Organizers of the Illinois Marathon say they've received an outpour of support following the tragic bombings in Boston.
More than 20,000 runners will take part in the Marathon on April 27th in Champaign–Urbana. Emergency Services Coordinator for the race, Scott Friedlein, said more than 400 people signed up for the race yesterday on the last day of registration.
“So it’s not have the effect of scaring people away,” Friedlein said. “It’s actually having the impact I think of drawing people to the running event and that sense of belonging of an event like this and the relationship to help the community and those types of things.”
Friedlein said they’ve fielded several calls from community members wanting to volunteer and help out with the marathon and its associated events.
Friedlein said local officials are taking added precautions and the tragedy in Boston is making them take a step back and look at their planning.
“So from our standpoint we’re obviously looking at some policies. We’re evaluating what our officer resources are and whether or not we need to increase those resources and any additional resources we need to bring in, for example, a bomb dog and things like that,” Friedlein said.
osMore information about the Illinois Marathon is available at illinoismarathon.com.