Las Vegas Half Marathon 2011 Race Report

I really didn't want to run the Strip at Night. I really didn't. I thought the whole idea was stupid. I'm not even talking about logistically stupid. I mean it's one thing trying to get to the starting line on the Strip at 5am when tourist movement is at a minimum. But trying to get to the starting line in the middle of the afternoon? Stupid. Trying to find a place to park? Nearly impossible. But I've already written about most of the horrific logistical issues that occurred before and after this race. You can read about them here.

This post will deal almost exclusively with the race. But first, allow me to digress and just say that the Expo was pretty cool. I realize that by Saturday afternoon it had turned into a disorganized cluster fuck, but when I was there early on Friday afternoon it was still manageable and I got to see Meb, Khalid, and Rod Dixon speak. Totally awesome. And if I had stuck around a few more hours, I could have met Kara Goucher. Yeah, you heard me right, boys.

Oh, and Cheap Trick totally rocked. Totally. I was expecting them to be good but they were really great. And anyone who knows me knows that I don't give out high praise to bands unless it is truly deserved. You hear me, Bret Michaels?

OK, OK. The race. But first, my training. As many of you already know, I had the best training cycle since 2007, if not ever. I went into this race with a lot of confidence and very high hopes. For those of you who asked me pre-race, I was predicting a PR by "minutes, not seconds." Yeah, I felt THAT strong.

The Race:

We left for the race over 3 hours early, knowing it was going to be a mess at the starting line. I wanted to get there, head inside Mandalay Bay, and find a place to stay off of my feet while hopefully watching football, until race time. We succeeded in finding a place to sit, but no football. And after 30 minutes of breathing in second hand smoke (Vegas, baby) I decided that I would fare better being outside on my feet. So we hit the Cheap Trick concert and when they came out for their encore, I decided to head to the corrals, knowing that it would be chaos if I waited much longer. So I arrived in the corral a good 45 minutes before race time and basically stood around, trying to stretch and stay loose. Huge, cold winds started smashing us from behind and I started seriously reconsidering my clothing choices, singlet, shorts, gloves, hat, throw away sweat shirt.

Last non-race specific mention. Mike McCready played the national anthem on guitar, ala Jimi Hendrix. Maybe 50 feet in front of me. Totally awesome.

I had been assigned to corral number 1 and when I entered the corral I couldn't help but realize two things. One, the volunteers didn't check my bib number upon entry. Two, there were people in this corral who CLEARLY did not belong in corral #1, in a 40+ corral race. Foreshadowing.

The gun finally sounds (and the official race report finally begins). My goal is to go out at 7:05 pace, which based on my training, I feel is very conservative. Run the first 4 miles around 7:05 and then pick up the pace to somewhere between 6:50-6:55 and maintain it until the end of the race. Despite being in the first corral, I found myself having to slow down and bob and weave around slower runners during the first mile. Completely unacceptable and discouraging.
So we're running down the Las Vegas Strip, at night, pretty great crowd in the first mile or two. Very vocal, very cool. But the road itself is reasonably dark. I find that I can't really look at the Strip. I have to focus on dodging slower runners, pot holes, etc. I'm mostly looking at the ground. Not very scenic and I realize very quickly that running in the morning (as in past races) was much better. First mile split 7:26.

I get some running room in mile 2 and start to get used to the dark. 6:53 split. During this mile, I realize that it's too dark to just look at my Garmin for pacing information. I set it for night time running, but that means I have to tap it every time I want to get a reading and risk hitting a wrong button and stopping it. I decide to just run and look at it as street lights allow. It's not pitch black by any means but it's dark enough that you can't just look at your Garmin and see your pace unless you have additional lighting.

I run mile 3 at 7:11 pace and hit the 5k mat in 22:xx. I'm feeling strong and totally OK with the first 3 miles. I keep running and at this point we start to hit the less desirable part of town. I'm feeling good, not really checking my pace very often, just running. Miles 4-6: 7:17, 7:18, 7:12.

It's not until I pass the 10k timing mat that I realize that my pace has slipped slightly but at the time I had no idea that I was running 7:1x pace. It felt faster and in the dark I just couldn't monitor it closely.

At this point, the wheels kind of fall off but I won't realize it for a few more miles. Absolutely no idea what happened but the next 3 miles were 7:33, 7:33, 7:39. Again, I'm running in the dark, feeling pretty strong, honestly oblivious to the fact that my pace has dropped dramatically.

During mile 10 I hear a voice behind me and realize that no one, and I mean no one, has been talking during this race. At all. Not a single word. Really strange. My guess is that everyone had to focus extra hard on running, avoiding pot holes, etc. in the dark and weren't able to engage in the usual early mile race chit chat.

Anyway, the voice is that of a 1:35 pacer. They pass me and I remember thinking that they must be way ahead of pace. It was only then that I started to wonder about my own pace. I decided I better hang with them just to be safe. After about 100 yards I realized that I couldn't keep up with them. Suddenly, I realized that my race was over. It was very strange. I still felt like I was running strong and I didn't feel at all fatigued. I just couldn't run fast. No explanation.

Once I realized it was over, it was really over. I finished the race, occasionally trying to increase my speed, but failing. 7:50, 8:12, 8:13, 8:16, :49.

Finishing time of 1:39:21 and not a damn thing I could have done about it. Two days later and I still have no idea what happened. I went into this race thinking 1:33 if I had a really bad day. 1:31 very likely. 1:29 pie in the sky.

My brother mentioned altitude and pointed out that Vegas is 2200 while Columbus is 800 or 900. But even if that was a factor, it couldn't have been THAT much of a factor. In any case, I'm not going to dwell on it too much. I'll keep working hard, schedule a good local race in the near future and go out and get the time I know I'm capable of.

Thanks for reading and thanks for your help and support. It really means a lot to me.

Las Vegas Rock n Roll Marathon 2011 - EPIC FAIL!

The above photo is of runners trapped inside Mandalay Bay post-race. Photo borrowed from Facebook user.

This was my 3rd annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas to visit family and participate in the Las Vegas Rock n Roll Marathon. The first year, I ran the full marathon and thought that the race organizers went out of their way to make it a special event. Show girls, white tigers, fireworks, sky divers, Celine Dion impersonator, Blues Brothers, etc. Very Vegas. Decent bang for your buck. The race itself was well organized with no major problems to speak of other than a pretty boring second half atmosphere. But really, once you exit the Strip, it's a desert so not many options other than an out and back through a major artery.

Year two, I was scheduled to run the full marathon but was sick and ended up only running the half. Again, pretty good overall experience. They cut back on the pre-race festivities but that didn't bother me. I was there to race, not to be entertained.

This year, they announced that they were changing the start time, making the race a night time event. They hyped the hell out of running the Strip at night. Honestly, I wasn't all that excited about this and really thought it was a bad idea. Next, I learned that they were planning to start the marathon 90 minutes before the start of the half marathon. They were also going to have the marathoners run the boring part of the course first and then merge with the half marathoners to run the final half of the race on the Strip.

This was a huge red flag for me. It was obvious that anyone running the marathon at less than 3 hour pace was going to run smack-dab into a sea of slower moving half marathoners as soon as they merged onto the Strip. I emailed the race officials, stated my concerns and asked if they were planning to have a separate lane for the marathoners once they merged. I was told that they planned to give the marathoners a separate lane for the first mile of the merge and that was all. Upon hearing this, I decided that running the full marathon would be a huge mistake and decided to only run the half. As it turns out, WOW, did I make the right call.

The race turned out to be an utter and complete disaster for the majority involved. At this point, it would probably be easiest if I just break down all of the things that went wrong.

1. Despite seeding runners in corrals based on their expected finishing times, the race officials failed to enforce the corral seeding which led to people lining up in any corral they chose. This included many people who were walking the entire race lining up in some of the upper corrals. This caused major congestion on the course as runners had to try to weave around groups of walkers, some walking 4 or 5 wide, sometimes holding hands. This led to verbal and physical confrontations.

2. Reports of aid stations completely running out of water and sports drink well before all participants had passed the stations.

3. Reports of runners being given dirty (and/or contaminated) water, resulting in many runners getting sick and throwing up during and after the race.

4. Reports of congestion at the finish line so heavy that runners were forced to come to a complete stop while still on the course and wait in line to cross the finish line.

5. The race ran out of finisher medals. Seriously, how does that happen?

After the race is where it really got interesting. No one had bothered to plan an exit strategy for 44,000 runners. This resulted in absolute gridlock and chaos in Mandalay Bay as runners were trapped in a hallway, unable to move for somewhere between 45 and 90 minutes, based on different accounts. This resulted in multiple people passing out, getting sick, needing medical attention, etc. and no way to get them (or anyone else) to safety.

Additionally, apparently no one had the foresight to realize that 44,000 hungry runners plus countless thousands of spectators would descend upon the area between 10pm and midnight, looking for something to eat. Reports state that most nearby restaurants were closed and the ones that were open had at least a 2 hour wait.

Taxi service was also reported as being a 2 hour wait, shuttles that had been promised for runners were either nonexistent or hopelessly behind schedule. Lines for the trams were reportedly just as bad. Utter chaos and a complete lack of planning or consideration for the runners and spectators involved in this race.

To add insult to injury, the race organizers seemed to be completely oblivious to all of these problems. A race spokesman posted the following on his Facebook page immediately following the race:

"What a night. Got back to the room at 11:10pm. Impossible to describe. I've never seen anything like it. RnR Las Vegas 2011 was EPIC."

If by EPIC, he meant EPIC FAIL, then I completely agree.

The Las Vegas Marathon Facebook page has been buzzing with nonstop activity for the past two days, with post after post after post about the horrible, frightening, dangerous conditions that runners were exposed to during and after this race.

This was by far the worst run event I have ever participated in and I can't imagine giving any more money to Competitor and the Rock n Roll brand after this fiasco. I'll end by giving the boycott link. Run these events if you wish but buyer beware. You've been warned.