As some of you may have noticed, I have been a little absent from blogging. This was because I was in Las Vegas, running my 5th half marathon. I wouldn't call myself a pro, but this is about my 10th race I have ran in, so I thought I would write a post about my experience and opinion of the race.
This whole weekend was full of energy. I arrived in Las Vegas on Friday evening, which is when the weekend really kicked off. The marathon held a kick off party, which I was unable to attend, and also held the first day of the runner's expo. The second day of the expo was on Saturday, as well as another runner's event and a 5K night run with a finish line concert performed by Chromeo. Sunday was the big day. With over 45,000 participants between the marathon, half marathon, and half of the half race, this was the largest race I have participated in yet. The evening began with a starting line festival with performances by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
After the starting line concert, the runners all took off to their appropriate coral (based off of your estimated finish time and overall pace). At 4:30 PM, as the sun was setting over the strip, the first set of runners took off. I was in the 9th coral, so I started about 10 minutes after the official start time.
We started off at Mandalay Bay, ran down through Downtown Las Vegas, wrapping around a few residential blocks, and back down the strip, ending at the Mirage. Throughout the course, we were cheered on by spectators and bands along the way. There was a great finish line festival, followed by another party at Hakkasan at MGM Grand.
Overall it was a great weekend filled with many runner's perks such as discount entertainment, dining and clubbing. Because it was a flat course, I was able to PR (get a personal best record) finishing the 13.1 miles in 1 hr and 52 minutes (8:34 min/mile overall pace). It was amazing running along the strip, especially with my two best friends by my side!
Celebrating our hard work after the race
Even though I really did enjoy this race, there were a couple of things I did not like. Since it was at more of a tourist destination, there were not a lot of spectators. Some parts of the race were so quite, I almost felt underwhelmed. I was also a little disappointed with the amount of bands throughout the course. Normally a Rock 'N Roll marathon has a band almost every mile, but this one only had about 3 or 4 throughout the whole 'half course'. Also, parts of the course ran through a very ghost-like residential area, which was quite the opposite of parts that were on the strip.
Overall I would give this race an 'A-'. It was definitely one of the better races that I have run, but there were a few things I think that could still be improved on. It was very well organized with a lot of runner perks, but at the same time, parts of the race were so dark and quiet, I felt like I was running alone! I would definitely recommend running it to a beginner, because it is nice and flat accompanied by some great entertainment!
