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MISSOULA - The Missoula Marathon is Sunday, July 8, and event organizers
are in the midst of preparations for the race with Race Director Anders Brooker saying that total registration for the event has passed last year's numbers with more late registrants expected.

"Registration's up. Right now there's a lot of buzz, so people are nervous and excited. It's just gonna be a really neat feel this year. We're going to have close to 5,000 people and half of those people will come from out of the state of Montana, so there's a big influx of tourism and money that comes to town and it's gonna be a fun weekend," Brooker said.

Brooker attributes the strong out-of-state participation to the local community support and low humidity conditions. The course remains the same as last year and is a Boston qualifier.

Brooker said fixed costs have gone up over the last couple of years due to more security and safety measures, but he doesn't foresee a change in registration fees.

"We wanna make the runners' experience the best we can and so that means putting more police officers, putting more volunteers, more course marshals, more signage and cones - those things cost more money. The more that we can do the safer it's gonna be out there for our runners," he explained.

The three day marathon weekend starts Friday evening with a beer run, continues on Saturday with a 5K, and finishes Sunday with the full marathon.