DON McDERMOTT / PVT One of the more than 4,500 runners who competed in the 2007 Baker-to-Vegas Challenge Relay heads down Highway 160 into Las Vegas, where the 2008 race will conclude sometime late Saturday or early Sunday at the Hilton Hotel. Advertisement

Road construction in Las Vegas has forced organizers of the 24th Baker-to-Vegas Challenge Relay to change the course of the 120-mile foot race for law enforcement agencies.

On Highway 160 -- Blue Diamond Road in Las Vegas -- construction between Rainbow and Decatur, including the elevating of a railroad overpass, will prevent the race from using that section of the main road between Pahrump and the Strip.

And the organizers -- the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club -- have changed the starting time. The first runners will leave Baker, on California 127, at 9 a.m. Saturday; they will turn right onto 178 at Shoshone, wind through the mountains at Ibex Pass and enter Nevada on Highway 372 west of Pahrump.

At the intersection of 372 and 160, the runners make another right, then head for the Spring Mountains. Over the hump, at Fort Apache Road, the course makes a left-hand turn and heads to Desert Inn Road. The course will cross Las Vegas Boulevard and will end at the Hilton Hotel. In recent years, the finish line was at the Czarnowski Building, just off the Industrial Highway (Dean Martin Drive).

More than 220 teams, with 20 runners each, have entered the event. Because of the earlier start, runners are expected to race through Pahrump between 4 and 6 p.m. and will continue to appear here up until midnight.

The average time for a winning team in recent years has been slightly more than 13 hours, which means that if a winning team is in the first group leaving Baker, it could be at the finish line sometime between 10:30 p.m. and midnight.

The 2007 winner was the California Highway Patrol team from Sacramento, with its time 13 hours, 3 minutes, 40 seconds. Just 70 seconds behind (13:04:50) was the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department MCJ team. The San Diego PD was third in 13:38:18.

The 2007 top 10:

FBI, Los Angeles, 13:48:58;

Anaheim PD, 14:10:22;

Santa Ana PD, 14:11:36;

LA Sheriff's Department SEB, 14:13:11;

CDC Open, 14:19:55;

LAPD Metro Red, 14:31:24;

LASD Star Center, 14:40:42.

A total of 227 teams finished the race, with the last -- Clarement LaVerne PD -- completing the 120-mile, 20-stage relay in 23 hours, 31 minutes, 49 seconds.

The teams entered last year represented the United States Marine Corps, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Marshals, the Washoe County Sheriff's Department (Reno), the IRS Criminal Investigation Unit Pacific Region, the Navajo Police, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Air Marshals, FBI Women, the Salt Lake City PD, the Arizona Attorney General Office, NCSI and the Calgary (Canada) Police Service, among others.