The initial concept was to attract nationally and internationally recognized runners; this was partially successful. Morris Aarbo of Canada won the first year with a time of 2:23:06, ahead of two marathoners from Turkey. A notable participant in the inaugural race was Harry Reid, who at the time was involved with local Nevada government. The subsequent 17 annual races fielded mostly local runners with a sprinkling of national- and international-caliber runners. When the "Las Vegas Sun "newspaper scuttled its sponsorship of the marathon in 1969"," the recently formed Las Vegas Track Club took over the event. Over the ensuing years, enrollment in the race remained low—in the range of 100 to 200 entrants—until the running boom of 1978 when the numbers bumped up for a year or two. Subsequently, entrants again diminished, with fewer than 102 finishers in 1982.