoners. The finish line was a massive scrum of shivering runners, who poured into Mandalay Bay to the point that movement was difficult. Many runners couldn’t get medical attention and couldn’t get back to their hotels, so they went to sleep in hotel hallways. Hundreds of runners complained of illness and blamed it on the water provided during the race, a claim that quickly spread through the Internet. (An epidemiologist later concluded more than 500 people contracted Sapovirus gastroenteritis before the race, not during it, most likely at the running expo where race packets were distributed.)

Sunday night’s race had about 19,000 fewer participants, no doubt because of last year’s blistering criticism. But with fewer runners on the Strip, better coordination at the start and finish lines and a new course through parts of downtown, last year’s problems disappeared. Runners had room to maneuver. Marathoners weren’t tripping over half-marathoners. Athletes who needed medical help were able to get it. And organizers took steps to give runners greater confidence in the potability of the water.

Most notable, however, were the faces of those who finished. The expressions of confusion, frustration and anger that were so common last year were replaced by happiness with the accomplishment of a major fitness milestone and an experience that only Las Vegas could deliver.

There are plenty of locals who’d be happy to see the race end, simply because of the resulting road closures and traffic tie-ups. That’s a short-sighted perspective. Any event that brings to Las Vegas people from all 50 states and more than 50 other countries is worth continuing, even if it poses a single evening of inconvenience. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon and Half-Marathon is a winner again.