{"id":673,"date":"2011-12-08T14:41:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T21:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramblingsfromtheroad.com\/?p=673"},"modified":"2011-12-08T15:55:57","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T22:55:57","slug":"race-report-rock-n-roll-las-vegas-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramblingsfromtheroad.com\/?p=673","title":{"rendered":"Race Report: Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer<\/strong>: I had a good time at this race.\u00a0 If you’re looking for another bitter, Competitor-bashing, rage against Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas, you won’t find it here.\u00a0 Yes, things went wrong, and I have my critiques, as I do of any event, but overall it was very well run and I had a great time.\u00a0 Sorry.<\/em><\/p>\n

And Warning<\/strong>: This rambling is extra rambly for some reason.\u00a0 You may want to grab a snack if you’re going to read it all in one sitting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Strip At Night<\/h2>\n

I’ve known for quite a while that I’m a Country Mouse.\u00a0 Despite growing up in New Jersey and seeing trips to New York City as a typical weekend activity as a teenager, I chose to attend a fairly small college in Pennsylvania over any of the big city options I looked at1<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 When the company I worked for closed down its New Hampshire office and offered most of us a relocation package for Philadelphia, I opted to take the severance2<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 And by the time I’d done four marathons3<\/a><\/sup> (and a couple of dozen shorter races), I was quite certain that I preferred the small (but well run) race with a field of a few hundred over a huge urban mobscene with several thousand of my closest friends.<\/p>\n

All that aside, I’ve never been one to categorically rule out a race because of its size.\u00a0 I like races that let you run somewhere you might not otherwise be allowed4<\/a><\/sup> or have some other sort of hook, but I’m willing to give just about anything a try.\u00a0 Yet I’ve been eschewing Competitor events for the past few years.\u00a0 I’d always thought the Vegas Marathon might be fun, but they became the Rock ‘n’ Roll<\/a> brand right after I started running, and I was turned off by that.<\/p>\n

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Nevada state law actually requires me to take this photo and include it on this post<\/p><\/div>\n

At the time, my opposition was based solely upon having done other events with music as a matter of fact, but Competitor\/Elite was positioning Rock ‘n’ Roll as some sort of unique and different experience that was somehow better than all the others.\u00a0 The idea that they were homogenizing marathons hadn’t even crossed my mind.<\/p>\n

Call it McMarathon or Wal*Race; whatever the catchphrase, it’s a big brand, a big race, a big price tag, and definitely a big weekend.\u00a0 But this summer when they announced that they were moving it to a night time race, I figured it’s high time to give them the benefit of the doubt and try a Rock ‘n’ Roll event.<\/p>\n

And that’s how this little Country Mouse5<\/a><\/sup> ended up registered for the third largest race in the country.\u00a0 It’s not like I haven’t been to Vegas before.\u00a0 It’s not even like I haven’t run the strip before.\u00a0 I just haven’t run down the middle of the road6<\/a><\/sup> with an estimated 43,999 other people and countless drunks cheering me on.<\/p>\n

The drunks in Vegas are usually looking at me with confusion and a measured degree of concern as to whether they should dive for cover or just stand perfectly still until I’m past.<\/p>\n

Marathon, Inc<\/h2>\n

In other words, I was expecting a very crowded, very corporate race.<\/p>\n

And I got a fairly well run, very very<\/em> crowded, fairly corporate race.<\/p>\n

Honestly; with all the complaints I’ve seen thrown about, I am a little surprised.\u00a0 I’d chalk it up to people who unfortunately registered for a race of this size as their first event, but I’ve seen complaints from runners far more experienced than me along the same lines.\u00a0 There was one big problem: 44,000 people is really pushing the limits of what the five lanes of road on one side of the strip can handle.\u00a0 There were a few lesser problems, but nothing that I think is honestly any worse than any other large race, and nothing that would probably have been an issue if folks were not already up in arms about the crowds.\u00a0 Not to diminish the crowd issue, of course.\u00a0 But we’ll get back to that.<\/p>\n

First, let’s talk Expo.<\/p>\n

Expo<\/h3>\n

Although initial plans were to require everyone to attend the Expo on Friday or Saturday, despite a 4:00 PM start time, they did add a race-day packet pickup7<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 We’re only 90 minutes away in Mesquite right now, but we had already booked rooms8<\/a><\/sup> and planned on making a weekend of it, including at least some of the parties that are thrown in for the Vegas edition of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s higher entry fee.<\/p>\n

Competitor was pretty blunt in the race info that the Expo would be insanely crowded, encouraging people to come Friday if they could, and if not to be as early as possible on Saturday for packet pickup.\u00a0 We opted for the first thing Saturday plan, fully expecting to be in a huge crowd if we stuck around too long.\u00a0 We whipped through packet pickup pretty easily – the layout was crowded but lines moved quickly with everything pre-stuffed and sequenced by bib number and a separate area for fixing any problems with your registration info, including swapping starting corrals if necessary.<\/p>\n

This is the first race I’ve done where I’ve actually crossed paths with Brooks’ Cavalcade of Curiosities<\/a>, which was kind of fun, and I took a few minutes to try out a couple of the new(ish) Pure Project<\/a> line, but otherwise it was a whole lot of the same ol’ same ol’.\u00a0 We got out of there in about 45 minutes and there were already lines out the door to get to the packet pickup.\u00a0 The expo could certainly have been laid out better for ease of traffic flow, but they did a pretty decent job with the size of the expo hall they had.\u00a0 After all, they were sharing the convention center – and all of Las Vegas – with the National Rodeo Championships<\/a>.\u00a0 Which made for an interesting cross section of people roaming the strip.<\/p>\n

Fast forward about 27 hours as we made our way down to the start line on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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The calm before the storm<\/p><\/div>\n

Pre-Race<\/h3>\n

My wife had a little pain in her hip flexor, so rather than risk a pre-race injury, we shelled out $10 for the Monorail<\/a>.\u00a0 Fully expecting a Japanese subway type situation, we were pleasantly surprised to be joining about six other runners, three or four folks on their way to work, a handful of Rodeo fans, and a highly amused woman who had just arrived for a tech conference this week and discovered a town full of aforementioned the runners and Rodeo fans9<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 We got to the start line as recommended with plenty of time to spare, so we squandered this time on using the fancy flushing toilets in the casino before I shuffled off to the start corral.<\/p>\n

Supposedly, there’s a big ol’ pre-race concert, but Vegas got Cheap Trick and some runner up from American Idol, so we skipped that show.\u00a0 Turns out Miami gets local superstar Pitbull next weekend, which is a clever way to make the event location-specifc.\u00a0 Vegas could have hosted The Killers, Crystal Method, Slaughter, or even Toni Basil.\u00a0 The night race start does make for a nice way for people who want to enjoy the concert to do so, but I fear many people may have hit the beer tent a few times too many before endeavoring to run 13.1 or 26.2 miles.<\/p>\n

The start corrals were supposed to be “enforced” somehow, but nobody was checking bibs.\u00a0 Fortunately, this didn’t seem to be a big issue with the 4000 or so of us running the marathon – I actually had much more elbow room waiting for the start than I have in much smaller races.\u00a0 However, rumor has it that things didn’t go as smoothly with the 40,000 people lining up for the half.\u00a0 Both, however, were far more intelligent and successful than Nike’s misguided attempts at starting 22,000 people in San Francisco’s Union Square.\u00a0 At least Competitor distinguished “participants” from “spectators” from “poor guy trying to take his dog for a walk.”<\/p>\n

So, after interrupting the Macy’s parade style start line commentary for the two hits of Cheap Trick10<\/a><\/sup> and a decent rendition of the national anthem, we had a New Year’s Eve style countdown to a 4:05 start.<\/p>\n

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The Course<\/h3>\n

The first half of the course was through industrial and residential areas west of the south strip.\u00a0 Everything was well marked, excessively well lit as the sun went down, and exceedingly boring.\u00a0 The course was clearly published.\u00a0 I knew it would be boring, and it was.\u00a0 For some reason I thought we’d pass the Rio<\/a> and Palms<\/a>, but that was clearly a “Keath can’t remember the map” issue, not a communication issue.<\/p>\n

The awesome part about snaking back and forth through the side streets was the number of times the course doubled back on itself to give us glimpses of the leaders cruising down these roads upwards of double our pace.\u00a0 The gap between the leaders and the pack – wherever you are in the pack – keeps growing, and it gives a new appreciation for their speed and skill to see it that close.<\/p>\n

Also awesome were all the bands.\u00a0 For the most part, they were cover bands, but they were also diverse and all better than Cheap Trick.\u00a0 The bands seemed to get a little more sparse in the second half, but that was probably just due to the cacophony of cheering on the lower strip proper where the crowds drowned out bands on the far side of the strip.<\/p>\n

Just past the half way point we return to the strip and join up with the half marathoners who had started an hour and a half after us.\u00a0 This is where that aforementioned field size became an issue.\u00a0 A majority of the lower strip portion of Las Vegas Boulevard has four to six lanes in each direction.\u00a0 All 44,000 of us headed north on the southbound side, then off to the west where Main Street splits off and around some zigs and zags near Fremont Street, before heading back south on the northbound side.<\/p>\n

Miniature traffic cones (the one foot tall kind they sell in the toy aisle) were placed between the leftmost lane and the other three to five lanes indicating that the marathoners should stay to the left and the half marathoners should stay to the right.\u00a0 Which would be great if people A, noticed the distinction, B, respected the distinction, and C, had room to be where they “ought” to be.<\/p>\n

When we first joined up alongside the halfers, it was great.\u00a0 We were all cheering each other on, waving like we were meeting up with old friends, and so on.\u00a0 I asked a few folks what pace group they were with to see if I might catch up with or be caught up by my wife11<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 Turns out we hit the middle of the 2:00 group.\u00a0 Friendly folks, those 2:00 half marathoners.<\/p>\n

But yes, there were half marathoners in the “full lane.”\u00a0 And while some of them might have been oblivious at first, all but the jerks with their headphones on full blast heard our requests for a singletrack for marathoners.\u00a0 We tried to be as nice as we could shouting up ahead to ask people to stay to the right, but a lot of times when we looked over, there really wasn’t anywhere for them to go.\u00a0 For the most part it was navigable in our area, but as different areas of the pack are going to have different levels of congestion, I don’t doubt any of the horror stories I’ve heard about people elbowing each other, slipping on discarded water cups, or just tripping on their neighbors.\u00a0 Both my wife and I were fortunate to be in relatively safe packs of runners and witnessed no atrocities worse than some rear ending of people who come to a complete stop12<\/a><\/sup> to grab their water.\u00a0 In short, it was crowded, as expected, and perhaps a bit more than expected, but was completely manageable for the majority of people who were decent to their fellow runners.<\/p>\n

44,000 people.\u00a0 That’s slightly larger than the 2010 population of Concord, NH<\/a>.\u00a0 I can tell you from personal experience that not everybody in Concord is a nice person.\u00a0 I don’t know if there have been any anthropological studies to get an exact number, but in any population there is going to be a certain percentage of douchebags.\u00a0 It’s true in any city or town.\u00a0 It’s true in any workplace, school, or club.\u00a0 And it’s true when 44,000 people are running up and down 0.129 square miles<\/strong>13<\/a><\/sup> of road with reflective lane markers, potholes, walls of spectators, and drought tolerant landscaping.\u00a0 Some people are going to go with the “me first” attitude and ignore anyone with a different goal than theirs.<\/p>\n

In any population, there are also people who are going to find something to be miserable about every experience.\u00a0 They don’t want to have a good time and will find something wrong with their vacation, their spouse, their job, their kids, the way the bagger at the grocery store looked at them, the price of tea in China and how it affects their ability to enjoy whiskey in South Carolina, their interactions with douchebag population, and so on.\u00a0 I feel sorry for these people, because it makes it that much harder for them to enjoy anything.\u00a0 And it seems a crowded race course brings out this behavior in more people than normal.<\/p>\n

That said . . .<\/p>\n

To compound the congestion and challenge for the half marathoners to fit in the space allocated to them, the water stations were distributed across both sides of the road.\u00a0 Which is good, as, well, no half marathoner wants the marathoners cutting through them to get water any more than the marathoner would want to attempt that.\u00a0 But that also meant that half the resources were in the “marathon lane.”\u00a0 So of course the half marathoners on the left side of their area are going to cut left for water.\u00a0 They’d be idiots not to.\u00a0 They just didn’t always move back over – or have room to – after the water station.<\/p>\n

When we reached Main Street, things got a little better.\u00a0 The lower volume of spectators now that we were away from the casinos meant that we could use the sidewalks to spread out a bit more.\u00a0 We wiggled around the side streets before skirting Fremont Street and heading south.\u00a0 Once again, I thought<\/em> we’d be running through Fremont Street Experience<\/a>, but once again, apparently “Keath can’t remember the map.”\u00a0 I don’t really understand this decision, as nothing says “Strip at Night” quite as much as the covered street of lights, but maybe organizers knew that the kiosks in the middle of the street wouldn’t hold up well to 44,000 people?<\/p>\n

On the way back down the strip the Rodeo events had apparently let out, as we saw a lot more cowboy hats and got some quality “yee-haws” in response to asking where our rodeo fans were at.\u00a0 With all the people that Vegas normally has milling the streets trapped by those who came specifically to spectate, pretty much everyone in Vegas on Sunday was either forced to hide inside or stand and cheer.\u00a0 From the Wynn onwards the crowds were pretty solid – kind of like the world’s longest finish chute.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I believe this is where people further back in the pack were finding water stations completely out of water.\u00a0 Yes, there are less than five miles left to go, but the slower you go the longer that takes and the more important it is to get your hydration on.\u00a0 Since Rock ‘n’ Roll is for whatever reason very popular with first timers, very few people were running with their own hydration, something I would advise as essential for anyone concerned about hydration and signed up for a big city race.\u00a0 Even if the running out of water claims were exaggerated, we definitely came across a number of abandoned water stations – plenty of cups stacked up five or six high, but nobody there to pass them out (minor issue) or fill more (more significant issue).\u00a0 Turns out that volunteers abandoned their posts because they were cold and their hands were wet.\u00a0 If you can’t prepare your volunteers sufficiently and treat them well enough to respect their assignment, you need to scale back your event to the number of volunteers you can handle.\u00a0 That simple.<\/p>\n

The volunteers that didn’t bail, in general, were great.\u00a0 I’m the annoying guy that tries to thank all the volunteers (including the cops helping to secure the course from traffic!) he can to let them know that we appreciate their time and efforts.\u00a0 Some of the responses I got made me think that the 43,999 other people out there grunted at the volunteers and slapped their babies.\u00a0 Just thanking someone for their time should require a response of absolute love and adoration.\u00a0 But that’s what I got – from multiple people at multiple water stations.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 Thank you all so much, and on behalf of anyone who was rude or inconsiderate to you, I am deeply sorry.\u00a0 That’s totally uncalled for.<\/p>\n

My timing worked out perfectly with the Bellagio fountain<\/a> this time by; just as I was wondering where the “Singing In The Rain” opening bars were coming from the fountain exploded up in the air however many ridiculous stories it does, which was pretty spectacular to see at mile 24; I dare say moreso than when simply touring Vegas bars and swinging by to watch them.\u00a0 My wife’s timing worked out similarly with the Mirage “volcano”<\/a> explosion.\u00a0 It’s the little things like this that made the race unique to Vegas and different than just running around a city.<\/p>\n

Then, before you know it, bam, there’s the Statue of Liberty, you’re crossing Tropicana Ave, and the vague concept of a finish line is in sight.\u00a0 You know it’s there, because that’s where you started, right?\u00a0 And if you cross Russell Ave, there’ll be cars, so there ought to be a finish line somewhere.\u00a0 Ah, right!\u00a0 Avert your eyes from the giant Carrot Top ad!\u00a0 Look beyond the Luxor light pollution beam of doom!\u00a0 There!\u00a0 On the Mandalay Bay video ad screen . . . thing!\u00a0 It’s people crossing the finish line!\u00a0 It’s got to be reasonably close by!\u00a0 There’s no mile 26 marker, but damn it, I see a right turn in to the parking lot up ahead!\u00a0 Oh, crap!\u00a0 Cheap Trick is on the video screen now!\u00a0 They want me to want them!\u00a0 Noooooooo!\u00a0 A left turn, a huge “Welcome to Finisher Village” billboard, and, yes, dare I say it?\u00a0 I think that’s the finish line!<\/p>\n

I still can’t get “I Want You To Want Me” out of my head.\u00a0 Somebody may have to put me down like a lame horse.<\/p>\n

Post-Race<\/h3>\n

Wow.\u00a0 We had strolled through the finisher village earlier in the day en route to\/from Marathon Maniac<\/a> \/ Half Fanatic<\/a> photo meetup at the”Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas<\/a> sign.\u00a0 It was very well laid out, included a multitude of porta-potties, easy access to the part of the Convention Center that served as bag check, and yes, they leased the billboard that sits in the middle of the lot as a “welcome” sign.\u00a0 Pretty large scale.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, it would have been good to make the post-finish line corral a bit wider.\u00a0 Neither my wife nor I had any problem getting through, but with volume coming through the half side of things, there were backups at the finisher photo booths despite a bypass lane.\u00a0 Which I understand, as a race like this, which is very inclusive of\u00a0 walkers and slower runners14<\/a><\/sup>, likely brings in a lot of people who are doing their first, and possibly only, race, and many folks of that nature want to make sure they get their finisher photo (or don’t know they can skip it).\u00a0 Despite huge, blinding, floodlights all over the strip, there were no photographers save for the start\/finish line, so if you’re a must-get-a-photo person, the posed finish coral photo is your best bet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Beyond the photos (or bypass) was a wide array of treats.\u00a0 No chocolate milk (or even Muscle Milk<\/a>, which the CytoSport<\/a> folks at the expo made sure to let people know), which I’ve grown to enjoy, but not expect, but plenty or recovery goodness.\u00a0 Sponsors Snickers<\/a> and CytoSport had their prominence, of course, with the new version of Marathon Bars<\/a> and Cytomax<\/a>, respectively, but there were also huge piles of bagels, pretzels, GoGurt<\/a>15<\/a><\/sup>, and bananas.\u00a0 Lots of bananas.\u00a0 Even the Harry Chapin song that got stuck in my head at that point couldn’t kill the Cheap Trick.<\/p>\n