Volunteer Christy Massimino helps runners register for the New Las Vegas Marathon on Friday at Mandalay Bay, the start-finish site for today's race. More than 7,500 volunteers will help manage the race. Photo by Isaac Brekken.

Bruce Buzil understands that there are great marathons all over the world, and some of the best are in the United States. Boston, New York and Chicago have races with truly unique qualities.

But no other marathon can offer what the New Las Vegas Marathon will when 16,000 runners gather at the Mandalay Bay start line at 6 a.m. today.

"At the end of the day, there is no other setting like the Las Vegas Strip," said Buzil, a principal partner of Devine Sports, the Chicago-based company that owns the race.

The predawn starts allow entrants -- an expected 8,000 for the marathon and another 8,000 for the half-marathon -- to run under the glow of the resort lights for the first few miles as the course heads up Las Vegas Boulevard and through the Fremont Street Experience. The event has quickly added a Las Vegas flavor, with fireworks and Blue Man Group also at the start line, a run-through wedding chapel at Mile 5 and myriad entertainment throughout the course and at the Mandalay Bay finish line.

Last year the race drew 12,000 entrants. The addition of the half-marathon helped bolster this year's total, especially since that course also includes the Strip.

"With the half-marathon, it's a shorter distance, there's less training time, and it seems to be one of the best growth segments in the marathon business," Buzil said.

Buzil said he has been most impressed with how the region has embraced the event. The race has drawn approximately 7,500 local volunteers, according to event media relations director Laurence Cohen.

"The support of the county, the city and the whole community has just been phenomenal," Buzil said. "From municipalities to Las Vegas Events on down to the residents, it's just been tremendous, and that's what it takes to have a successful event."

Now Buzil hopes everything comes off without a hitch.

"I'm just excited about the whole event, and I'm wishing for good weather," he said.

The temperature is expected to be in the mid-40s at the start, with possible south-southwest winds of 8-16 mph. That would still be better than last year, when temperatures were in the 30s and runners dealt with cold, northerly headwinds of up to 20 mph through the first half of the race.

• ROAD CLOSURES -- The two races will have rolling road closures throughout. The most prominently affected roads for the marathon are: Las Vegas Boulevard, southbound lanes; Martin Luther King Boulevard; Carey Avenue/Smoke Ranch Road; Torrey Pines Drive; Twain Avenue; and Frank Sinatra Drive.

For the half-marathon, Industrial Road from south of downtown to Frank Sinatra Drive also will be affected.

For more information, go to reviewjournal.com and click the New Las Vegas Marathon logo link.

• OFFICIAL START TIMES -- The bulk of the field will start at 6 a.m. for both races. However, as part of the race's male-female challenge among the elite runners, the top women will start at about 5:42.

The first runner to cross the line, male or female, wins the challenge and a $50,000 bonus, to go with first-place elite division prize money of $15,000.

The wheelchair and hand cycles division starts at 5:50 a.m.

The Finish Line Festival and Concert runs from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center parking lot.