My last stop on the 2013 Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series tour was Las Vegas. I had very high expectations. I had just run two Rock 'n' Roll marathons, which were fairly well organized. The Rock 'n' Roll series has a good reputation. I went into the race expecting good things from the organization.
The Las Vegas marathon was the Titanic of marathons for me. I expected great things, but was hugely disappointed.
The Race: Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, November 17, 2013
My Training Plan: There was really no time for a training plan for this race. My last long run before this race was the St. Louis Marathon three weeks before, so between races I pretty much just tapered with some easy running. I did no speed work in between.
Weather: With the race being in the evening, the weather was different than I had ever experienced. Normally, you start cooler and end warmer, so you can wear throw-away clothes at the beginning. This time it started out at 65 degrees and ended up in the mid-50s. The sun went down instead of coming up, so you couldn't count on the heat of the sun to keep you warm. It was extremely windy the day before, but luckily the wind had died down and it was negligible during the race.
Who I ran with: I ran with absolutely nobody, and everybody, at the same time. Usually I pick up some runners along the way, but this was not the kind of race where you talk to anyone. There were way too many people to strike up a conversation, and when you're dodging runners or concentrating on not falling in the dark, it's hard to talk.
The Course: The was probably the straightest marathon I've ever run so far. It started heading south at the bottom of the strip and turned north to run up the strip. Eventually (maybe around mile 8 or so), we turned off the strip into some very dark roads. At this point, it was so dark, you couldn't see the people around you or where your foot was about to land. (I really wished I had my headlamp!)
There were way too many people for this course. On the strip, we were forced onto a two lane section of the road, and there were so many people that I was still weaving through people until around mile 8. (Usually by mile 2 or 3 people have settled into their pace.) I'm sure I wasted more energy than necessary weaving through so many people in the beginning.
Shortly after the marathon and half marathon split, the marathon went through Old Vegas, which was the best part of the course! The lights and music were so inspiring, and there were crowds lining both sides of the road, high-fiving and cheering the runners along.
Then we turned onto MLK Blvd. I hate to say it, but just about every MLK Blvd that I've been to in any city is pretty much the ghetto. I will say that it was well lit, there were plenty of cops, and I never felt unsafe. But it was definitely not the best part of town.
The course is very flat. The hills are so gradual that you don't realize you're running up them until you turn around and run back down. There were a lot of out-and-back spots, and even one spot where you ran down a short road and around a cul-de-sac off the main road.
Organization: I expected much better organization from a Rock 'n' Roll than I experienced. I would only give them a 3 out of 5 stars, and that is probably being generous.
Another somewhat decent thing about the organization was the website and the mobile apps. They had a lot of information, although I never got an email with my final race information. I had to actually go onto the website to know I had to print out my confirmation to pick up my race number.
Getting to the start and from the finish was another thing that they didn't do so well. The start and finish were about 4 or 5 miles apart, and there were no shuttle services. When going to the website to find out about "getting to the start" the only thing they had as an option was to take the train. The problem is that the train is so limited in where it goes. From the last train station to the start line was another mile or so anyway.
The course organization was poor. See Starting Line for more information about the starting line. At the first hydration stop that was supposed to have Gatorade, the Gatorade was only on one side of the road (which happened to be on the other side from where I was), and the volunteers were pouring water instead of handing it out (i.e. there weren't enough volunteers).
After the race turned off the strip, it got extremely dark. There were a few generated lights set up, but not enough. There were plenty of times where I couldn't see in front of me and some extra lights would have greatly helped. The roads had a lot of reflectors and water ditches, so it was a little dangerous (potential sprained ankle hazards) to not be well lit.
Swag: The race had the normal Rock 'n' Roll swag: a technical shirt, medal, and bumper sticker. The shirt said both marathon and half and didn't distinguish between the two, but they did have both women's and men's sizes. They also had some pretty good pre-race and post-race party incentives (although I was too tired to take advantage of them).
Starting Line: The first thing I noticed about the starting area was how hard it was to get in. As I approached the entrance, there were lines of people waiting to get in. Once I got to the entrance, I found out why - they were checking all the bags that were coming in with the people. It makes sense, with the heightened security since the Boston marathon bombing. But they needed more people to be checking the bags if they were going to block up traffic to do so. Again, this points to the fact that they allowed way too many people to register for this race.
The second thing I noticed, once I finally got into the starting area, was that the gear check seemed very well marked. Unlike the past Rock 'n' Roll marathons where there were no signs to find the gear check, this one had the gear check right as you were entering the starting area. Very convenient.After checking my bag, I went to find a bagel and banana - my typical pre-race food, which were supposed to be provided per the website. Since this was an evening race (starting at 4:30pm), I hadn't had much to eat since brunch, so I was ready for something to take me through the race. The bagels were available, but the fruit was completely gone. Empty boxes from bananas sat in the tent where the bananas were supposed to be. Even worse than that, I saw people who were obviously spectators and not runners eating the runners' food!
When I went to walk to my corral, the directions to get to the front corrals were not very good. There were multiple times where I had to walk through flowers on a median to get around the other people in the higher numbered corrals to weave my way down to my corral #6. And they were not really paroling the corrals. There were people from much higher numbered corrals inside my corral, which no doubt contributed to the massive amounts of people I had to weave around at the beginning. When you start in corral 6 and you almost run into people walking at mile 2 or 3, they were obviously not in the right corral to begin with.
Fans: The fans were pretty good in this race. With the bands and the strip and Old Vegas, most of the race had some people cheering you on. Once you got out onto MLK Blvd, there was much less fan-base. But the bands did help a little.
Finish Line: The finish line took forever to get through. I felt like I walked another mile after I crossed the finish line just to get to my checked bag. Again, they didn't have bananas, but had apples instead. (Who eats apples after a marathon?!? And what race has absolutely no bananas?!?)
Other than the lack of bananas issue, they did have some good hydration and nutrition options at the finish. For hydration, they had bottles of water and Gatorade. They also had chocolate milk (love that!). For nutrition, they had pretzels, bagels, and of course the apples. They may have had more, but I don't remember getting anything else. It would have been helpful if they had just packaged it all up into a bag and handed the bags to the runners. It is very hard to carry everything when you've just run 26 miles.
They also had the mylar blankets, as usual.
Results: When I crossed the finish line and pulled out my phone to stop my MapMyRun app, it said 4:00:13. I was so disappointed in myself, because I was sure I had done just barely over 4 hours, and I knew I could have gone a few seconds faster if I had known that. I couldn't believe it when I saw my official time: 3:59:59. I had broken 4 hours by ONE SECOND!! I'll take it. Nevada, check!
How I felt: This was definitely not my best race. I guess I shouldn't expect too much when I try to run three marathons in a months time. I started off feeling pretty good, although I was frustrated that I was having to weave through all the people constantly. For those who haven't been following me prior to this, I get tendinitis or something in the back side of my left knee when I run fast that causes my left leg to want to lock up and makes me land on my left foot funny (actually breaking my foot back in May). At mile six or so, my left leg started acting up. I was able to control it, and once I got to the marathon split, it felt okay. Around mile fifteen or so, the tendons on the back of my right knee started hurting. I don't know if I had been over compensating because of the left one bothering me or what, but when I would bring my leg forward, behind my right knee would hurt. This lasted most of the last part of the race. It wasn't enough to sideline me, but it was enough to slow me down. Then around mile 19, I got a sharp pain in my stomach, like someone had stabbed me (most women reading this probably know what that feels like - pretty much like period cramps). I had to stop, so I moved over to the side and stretched my right leg while I was waiting for it to pass.
The last six miles, I pushed myself and tried to pick off runners, one at a time. I followed one girl for two miles before I was able to pull ahead of her. I saw one other girl who had passed me around mile 20 that I was able to pass back around mile 24. I just kept focusing on getting faster and passing the people in front of me as I got closer to the finish line. By the time I finished, I didn't have anything left in me, just how it should be.
Travel/tourism: You always hear such good things about Vegas. I hadn't been there since I was 20, so I was expecting to have a good time. The problem with going for a marathon, though, is that you can't do anything in that city that doesn't involve walking.
The first thing I would recommend is to get a rental car. I thought that I could just use the train the whole time, and I'd be fine. However, there are a lot of things to see that are off the beaten path away from the strip, and the train doesn't go there, including the airport. The bus from the airport to the closest train stop is $2 and not included in the train day pass. I had to use cabs several times, and if I added up the cost of the cabs and the train pass, it likely would have been comparable to a rental.
I stayed at the Desert Rose Resort, which is a timeshare condo place between the MGM hotel and the Mandalay Bay hotel. It was a short walk to the closest train station at MGM, although the walk was a little scary by myself at night, passing the Hooters Resort and Casino.
When I arrived and dropped my bags off at the condo, I headed to the Venetian, which is where my sister was. I ate lunch at a burger place at the food court at the Venetian. The avocado burger and fries that I got was extremely expensive for a food court place ($15), although it was pretty good. I found that would not be the only expensive meal that I would get - in fact most of the meals I got were expensive. Amy and I walked around and saw a candy place that sold caramel apples and cupcakes, and didn't post their prices. We quickly found out that they didn't post the prices because the candy apple was $10, and more people probably buy it without knowing how much it is ahead of time.
The mall at the Venetian was really cool, and I found out that most malls on the strip (between the casinos) were very similar. The ceiling was painted in a way that it made it look like you were outside - blue skies and clouds. There was a little canal, just like Italy, with Gondola rides through the mall. The mall had very high class stores like Coach and Louis Vuitton.
After the Venetian we went to the Expo to pick up our race number. When we were done at the Expo (we stayed until closing time), I was so tired that I took the train back to my hotel. I stopped by Bonanno's New York Pizza in the MGM food court on the way to my hotel to grab something for dinner. I got the baked ziti with meatballs. There was enough for two meals, but the pasta was only mediocre (Olive Garden is way better).
As is tradition, I wanted to get some pancakes for my pre-race meal (normally the night before a morning race). I googled "blueberry pancakes Las Vegas" and found this local chain called Blueberry Hill Family Restaurant. It said they made their pancakes from scratch and not from some mix. After getting my Hard Rock shirt, I walked the rest of the way to the pancake place, which was about a mile and a half.
The food was very good. The toast was thick, and I've never tasted such delicious hash browns. The pancakes were thick and good also, although some of the blueberries from the topping were a little sour. It was worth the walk, although it was a little tough to get a cab back to the strip from that far out of the city.
After the pancake house, Amy said she was going to be at Caesar's Palace, so I headed there. This place was the biggest disappointment. It looked so big and nice from the outside, but the inside wasn't as nice as some of the other places. And there was absolutely no place to sit unless you were gambling. After my mile and a half walk to the pancake place, I didn't want to do any more walking or standing until the race. We ended up sitting on the floor.
After the race, we went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. They were about the only place still open that late, although they had a very limited menu. I had a Cheeseburger in Paradise, which was ok (not as good as Cheeseburger Bobby's, but better than most other places). They had a live band playing and a little dance floor where all the drunk people danced.
The day after the race, I went through the south side of the strip. I started at Mandalay Bay and walked all the casinos (Luxor and Excalibur) inside through the malls that connect them. Then I went across the bridge to New York New York and through that casino to MGM before going back to the hotel to rest.
After my nap, I went up one train stop to Paris Las Vegas, the Bellagio, and Aria.
The Bellagio was by far my favorite of all the hotels and casinos. I stopped to see the Bellagio fountains and the conservatory (which is a breath of fresh air, literally, among all the smoke-filled casinos).
I stopped at the Napoleon's piano bar to see some dueling pianos. I love piano bars, but this one did not live up to my expectations. The drinks were expensive and the guys didn't play anything good (in my opinion). But they did know how to work the audience for more tips.
I flew back the next day. The airport was big enough and easy to get through (although getting to and from there from the hotel was more difficult).
Overall, Las Vegas was a disappointment. They have some great architecture and some interesting places, but Sin City is not the place for me. Thankfully I have my sub-4 hour marathon, so I don't have to go back.
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