Race Review: Rock n Roll Las Vegas
November 15, 2017 1 Comment
Disclaimer: I received a free entry to Rock n Roll Las Vegas as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!
I’ve had my eye on Rock n Roll Vegas for quite some time, so when the chance came to finally run it, I jumped at it. I also needed to get Nevada off my need to run states for the half marathon list. A whole host of Bibrave pros ended up being in town for the race, which made things a whole lot more fun.
I arrived Friday night from Tucson and checked in at the Westin on the Vegas Strip. When I walked in, I noticed a sign set up for a shake out rune for runners staying at the hotel with the Run Concierge
I caught some dinner after walking around a bit and then ended up calling it a night. I was still dealing with the falling back an hour and ended up only sleeping until 630 or so. I found some breakfast and then headed to the expo at the Convention Center. It opened at 9 AM on Saturday (though it was also open Thursday and Friday as well). You had to have a confirmation for every race you ran that was signed and only you could bring it, no one else could pick up your bib for you. If you did the 5K on Saturday in addition to a Sunday race, you were given a wrist band to show at the finish of your Sunday race for extra bling.
I wandered around the expo and found some Nike gear that was 40% off. And some Garmin. All the Garmin ($100 off the Fenix 5 Series, just saying). I rarely get gear, but I found a fun t-shirt I ended up getting, that was slightly edited:
I went back to the hotel and watched the OSU-MSU game before finding some lunch, wondering Caesar’s Palace and running the 5K on Saturday. Wondering about the 5K? Head over here and check it out.
The headliner concert with The Goo Goo Dolls was suppose to be Sunday, but given the shooting last month, it was changed to Saturday after the 5K. I hung around until about 8 before heading back for dinner and a shower. What can I say, cold and hungry won!
Sunday I was up bright and early. I ended up heading to church and then met up with fellow Bibrave Pros Justin, Jeannine, Mai, Fallon and Allison for Brunch at Spice Market in the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino. We were there a good 90 minutes before we all left to get ready for the race. Let me tell ya, an afternoon race really throws off when you eat, that’s for sure!
The race started in front of New York, New York, a change from last year. You were also put into 1 of 3 bib colors- blue, green and yellow. Within each bib color was a corral. There were 3 waves based off bib colors that were sent off every 30 min or so with each corral opening for a set period of time. If you’ve ever run the NYC Marathon and there wave system, thats what they were going for. To say the corrals were a bit of a hot mess is a bit of an understatement. You were elbow to elbow and it was beyond hard to get in. There were only 2 entry points and they were checking bib colors and corrals. They really needed to have more entry points. I appreciate the security, but it was almost equally unsafe trying to get in. Once you were in, you couldn’t leave, which meant if you had to go to the bathroom, you were SOL.
I was in the blue corral, which had all the marathoners and some half marathoners in it. I was in corral 11 so we ended up being in the 3rd wave of people in the blue corral. Things did thin out, and you weren’t elbow to elbow with people, but there was a lot of trying to get around people, which meant more tangents. About 1.5 miles in I took a bathroom stop because there was no way 13 miles was happening with a full bladder. The first 2.5 miles were dedicated to the Vegas shooting victims. It went by Mandalay Bay, the Welcome to Las Vegas sign on the way out and back, which made for some good photo ops. The 5K mark came quick and then somewhere between 3-5 miles, we past the start, where they were still sending off runners in the yellow wave. We were heading down the strip, past Paris, Planet Hollywood and MGM. As we were passing the finish, the half marathon winner was crossing the finish. Holy fastness
We got further out on the strip, past the Las Vegas Festival Grounds and the furthest part of the strip before heading back towards the center of Vegas. Everything we saw on the way out we saw on the way back, which was nice. Around mile 11, the marathoners split from us and went their separate ways, as we continued on towards the MGM. When you crossed the finish, you were about a mile from where we started. You got your medal and kept walking down towards food, medical, chocolate milk and the finishers area. It seemed like a decent amount of time between when you finished to when you exited. At the very end was beer for anyone interested. In the finishers area, there was merchandise, the VIP area, extra bling (read Heavy Medal and Remix Medal) pick up and more. I hung around a little bit before heading back to the hotel for a shower and then to find dinner. When I came back out to find food, the finish line was picking up with more p people and was getting more congested with finishers, so I was glad I finished when I did.
In terms of nutrition, there was water stops every 1.5 miles or so. Every once and awhile, there was gatorade, but not enough in my opinion. There was maybe 1 station with gels/chews for the half. There wasn’t any food on course which was a downside
Overall Pros for the course
- Flat Course
- good amount of energy
- A definite bucket list race
- Plenty of crowd and medical support
- Good amount of bands
Overall Cons
- Price is huge. In June/July, the half was $149.99. If you sign up as part of preregistration, the lowest you get is $99
- Time of the start. The afternoon start time really throws off eating/meals
- The start/corrals. There needed to be more entry points into the corrals because people were walking all over each other
- Pre/post race bananas were old and mush like and weren’t worth eating
- The amount of people. It was so crowded at times!
As much fun as the race was, I think I’m leaving it as a bucket list race and calling it good.
Did you run? Don’t forget to go to Bibrave to review it!
drrunner 