A year later, Dallas Marathon rebounds from canceled race

A year after the Dallas Marathon was iced out, runner are excited to get back to the race. News 8's Sebastian Robertson has more.

DALLAS — Ten days before the 2014 MetroPCS Dallas Marathon, organizers say both the Half Marathon and the Full Marathon are sold out -- good news for organizers working to rebound from a frustrating year.

"It's been one of the most historic races in the nation and it's one of the oldest," said Patrick Byerly, President of the Dallas Marathon.

Before being hired to run the non profit event 15 months ago, Patrick Byerly ran the race three times as an athlete.

"We have introduced a great new course this year that will really highlight the City of Dallas, as well as really give the runners a great experience," he said. "By running, by multiple locations, where spectators friends and family can see them multiple times without getting back on their car and seeing them again."

Carefully redirected around construction, the new course starts downtown.

Tens of thousands scheduled to pass through Deep Ellum, to Turtle Creek, and heading back through Highland Park by way of Greenville Avenue—finishing with a run up and down the length of White Rock Lake.

It ends some 26.2 miles later back in downtown.

Runners are eager to finish a race that never started last year. Nearly one year ago, for the first time in its 43-year history, the race was called off due to weather...ice, to be specific.

A determined group decided to host their own race despite the ice, dubbed the "icepocalypse marathon."

"We will have support cars, but we won't have a police escort, we won't have paramedics," said runner Jonathan Eisenzoph in December 2013.

The race was called off in the name of runner safety, organizers say.

Despite the best intentions, Byerly says the decision to cancel the race still stings a year later.

"No one won, it was very impactful for us as an organization—to see all that hard work, just like the runners that put in all that hard work. It's something we deal with even today," Byerly said.

While runners did not get a refund after the rain check, they were offered registration for this year at a significantly reduced race.

And when those runners cross the finish line, they will receive two medals.

One for 2014, and one for 2013.