Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon : Official Thread

Hi everyone, started October 1st on my training for the Vegas Rock and Roll.  Who is in?

If you haven't booked a hotel yet, check out Expedia, they are dirt cheap.  3 nights at the Excalibur (near the start line) was $161 total, 3 nights at the Imperial Palace (near the finish) was $99, total, with taxes, for 3 nights.

I'm signed up for the half.  Had toyed with the idea of switching to the full, but they're pretty strict about the 4:30 cutoff and I'm woefully undertrained for that.

Brian and Wade - I will send you both my cell number - we should try to connect amidst all the corral madness before the race starts.  AZ get together!!

"AZ get together" in the house!!I would love to meet my fellow AZ BT'ers in Vegas!!

I'm in for the half!
Excited for my first out of town race as well as my first night race! Hoping to PR and finish under 2:00. 

Glad to see so many Arizona racers! Woo hoo!  

I don't get the cut offs.  I'm in for the full, but they don't make much sense to me.  The only thing I can think of is that it must be related to permits for MLK Blvd.  They probably were given a maximum time they could shut that down and then worked backward to figure out what the cutoff needed to be.  Obviously it's not a problem with the strip itself.  The marathon course will be closed an hour before the half.

Did the 1/2 last year and year before and the whole the year before that, but then I live here.  Not sure if I will run this year or do bike support.

Please remember that this is Las Vegas, and the R&R marathon is part serious and a big part circus. 

Many runners were angry last year that there were walkers, men in tutus, baby strollers, fully dressed Elvis people with guitars, and almost anything else you could and could not begin to imagine.

44 thousand last year and the goal of 60 thousand this year.  It is packed from the check in, to the corrals, to the run to the food at the end.  Bring your smiles and patience.

And just keep in mind what it is...Vegas baby

I think what angered people was not what others were wearing, but the way the course was structured.  The marathon went out and came back and then merged with the half marathon course that was just starting.  So fast marathon runners who were at mile 13 were thrown in the middle of walking half marathoners who were at mile .1.

I AGREE with this one.  There was a couple issues last year that I hope will be resolved for this one (not running, but possibly be a bike support, I dunno yet).   They CHANGED the course because many marathoners were getting upset that their last 13.1 miles is pretty much OFF the strip, and they felt BORED and unmotivated due to the lack of crowds. So, RnR changed the course to make the last 13.1 miles the same as the Half-Marathon. Of course...it became such a fiasco.  There were signs, but there's just TOO many people ignoring the signs that divided the HM and the marathoners, many of them were knocked down.

THIS year, they changed it completely.  AND GOD FORBID if they use the hydrant water...so many people got sick last year because they were NOT used to the hard water (I had some tummy tightness, but I was able to handle it...others had worse). 

There are some people that I've met at the beginning of the half course - "Well, I'm only going to run for about 3 or 4 miles then I'm walking the rest." I looked at them and said, "then why are you in the wrong corral and why register?" "It's the STRIP! It's FUN!!"   wth. 

So yeah...it's like someone who trained to run for 5-8 miles, then walk the rest of the way for NYC Marathon just because it's NYC Marathon.    THAT's a HUGE problem because it's a higher percentage of people. And I HOPE that the corrals issue has been resolved because that was really the biggest fiasco.

SO - my advice for those to go. DO NOT use this race for a PR (unless if you have been steadily improving, and expecting some sort of PR anyways...I can name someone easily...*wink*) or a time goal. Just enjoy the run.  And be patient. :-)

They're still looking for pacers, btw.  Free entry.  Times needed:

Half-marathon pacer at 1:30:00 

Marathon pacers: 3:05:00, 3:10:00, 3:15:00, 3:25:00, 3:30:00, 3:35:00, 3:40:00, 3:50:00

It looks like race numbers and corrals have been released - care to start a BT list of athletes?

I am #1314, starting in corral 1.

#4046, corral #4.  Not sure what I was thinking when I predicted a 1:49 finish.  I'll be lucky to hit 1:55. 

I think I'm going to sign up.  I don't have IMAZ messing it up this year.  Probably only the half though.  I'm out of shape.

Obviously make it a vacation/long weekend since it's Vegas (if you are into that).  The course is ok.  Best part IS running down the strip.  Maybe even more for locals because we know that shutting down the strip for anything is a rare occurrence and it's a somewhat unique vantage point to see the hotels/casinos on a deserted street.

It's a little cold.  I wish it was in Nov instead of Dec...

If you want to do the marathon for doing a marathon, go for it.  But if you want the best portions of the run, the half is fine.  Nothing much to see the second half of the marathon (when I did it in the past).

I'm going to be doing it, making a vacation weekend out of it as suggested a few times.

The main reason for me to do it is to join my friend as she meets her "40 by 40" goal, this being her 40th HM before she turns 40.  Her first HM was in June 2011 and she set out to run "18 in 18 (months)" which then led to the "40 by 40" goal and she will hit that milestone 7 months early