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.