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

I had no time goal for this race. I had run a full marathon 5 weeks previous and was taking it very easy on the running for 3 weeks after that; then with only 2 weeks until the race I figured any training would be mostly useless so I played it by ear! A friend was leading the 2:15 pace group so I chose to run alongside her as long as I could, which turned out very well since her Garmin was acting up for the first 3 miles and my assistance proved crucial. I had forgotten to bring GU and relied on RnR to provide it but it wasn't available until mile 8, which was too late to be effective. Sure enough, HR started to climb during mile 9 and after dropping back slightly during an aid station between 9 and 10 I was unable to catch back up. When the course turned back into some heavy winds for the last 5K I decided to walk a lot, put a smile on my face, and enjoy the strip. My wife was running with a friend doing her first half and I was able to catch her for a quick hug near the stratosphere as I was southbound at mile 11 and they were northbound at mile7. Gave up 10 minutes in that last 3 miles but it was worth it to simply enjoy the finish.

I was totally undertrained (or is that overtapered?) for this race and had no fixed goal. Obviously having a goal and training to it is important to being able to measure "success". I count this as a great 9-mile tempo training run with a 4.1 mile jog for cooldown.. :)

And I would have fueled properly pre-race and during the first half of the race.

Finish chute was at least a half mile long and provided ample chance to walk (not that I wasn't already mostly cooled down from my lazy finish). Had time to get to the room, shower, and get back to the finish to cheer my wife and friend to her 3:31 triumph!


Lack of lunch + Lack of GU as a backup for lunch = Lack of energy.


Huge improvement from the RnR orgnization over last year's fiasco. Still some room to tweak it to become a better product but it was well run with plenty of volunteers, properly policed and spaced corrals, and more than enough water to go around. More gatorade and earlier GU station would be better.

I think the nighttime novelty has worn off and they should return this to a morning race!