Race Recap: Las Vegas Rock N Roll Half Marathon

Pre Race
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 Main Event

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.

Playlist: Rock n' Roll NY 10k

Saturday I'll run the Rock N' Roll 10k in Brooklyn's Prospect Park!  With my hip nearly recovered, I don't expect to miss this race like I missed the previous two.  In honor of the race being held in Brooklyn, my playlist contains songs from artists who have lived in Brooklyn.  

While the Rock N' Roll series does have on course entertainment, I found it to be more sparse than I would prefer when I ran Rock N' Roll St Pete back in February. It's fun but I prefer continuously hearing music. Spacing the entertainment out every mile doesn't do it.

The list is 59 minutes long.  I want to take the 10k slow so I don't aggravate my hip again, so 59 should be a good time.  

Still Alive GLaDOS & Jonathan Coulton

Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good) Neil Diamond

Hit Me With Your Best Shot Pat Benatar

Earthquake Labrinth; Busta Rhymes

Blitzkrieg Bop Ramones

Kids MGMT

Run This Town (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) Jay-Z

Mo Money Mo Problems (feat. Mase & Puff Daddy) The Notorious B.I.G.

Where The Party At (Remix) So So Def Allstars

I Wanna Be Sedated    The Ramones

Telephone   Lady GaGa & Beyoncé

Clint Eastwood  Gorillaz

No Sleep Till Brooklyn   Beastie Boys

Try Again Aaliyah

Poker Face   Lady GaGa

Recap: 2012 St Pete Rock 'n' Roll Half

This morning started at 4:50 with a bagel and coffee.  Alek and I got ready to head out to the shuttle that would take us about 1.5 miles to the race start.  Yes, this is an easily walkable distance.  But at 6:00 AM, if there's a shuttle, why not?  When we took our seats on the bus, I looked at my wrist and gave an exasperated "My Garmin!"  I'd forgotten it in the room.  I considered running without my gps watch, but my pacing would have been all over the place.  We decided to sprint back to the room in hopes that the bus would still be there when we got back.  If not, we could just walk.  We still had over an hour until the race start.

When we got back, the bus hadn't left without us!  At the start line, as the bus was unloading, no one was in a hurry to get off into the 40 degree morning.  I planned this race-cation in hopes of running in 50-60 degree weather but got stuck with 40.  Mother Nature was unkind.  We did our best to keep warm by pacing around the Tropicana Field parking lot while passing the time.  Finally I entered my corral ten minutes before the start.

Freezing in the corral.

The first corral took off at 7:30.  This group contains the race winners, people who can run 13.1 miles with a 5:00 pace.

The fastletes getting ready to start.

I was supposed to start with the 7th corral, but there was some disorganization making corral 7 fall apart.  I started with corral 6.   With a total of 12 corrals, bumping up by one wasn't too big of a deal. The race course itself was almost all flat, making it fast.  I got a bit warm during the first half while running through non bayfront areas.  

Between miles 4 and 5, non-bayfront

Miles 8 through the finish were nearly all bayfront.  This was inconvenient since by that point I'd become quite sweaty and the wind on the wet made me cold again.  There was an out and back on The Pier of St Petersburg between miles 8 and 10.  This was especially cold.  It was also neat because at the end of The Pier is an odd shaped building that houses an aquarium (but not the aquarium where Winter the dolphin lives).  

Coming back from the loop around The Pier

There was more beautiful waterfront running after this, but miles 11 and 12 took us through a residential neighborhood.  With the flatness of the course, this was a bit boring.  Also the last couple of miles did an out and back over a narrow bridge.  This was poor planning since most people like to speed up for the last few miles and its difficult in a crowd.

Overall it was a fun race.  The course entertainment was more sparse than it seemed it would be based on the map.  Fortunately I had my St Pete Valentine's day playlist to keep me entertained.

One of the band stages

I finished in 2:04:57 with an average pace of 9:32/mile.  A NEW RECORD (for me)!  

Post finish, in front of the bay with my medal!

St Pete Rock 'N' Roll Pre Race

We made it to the St. Pete Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon Expo this afternoon.  The Expo took place in Tropicana Field.  It was pretty cool to walk on a professional baseball field, definitely a first for me.  Otherwise the expo was a bit underwhelming.  This is my first Rock 'N' Roll event so I wasn't actually sure what to expect.  The expo had fewer people and vendors than any I've visited before.

Another oddity for this race was that they didn't put the race information pamphlet with course map and other race info into the goody bag.  I had to pick it up at another booth in the expo.  It seems like in the goody bag is a no brainer since runners and the spectators they bring will need this info.  

In any case, St. Pete seems like a nice town.   I'm excited to explore its streets during tomorrow's half marathon!

Inside Tropicana Field for the Expo