By Mary Foster

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ The 41st Mardi Gras Marathon will offer runners more than just the usual challenge on Sunday. It also will offer a unique chance to tour the damage hurricane Katrina did to the city.

``The first 14 miles they will be running through some of the flooded areas of the city,'' race director Bill Burke said. ``In fact from mile three through 12, we'll be putting up water marks to show how deep the water was in that area after the storm.''

On one street, for example, the water reached 10 1/2 feet, Burke said.

``People didn't know what to expect running here,'' Burke said. ``We actually have people ask if they needed to wear a mask when they ran. They wanted to know if the city was closed or if it was toxic. We had to tell them the air's okay to breathe, the water's oaky to drink. They aren't in any danger.''

Besides two water marks per mile to show post-Katrina flooding, runners will go past many of the city's 200,000 damaged houses on the 26.2-mile course.

Runners will start and finish at the Superdome, which housed 30,000 refugees for a week after the hurricane. The course includes the French Quarter, Lake Pontchartrain lakefront and Uptown neighbourhoods, Burke said.

``It's a pretty good tour of the city,'' he said. ``They're going to see a lot of wrecked buildings, a lot of debris being taken out of houses, a lot of damage.''

The marathon, the fourth oldest in the nation, is the first non-college sporting event to be held in the city since the hurricane.

There are about 3,200 runners registered for the marathon, the half-marathon and the 5K race held with it, Burke said. That's down from 5,600 runners last year.

``I don't think that's surprising,'' he said. ``Most of our residents aren't home yet.''

About 65 per cent of the runners are from out of state, Burke said.

The net proceeds from the event will be donated to the ``Back to the Big Easy'' fund for local charities in New Orleans to help with the city's recovery efforts.