Area Race Directors Confront a New Era of Security

Some of the field of 13,000 runners pass through metal detectors on the way to the start of Sunday's Army Ten-Miler. (Jonathan Ernst For The Washington Post)

A Virginia Department of Transportation employee will monitor VDOT camera feeds from several course roads on a projection wall in the department's Arlington office, said Kamal Suliman, traffic operations director for the Northern Virginia District. Views from the VDOT cameras will also be available in the marathon's on-site command center.

A Coast Guard cutter and several Coast Guard small boats will help patrol the course's waterways -- a practice that began last year -- and runners checking items at the baggage claim will need to use clear plastic bags for the third year in a row. Organizers said there were other security measures that they could not discuss for fear of compromising their effectiveness.

"We believe that what the race directors are doing is very much necessary to ensure the safety of the runners," said Pettiford of the Park Police.

Officials at last week's Army Ten-Miler similarly mounted their most robust security effort in that race's 20-year history, according to Col. Arnaldo Claudio, provost marshal of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington.

For the second consecutive year, metal detectors ringed the finish area of the race, which is located in a Pentagon parking lot. This year, the detectors were set on a higher sensitivity, Claudio said. Organizers used a mobile command center from the military's newly created Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region; monitors inside the command center showed near-real time video of the surrounding area taken from a camera mounted on a 40-foot mast above the truck.

Security measures also included at least three Coast Guard vessels, a sniper team from the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, triple the number of bomb-sniffing dogs on the course and plainclothes spotters in the crowd, Claudio said.

Backpacks were prohibited from the finish area. Runners approaching the starting line, which was accessible via a Pentagon parking lot, were checked with handheld wands, another policy that began last year. Many were told to check their cell phones before entering the course -- the race prohibits portable electronic devices on the course -- but some of the final runners attempting to reach the starting line were waved through because they hadn't received word of the prohibition, a spokeswoman said. The Marine Corps Marathon has no policy on cell phones.

After Metro unexpectedly closed the Pentagon station before the Ten-Miler, race officials delayed the start of the race by five minutes to allow runners to get through security lines and reach the starting area. A Metro spokeswoman said the station was mistakenly closed due to an internal miscommunication, and was reopened before the end of the race.

Several runners at last Sunday's race said the increased security was immediately noticeable.

"A lot, tons, without a doubt, more than I've ever seen," said John Beckley of Silver Spring, who ran the race for the third time and participates in about six road races year.

As the lines to get through the metal detectors grew in the hour before the race, there were isolated grumblings from the crowd about restrictions. But nearly two dozen runners interviewed before and after the race unanimously supported the race's security efforts.

"This is the most secure I've ever been," joked winner Dan Browne, who said his pre-race strides were limited by gates in front of the starting line, but said he had no complaints. "You don't see [security] like this very often, but you don't see road races by the Pentagon very often, either."

"It's a hell of a lot different here -- you ain't never gonna see [metal detectors] at a regular race," said Sgt. Maj. Victor Angry of Fort Bliss, Tex., who, after being turned away from the metal detectors because of his duffel bag, attempted to stuff both the bag and its contents into a plastic bag. "With the Pentagon right here, I can understand."

Marine Corps Marathon organizers began to increase their security efforts last spring and accelerated the effort after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's July warning that terrorists could attempt to disrupt next week's election. The race is being run in the same week as a presidential election for the first time in 16 years.

Nealis said the primary function of Sunday's race is to promote goodwill between the Marine Corps and the community, and that goal could be undermined by turning the course into "Fort Knox."

His stance was echoed by Maj. Paul Gomez, a Marines reservist who will coordinate security for the start and finish area.

"What fun is it for people to run under those conditions; they'd constantly be looking over their shoulders," Gomez said. "We just want to make sure things are as normal as we can possibly make them in the post-9/11 world."