Sunday's Rock N Roll Las Vegas schedule of events had a pre race concert featuring The Journey Experience starting at 2:00 PM. The full marathon started at 3:00 PM and the half marathon (my main event) started at 4:30. Alek and I were well placed in our hotel room on the north side of Excalibur to actually see the starting area and crack our window to listen to the Journey Experience while we made our race preparations.
Our window also gave us a view near the second mile of the marathon course. We watched as the leaders ran by before heading down to the pre-race festival ourselves.
Leaders gonna lead (see the three yellow shirts in the middle of the strip)
We finally headed down to the pre race festival around 3:30. It was already slightly windy by that point but nothing too bad. The temperature was perfect for running and I was pumped hoping to break a 2:00 half marathon!
Pre race (yes, its the wind making my hair crazy)
Concert stage behind me with the Journey Experience
The Journey Experience was a Journey cover band - and they did a great job at revving up the crowd. They sounded great. Who doesn't want to hear "Don't Stop Believing" just before trying to set a PR at a race?
The half marathon had 22,000 people organized into 36 corrals. I was to start with corral 11 while Alek would be back in corral 15. Each corral was supposed to have its own start countdown. This mostly worked but just like at Rock N Roll St Pete, my corral fell apart. I probably started with corral 9 or 10, I'm not sure. Alek's corral did hold together - so I guess there are just sometimes glitches in the Rock N Roll starts and I always happen to be in the glitchy corral!
Shortly before the race start, the wind picked up tremendously. We first ran north on the Strip and then after about a mile turned back toward all of the casinos. It felt nice having the strong wind occasionally gust and push at our backs as we ran south. Around the halfway point we turned off to the most boring part of the race through a neighborhood. There were no shiny lights or spectators here. We then ran back to Fremont Street before again heading north on the Strip toward the finish line in front of the Mirage. As I headed north, I was now running into the strong winds. Even though I felt like I was pushing hard, my pace was slower than expected. I crossed the finish line at 2:02:09. A personal record for me but not the sub 2 hour goal I was hoping for. Alek finished in 2:09:10 but I had to wait nearly 20 minutes for him at the finish line because of the corralled starts. Full results are here. The finish area had lots of food and drink but the bagels were just no good. Maybe I'm spoiled by being from New York?
Anyone who has visited Las Vegas knows that the pedestrian path down the strip takes you up and down elevators and sometimes through buildings. It takes a bit longer than expected to get anywhere. Running down the middle of the Strip was awesome!
The race was a lot of fun but there were a few factors I didn't plan for. The wind was definitely one of those. By the halfway point I was on track to finish in 1:58. Running into the wind slowed me down a lot. My water consumption plan didn't work out either. The temperature was perfect but I'm used to running in more humid air. The dry desert air left me much thirstier than expected, forcing me to stop at water stops and drink all of the water from my fuel belt.
The finish medals and race T-shirts were quite nice. Since this is my second Rock N Roll event of 2012, I should get one of their heavy medals for completing two events! I'll share a photo when I get it.
Race shirt and medal
How'd that playlist work out?
Alek mentioned to me that I never talk about how my playlists worked for races, so I decided on a new section for my race recaps to let everyone know what went well and what didn't.
This playlist for this race was quite good. Listening to Dave Matthew's "Don't Drink the Water" as I was avoiding water stops early on was amusing, as was listening to Florence & the Machine's "Seven Devils" as I ran past people holding up signs encouraging runners to turn to Jesus. The instrumental pieces between sections of the playlist smoothed the transitions between themes and the tempo of the songs was also fast enough to keep me going.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.