Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Full Marathon - RunMarathon

Maybe I haven't waited long enough to see how I really feel about this run. My training went so well, the weather was perfect. The first 9 miles were really great. I ran with the 4:00 pace group and chatted on and off. At about Mile 9, my left leg started twitching as it tends to do at the END of long runs and the pace started to feel fast for my leg muscles, but aerobically I was just fine even conversational. The hills in the second half seemed very hard although I know logically they couldn't have been that bad, I really, really felt them. By Mile 18 my leg muscles were shot. It was so strange though because I wasn't really tired, and mentally I was still ok, but my legs just wouldn't move fast enough and I let the pace group go on ahead and started walking the water stops and stopped to stretch a couple times. I knew then 4:00 was not happening, but thought I could at least surely take a couple minutes off my PR. I slowed to about a 10:30+ pace (which was basically my physical max.) and finished it up with a burst of speed in the final stretch.

We walked a LOT Friday and Saturday. My legs actually hurt each day from just walking. So, I was super sore going into this race, but I'm not sure I could've avoided the walking without being a complete party-pooper.

Walked back to the hotel to shower and nap and then walked several miles that night to/from dinner. Walking after my last stand-alone marathon helped a lot I think in recovery.


Although I trained well with mostly 40-55 mile weeks, I did not train enough at RACE PACE. If I'm going to go faster I still will need more distance and more at a faster pace.


I missed my marathon PR by 29 seconds. I knew my current PR was 4:12, but didn't know the seconds until I looked it up later. I am very glad though that I had the GUTS to decide to go for 4:00 and also the ABILITY to stay with the group for 18 miles. I now have a VERY good idea of what it will take to reach my 3:XX goal sometime in the future.