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SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City Marathon will be taking place this weekend, and both police and organizers have their eye on keeping the event secure given the bomb explosions that ripped through the Boston Marathon finish line Monday afternoon.
Roughly 7,000 people participated in the marathon last year, making security a serious topic even before Monday's events.
"We live in a post-9/11 environment where we need to take these things into account," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank.
He called planning for an event like this a balancing act between open participation and complete security.
Burbank said that officials would be developing a possible response over the coming days, but that right now there is no specific threat or concern regarding the marathon.
The police chief also said he's been coordinating with the state and the FBI, trying to stay on top of possible threats.
"As always, we are paying attention to what's going on," he said.
The Salt Lake City Marathon occupies 75 percent of the SLCPD staff in an ordinary year, according to Burbank. A possible increase in staff will be looked at, but Burbank said it was too early to speculate on what kind of response there would be.
Race director Steve Bingham said organizers would be meeting Tuesday with many people involved in the coordination of the event and that there would be an animated discussion about security.
"Obviously, this will be the No. 1 topic we'll be discussing because it's on everybody's mind," Bingham said. "And rightfully so. We're the first marathon after this incident. So we'll continue to keep that as a priority."
Bingham said his thoughts were initially with the course director, who was nearby at the time of the explosions.
"Our course director of the Salt Lake City Marathon was there just 15 minutes prior to the incident, so immediately I was thinking about him," he said.
Both Burbank and Bingham said that attendees should be aware and feel free to report anything out of the ordinary or suspicious.
"As with any race, we are focused on the security of our runners," Bingham said.
Contributing: Richard Piatt, Andrew Wittenberg and David Self Newlin
