By many accounts, Sunday’s 40th running of the Marine Corps Marathon was a spectacular event. Several of the event’s participants, however, were frustrated about unusually long and slow security lines, which left them standing in line for more than an hour and nowhere near their assigned corrals when the race began.

On Tuesday afternoon, race officials posted a statement to the event’s Facebook page, which said that they kept the start open 15 minutes longer than previous years and extended the finish cutoff by 30 minutes, to compensate for the unanticipated delays.

“Unexpected factors can impact even the most precise plans, but in the true spirit of the Marines, the MCM worked to adapt and overcome and so did the runners,” the statement said.

The statement elicited many sympathetic responses from runners, but some remained unhappy.

Rick Nealis, race director, explained to Runner’s World on Tuesday that the problems began early Sunday morning, when a blue line Metro train hit a deer, causing transportation delays. It took several minutes to get the transit system moving again.

The delay caused more people to arrive at one of the race’s security checkpoints in a shorter span of time than they otherwise would have.

“We’ve never had the magnitude of that issue happening in the past, ever,” he said.

At the suggestion of law enforcement, race officials used metal detectors at two of the four security checkpoints for the first time this year. Nealis said the detectors worked well in dry weather in the two days leading up to the race, but the rain on Sunday caused them to malfunction.

At the checkpoint where Nealis believes all of the problems occurred, runners were required to pass under one of eight metal detectors. If the detector went off, a hand-held wand was used. If the wand went off, runners were then passed to a law enforcement official for a security check.

“Once the metro [problems occurred], the ripple effect started and got compounded with the new technology and some of the problems that existed at those screening points,” Nealis said.

Around the time the race started, officials began letting runners through the security checkpoints at a faster rate, using “visual assessments” to determine who needed further screening.

“We opened it up knowing the frustration was there,” Nealis said.

Keith Straw, 60, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, who was running his 322nd marathon, was one of the runners shuffled through the security checkpoint at that time. Race results indicate that he crossed the starting line 33 minutes and 47 seconds after the official race start.

“[It] soon became a frustrating mix of [slower runners], faster runners hoping to make up some time, and at least one wheelchair athlete attempting to make headway,” Straw wrote in a message to Runner’s World. “It was very sad to see fellow athletes, who had prepared so hard for that day, face the realization that this was not going to be their race day.”

It is not known how many people were affected by the security backup. Natalie Purdy, 37, of Greenville, South Carolina, said she was ready to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but the delay significantly affected how her race played out. She had hoped to start with the 3:35 pace group, but ended up starting with runners hoping to run 5:00 or 6:00, and had to weave her way around them for the first nine miles of the race.

Not all runners were affected by the security slowdown. Some got through the checkpoints before the lines backed up, and others entered via other checkpoints and had no problems. Others waited in long lines, but many said that because they did so in the name of safety, it didn’t bother them.

Nealis said he discussed the possibility of delaying the start of the race, but that he was “afraid of the ripple effect it was going to cause.”

Instead, he kept the timing mats at the starting line down 15 minutes longer, for a total of 40 minutes. After clearing his decision with law enforcement, he also made the call to leave the 14th Street Bridge, just before the race’s 20-mile mark, open 15 minutes longer.

In a normal year, runners must average 14:00 per mile or faster to make it across the bridge before it opens to vehicular traffic. Those who don’t make the cutoff are removed from the race course and are shuttled to the finish area. Nealis also requested that the finish area remain open 30 minutes longer, to give anyone who got a late start time to finish.

Many back-of-the-pack runners found that when they arrived at the finish line, there were no jackets (which the Marine Corps Marathon uses in place of mylar blankets) or food boxes available. Because the finish cutoff was extended, some people who would have ended up on the “straggler buses” were able to cross the line, which created an increased need for jackets and refreshments, Nealis said.

A few of the Marines who were handing out those items may have been too generous early on in the race, creating a shortage later.

“Apparently when it was raining that morning, some Marines, when they’re looking at 30,000 pallets of blankets and food say, ‘Let me hand out a jacket to people who are in the rain,’” Nealis said. “[With] the [food] boxes, [there was] almost the same mindset that even though they were instructed to give one box per runner, some runners feel that they can have two or three. And even though they should have been refused, they weren’t.”

The race organization is already looking at ways to fix the problems in the future, such as assessing how the metal detectors were operated. Putting a protective roof or cover above the detectors is one possible solution, if rains again.

This year’s field, with 23,194 finishers, was the third-largest in the event’s 40-year history. The accompanying 10K had a record 7,777 runners. Nealis said he’ll also think about the ideal size of the field.

“We close out early—a lot of people want to run—and maybe we’re a little generous in trying to accommodate more runners who wanted to experience it,” he said.

The transit authority will not open the Metro earlier than 5 a.m., so getting participants through the staging area earlier is not an option—the race’s website advises runners to arrive two hours in advance for the start.

Runners have suggested that the race not allow supporters and spectators into the start area, where officials estimate as many as 50,000 people pass through the security checkpoints. Nealis said he’d rather not prohibit spectators from the start area, because space constraints already limit their access at the finish.

“I’m not ready to ban family members away from taking pictures, clapping and cheering, and witnessing what’s going on [at the start],” Nealis said. “I think that’s what makes our sport so beautiful, that it is a family experience.”

Next year, Nealis said, the process will improve.

“That’s one of the things I love—in my 45-plus years of being a Marine and hanging out with Marines is that we’re not afraid to go back to the drawing board and take a look at what took place and was there a way to make things better,” Nealis said. “For those who are frustrated, I understand it, but come back in 2016 because things will be fixed and will be done different. We’ll all be smarter.”

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