Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Off the start my TGT was all over the place with pacing which I attributed to the buildings. Oh well, toss that out for pacing. At that point I decided to just keep lapping my TGT at the mile markers to see what pace I'm on and go by RPE. Well, only marked out at 5K, 10K and 10mile markers. I've never seen a course marked like this and kept looking for mile markers along the way thinking I must be missing them. First 5k came at 22:30 so I knew I was a bit slow but expected it simply due to the start congestion. I settled in solely on RPE (with an eye on my HR) and just accepted I'll run whatever I run. At about this time I started slightly regretting not running more at race pace to just get a more solid feel for it and dial it in better. Felt like I settled in around a 7mm pace which apparently wasn't too far off but man, I'd like those 10 seconds back.

Running up Las Vegas Blvd was awesome! Tons of people, the lights, the excitement, experience of a lifetime. The course turned off LVB up near the Stratosphere and we began winding around some side neighborhoods. Truth be told, it was a bit strange coming from all the glitz and excitement of the strip and suddenly being in the middle of a dead neighborhood with nothing but the yellow glow of street lights to show the way. In one sense, it was kind of cool too, the pure contrast of experience from the first few miles of LVB to the solace of the back streets. Popping onto Freemont was awesome! It felt like emerging from the tunnel out of the locker room, in the dark and quiet, to hit the stadium entrance and thousands of cheering...drunks. Just enough to jazz you back up before popping off onto more side streets. Few more miles running in through slumbering neighborhoods and then bam, back on LVB headed home. Mile 10 came and I just took a quick peak at my HR, saw I was still plodding along at 163bpm (which it had been almost the entire race)and thought I'd try to pick it up a bit. Legs felt great, the mass of crowds cheering were back to give that extra push and I just set my sights on people to pass one by one. I just kept telling myself "she's not going to beat me", "you're faster than that guy" and kept reeling them in. With as much pop left in my legs I knew I was probably a bit off a 1:30 but that was ok by me.

Finally I saw the beginning of the finish chute and spotted my sister off to the side. Just two weeks ago she asked me to take her shopping for her first pair of running shoes so I wanted to bring her along so she could experience what, hopefully, she will be doing in the near future. I think she was picking daisies because I completely surprised her as I passed by, yelled at her and she saw me just in time to get a high five. "Damn, no running to the finish photos are going to be on my camera" :) I saw waht I thought was a final right hand turn into the finish so I really kicked it, only to realize I was still a tenth away. That was too big of a kick for a tenth! Oh well. Crossed the line and that was that.

For this event, absolutely nothing. Like I said, I went in with a different set of expectations considering how massive this event was and the time of the race. Sure, a part of me still says "if you hadn't walked 50 miles Sat and Sun, drank a few fewer beers Sat night and spent more time at RP you could have easily gone under 1:30" but that wasn't my main goal. I came to have fun and take it in and absolutely accomplished that.

Walked through the finish chute and then went back to cheer on some others coming home while I waited for my sister to show up with my gear. I won't lie, it was cold so I was anxious for her to get there with my coat. It took her some time because of where she positioned herself at the beginning of the finish chute but I survived with just a bit of a chill. She showed up, grabbed my coat and we went to grab some post race beers as I waited for another friend running to finish. We walked up the street a bit and popped into the main entrance of Mandalay and then headed over to a bar to watch the finish of the SNF game. After a couple beers my friend that ran joined us for a couple more and then we took off. Apparently people had huge issues getting out of the hotel but I don't know why. Even after spending an hour and a half in Mandalay after the race we still managed to hop the monorail to Excalibur in 10 minutes. The cab line at Mandalay was ridiculous which is why we took the rail. I've often wondered why people never fully evaluate alternative options and will just accept the only one right in front of them. Anyway, 15 minutes we were at Excalibur and then spent 5 minutes in a cab line to get to the Cosmopolitan. Showered, through a ton of carbs back in me (mmm steak) and done!


Pacing, specifically not enough time spent at RP during training. My RPE gauge was a bit off but ce la vie.


Apparently a lot of people further back had some major issues at this race. There's a huge outcry going on right now at the RNR LV Facebook page. My experience was great so I can only comment on mine although I wonder how much of everyone's bad experience was self inflicted and due to just not being aware or adept at what to expect with so many people. It sounds like they were short on volunteers but I sit here wondering what you can really do about that at the end of the day. I suspect the biggest issue was the standard "me me" attitude of most people. It's sad but a lot of people have zero concern about anyone but themselves and from what I hear, they affected the experience of a lot of marathoners at the end.