Las Vegas Marathon Report - long winded

[Fast Eddie]

For all the grief we give the Competitor Group about their expensive, formula driving event set up, they  did a pretty good job in Vegas.  With a reported 40,000 entrants, only a major organizing company could probably pull this off and have the organization to close the Las Vegas strip.  It’s their biggest race.  The only other time the strip is closed is for New Years.  Normally one of the slowest time of the year in Vegas just before Thanksgiving, so with the race in town, a nice reported 180 million boost to the local economy from all us runners.  All races, marathon, half marathon, 10K and Saturday’s 5K were all sold out.  Cha ching!  No reports of bad water poisoning this year.

I went into Vegas knowing I would not be running my best time as I came out of the Jackson Hole Marathon on August 30th, with some hams/gluts tendonitis that kept me from running for a couple of weeks, then only on the treadmill for short periods, 30-60 minutes for another four weeks.  Was able to ease into some outside running, but just for 30-45 minutes for couple of more weeks.  Still was on the fence whether Las Vegas was a go up to mid-October.  I did pay the $10 registration refund cancellation fee insurance, so I could still get my race registration money back.  Though a seat sale on my favourite airline came up and I jumped on it for a direct flight to Vegas, so backing out was less likely now. 

With the help of popping a few Advil, I managed 24K on October 24th and 33K on October 29th, hams still felt tight and a low level of soreness, but as ready as I was gonna to be.  Flew into Vegas on Thursday November 13th, and did kit pickup on Friday at Las Vegas Convention Centre, which was relatively fast and organized.  Didn’t buy anything other than my nutritional products at the expo.  Thought of buying some Fit band devices for my nieces and nephews for Christmas, but there wasn’t any really great deals on the ones I looked at.  Got a few deals on fitness clothes at Ross and Marshalls though.

I mentioned previously, they had a 5K on Saturday evening where you could earn an extra Double Down medal to go with your 5K and marathon medal, but I was saving my fragile hams for Sunday.  Tried to keep my activity to a minimum for the Sunday evening Marathon.  Did do a few walks of the strip, some shopping on Thursday and Friday.  Went to Olivia Newton-John show on Friday night, she was taking over for Donny & Marie at the Flamingo for a month.  Saw the DaVinci exhibition at The Venetian and went to see Big Hero 6 at the Town Square AMC on Saturday.  Went to the Premium Outlet in South Vegas, but didn’t buy anything other than lunch on Sunday. 

Unlike other RnR events, they did not have a post-race concert event due to the logistics of finishing on the strip and not having the room nearby for a concert area for all the race particpants.  Instead, they had a pre-race concert featuring Macklemore & Ryan Lewis in a back parking lot near the MGM Grand.  I choose not to go, but instead rested and napped in my hotel room.  Race time was 4:30pm for the half and full marathoner, just as the sun was setting.  I took the monorail from my hotel over to the MGM Grand and walked for about 20 minutes before I arrived at my assigned corral just south of Mandalay Bay Casino.  The 10K had started at 3:00pm and they were running on Las Vegas Blvd. as I made my way to the start. I was in corral 10 and they had 40 corrals, setting them off a minute apart.  They weren’t really strict about corral jumping, so they were a few early start slower runners to get around in the first few miles.  Cut off time for the marathon was five hours after the last runner started, so they weren’t a lot of marathon walkers.


Popped an extra strength Advil just before the start and waiting for my corral to get going.  Race actually went a mile south away from the strip beside McCarran Airport before you U-turned back to go through the strip.  Good photo op at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.  Hamstrings surprising was behaving itself and wasn’t a problem throughout the race, but I was careful not to push it too hard.  Running the strip at night as you guessed was neat, other than a few smokers around.    Weather was just about perfect for running with clear skies and temps in the low 50F to start.  Was actually shivering a bit in the corral as I waited.


We split from the half marathoners as we reached Fremont Street and downtown Las Vegas strip.  Marathoners got to run through the Fremont Street Experience while the halfers just missed it turning back on Las Vegas Blvd. back to the finish line.  The percentage of tutus and Elvis costumes on runners dropped to practically zero after splitting from the half marathoners, Right after the Fremont Street glitz you quickly ran out from the downtown into the darkness of a more industrial area.  Marathoners did a ‘Y” shaped out and back around the North Las Vegas Airport.  Lonely and dark for the most part.  Pretty flat race with only an underpass just outside downtown Las Vegas as the only significant hill.  Made two pee stops in the bushes and one porta potty stop for #2 during the race. 


After making our way back from the out & back and again through the Fremont Street Experience, we paralleled the slower half marathon runners and walkers the next street over, before joining up with them on Las Vegas Blvd at the Stratosphere.  Fortunately they separated the slow half marathons from us mid pack marathoners with barriers and banner tape.

You could see the finish line area from a mile away, but was it only a mirage?  I mean the race finish was actually at The Mirage.  Finishing in a not too fast, but satisfying 4:21.31.  Just about in the 40th percentile in overall, gender, and age group.  And I didn’t “get chicked” by a female runner that I was hopscotching for about eight miles. 


Nike+ GPS splits info below.  Kept the pace pretty even it seems.

Km   Time   Change                  Avg Pace
1   6:03   --                  6'03"/km
2   11:59   - 0:07 (1%)   5'56"/km
3   17:55   + 0:00 (0%)   5'56"/km
4   23:46   - 0:05 (1%)   5'51"/km
5   29:43   + 0:06 (-2%)   5'57"/km
6   35:30   - 0:10 (2%)   5'47"/km
7   41:36   + 0:19 (-6%)   6'06"/km
8   47:21   - 0:21 (5%)   5'45"/km
9   53:08   + 0:02 (-1%)   5'47"/km
10   58:52   - 0:03 (0%)   5'44"/km
11   1:04:40   + 0:04 (-2%)   5'48"/km
12   1:10:34   + 0:06 (-2%)   5'54"/km
13   1:16:38   + 0:10 (-3%)   6'04"/km
14   1:22:36   - 0:06 (1%)   5'58"/km
15   1:28:46   + 0:12 (-4%)   6'10"/km
16   1:34:45   - 0:11 (2%)   5'59"/km
17   1:41:14   + 0:30 (-9%)   6'29"/km
18   1:47:07   - 0:36 (9%)   5'53"/km
19   1:53:16   + 0:16 (-5%)   6'09"/km
20   1:59:18   - 0:07 (1%)   6'02"/km
21   2:05:28   + 0:08 (-3%)   6'10"/km
22   2:11:42   + 0:04 (-2%)   6'14"/km
23   2:18:23   + 0:27 (-8%)   6'41"/km
24   2:24:30   - 0:34 (8%)   6'07"/km
25   2:30:54   + 0:17 (-5%)   6'24"/km
26   2:37:27   + 0:09 (-3%)   6'33"/km
27   2:44:07   + 0:07 (-2%)   6'40"/km
28   2:50:31   - 0:16 (4%)   6'24"/km
29   2:56:49   - 0:06 (1%)   6'18"/km
30   3:03:49   + 0:42 (-12%)   7'00"/km
31   3:10:10   - 0:39 (9%)   6'21"/km
32   3:16:29   - 0:02 (0%)   6'19"/km
33   3:22:43   - 0:05 (1%)   6'14"/km
34   3:29:00   + 0:03 (-1%)   6'17"/km
35   3:35:11   - 0:06 (1%)   6'11"/km
36:    3:40:24   - 0:58 (15%)   5'13"/km
37   3:46:07   + 0:30 (-10%)   5'43"/km
38   3:52:19   + 0:29 (-9%)   6'12"/km
39   3:58:37   + 0:06 (-2%)   6'18"/km
40   4:04:53   - 0:02 (0%)   6'16"/km
41   4:11:03   - 0:06 (1%)   6'10"/km
42   4:17:10   - 0:03 (0%)   6'07"/km

[JBM]

Well done. I know someone who ran the half. Very expensive - $200 just for the half!

Can I ask if you do all these marathons for your own personal reasons or is this work related somehow? I know you do a lot of pacing. Just curious because you are a machine with your marathons.

I ran the Vegas marathon in 2006, I don't remember who was in charge then. I did not enjoy it at all. After we split from the half marathon people we got sent through neighborhoods and there was literally no one out there. It was awful and the air was so dry. It was probably 50 degrees but felt much colder.

Anyway, congrats again on a great race.

[Fast Eddie]

Thanks JBM.  I do them for my own personal reasons.  I'm after the marathon in all 50 states & DC, plus all Canadian provinces goal.  I'm at 38 states and 8 provinces.  I haven't joined the 50 States online group though.  Does give me some cred at work since I working for a running retail company.

Have been fortunate in my running career injury wise, with not too many injuries that have put me on the sideline.  Friends say I do have a efficient running gait.  Getting old I guess with the current hams problem, but it actually feels okay now after the marathon.  The marathon taper and rest seemed to of done the trick.  Since I don't have a family, I have lots of time to run and travel.

Yup, definately got desolate after Fremont Street.  Just other runners, volunteers and cops, but absolutely no spectators in the mostly industrial and strip mall area.  The occasional band, but really dark along the North Las Vegas Airport road.  But I don't mind the the loneliness of the long distance runner and don't need people cheering on my waddle to get 'er done.

[JBM]

Good luck with your endeavor. I know 2 people who are working on the 7 continents goal - the female has just Australia left, she did Greece and Turkey over the last couple of weeks to take care of Europe. Another guy from my running club is working on it as well and he is pretty far along. I went to France with Marathon Tours and there were many people from that group who had done the 7 continents as well - some more than once! I am not particularly interested in it those kinds of goals myself, just focused on getting healthy at this point.

[i am party]

Nike+ GPS splits info below.  Kept the pace pretty even it seems.

I applaud you for a well-run race, and for using metric units in your life and in your report! Your splits indicate that you finished strong.

Were the kilometers marked on the course?

Well done. I know someone who ran the half. Very expensive - $200 just for the half!

I'm a proud Competitor group hater.

[Fast Eddie]

Thanks IAP.  Being from Canada, and like 95% of the world we use the metric system, but being old school I'm comfortable with both.  I started to learn the metric system in the 5th grade.  Distance markers at RnR LV was just in miles.  Too lazy to switch my GPS over to imperial units for U.S. races.

You really have to sign up early and watch for discount codes to get a deal with Competitor.  Being they sold out all the Las Vegas races, they can charge what they want.

[Suesquatch]

Sounds good.  That pic in the strip or wherever that is - Vegas so does not appeal to me.

[Arrojo]

Congrats!  Nice report too, good pics.

[diablita]

I loved reading this.  Nice job!

[Zapatista]

Great job. Hope you run all 50.

[omega lambda]

Congratulations and great report!