Great race report!  Awesome job for a HM on light training!

Congrats on your finish!  Was there also and had a very similar experience.

*The Expo was awesome, spent hours and hours there.

*The gear check was supposed to be next to the corrals, but when we got there, had to walk 3/4 of a mile inside a hotel to drop my bag, then back.

*By the time we got back to corrals, no crowd control whatsoever, just way too packed.  I started about 5 corrals behind where I was supposed to be, no hope of moving up, so just chatted with the folks by me. 

*They stopped the wave start at some point where they were taking 45 seconds between waves around corral 10 and just went to rolling start.

*No volunteers at the corrals directing traffic.

*First 4-5 miles were wall to wall, I trained at 9 minute miles and was in the 11 range even dodging through traffic as best I could.  Hundreds of walkers towards the front end of the pack (I'm sure they got stuck there, so not blaming them), thinned out okay after than, then miles 8-13 were good.

*Water, Cytomax, GU stations held up well, considering the numbers.

*Felt badly for the full marathoners merging into the chaos at mile 14. 

*Bands were good, fun, the Strip was great at night.  Lots and lots of crazy running Elvises, Spidermen, Pink Gorillas, and generally odd costumes.

*Finish congested badly again, but they did a good job of getting people through.

*Going back through the hotel to bag check was a struggle for me, but made it.  Was worse for those caught in a major show getting out about 15 minutes after me.  So gear check had runners, families, and show patrons.

*So really unique race, fun.  Great expo.  Need to cap entrants or learn from their experience, stick to their wave intervals, and improve crowd control.

Interested to hear what others had to say about it.

I think it should be noted that this wasn't the case for those starting in the first few corrals.  I dealt with some congestion but nothing what it sounds like was in the back.  I think there's plenty of blame to go around, both with the RD/Competitor AND the individuals participating in the half.  Corrals probably should be qualified with such a large event but then again, I haven't ran a qualifying time in a year and I would have been unjustly stuck in the back.  From my perception in corral 2, too many people waited too long to even get to the starting line and then were stuck in a traffic jam trying to get to their corrals, so they just jumped in wherever they could.  I was blown away by the number of people just arriving with 20 minutes until the start.  Add to that plenty of people not being honest about their own abilities and it was a recipe for a starting line disaster.

I think the bigger problem is going to be next year.  IF they do not mandate qualified corral assignments, even more people are going to lie about their pace in order to avoid the traffic jam in the back which will only cause a mess even earlier in the start. 

"I think there's plenty of blame to go around, both with the RD/Competitor AND the individuals participating in the half.  Corrals probably should be qualified with such a large event"

Agreed.  Live and learn, hopefully they will make adjustments.  For all the massive logistics involved, they nailed 90% of it, no reason they can't make it better.  I do think even if you fix the half-marathon portion, merging in the full marathoners at any point into those numbers is going to end badly.

"I was blown away by the number of people just arriving with 20 minutes until the start."

Also agree.  Some just planned poorly, others had no idea how long it would take to get from A to B.  One friend told me that he got to the start line 50 minutes prior to start, but then had to reroute to the new bag check location and got back 20 minutes before the start.  Another said it took him 1 hour 40 minutes to get from the Wynn to the Mandalay. 

Congrats on your finish!

started in Corral 4, made it there 30 minutes prior and didn't have an issue getting in (walked down from PH).. didn't experience the chaos that most did so was lucky although could see how it could happen. Agreed on the way too many runners and how they merged the half and full together. In Nashville we split off at mile 10-11 and they rejoin coming opposite directions, but don't ever run together again (that I remember, unless we do at the bridge, i can't recall honestly, but no such merge issue there). I "think" if they would've kept with the delayed corral starts (say 1-2 minutes per corral, again.. like Nashville), then it would've spread things out a bit, but not solved the entire issue.. Other thing would be getting the last corral out before the top runners came across due to the way the finish is setup, so not sure if it's plausible or if they would have to change the finish/start method. Was a good race, PR'd at 1:44 on light training, hope to get back in 2013 with my wife and her friend running.. but told them they need to be below or close to 2 hours to avoid the mess. And yes, cap it at 35k.. I think there was a lot more people that did this just to enjoy the strip that typically wouldn't do a 1/2, saw a lot of people that HAD to have cut the course just no way they were so far ahead of me at certain points with the pace they were running in comparison (and i'm not fast).

HOpe they address the issues next year, has the opportunity to be a great race if they can figure it out.

congrats DJ.  crazy race.  i can't imagine what it was like if last year when we ran was 1/2 the peeps.  i thought that was way to crowded. 

keep up the awesome work!