Race Report: Viva Las Vegas

When I heard about the Vegas Rock and Roll half-marathon, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to combine my two favorite hobbies, endurance sports and poker. On paper, the race looked perfect: it was not until 5:30pm, so I could gamble on Saturday night and not worry about having to go to bed early; the race course was flat as a pancake; and it took you down the strip at night when it was all lit up. After a strong race during the Newton half, Vegas seemed like a great opportunity to make a run at my half-marathon PR (2:07). Unfortunately, the race proved much more challenging that I had planned.

Over 45,000 runners showed up for the race, including thousands of walkers. While there was a separation between the half-marathon and the full marathon, there was no wave system for the half-marathon.  Runners had been assigned to corrals, but no one controlled the crowd to put runners in the proper corral. As a result, many walkers and slower runners started near the front of the race. I started off motivated for a PR, and pushed hard to get through the crowd on the first two miles—and started adding extra distance to each mile from all the weaving.

Right before Mile 3, I got a horrible cramp and had to slow down. It got better, but the crowd did not, and I continued to feel stressed about the lack of space in which to run. Nutrition and hydration was also a problem. Though the temperature was in the 50s, the desert air was still very dry. I drank a steady stream of water and Gatorade starting Saturday morning up until race time on Sunday, and I still felt dehydrated around the middle of the race. Switching time zones also meant that I wasn’t hungry when I should have been and therefore ate less than usual. Not being at home made it more difficult to control diet in a way to maximize energy—for example, I had to beg a waitress at lunch on Sunday for a basket of bread because there was just nothing that was all carbs on the menu. And sharing a hotel room with three other people was not exactly conducive to a good night’s sleep before the race.

At about Mile 5, I gave up on the PR. I had been so wrapped up in worrying about my time that I was not having fun and appreciating the experience. So I slowed it down and tried to relax and enjoy the lights of Vegas at night. It took a lot more work than usual to push myself through each mile, but I just kept going and slowly but surely they passed by. At Mile 9, we began to approach the main part of the Strip again, and seeing it all lit up at night was rather awesome. My cheering squad was at Mile 11, so that motivated me for two more miles (thanks Sarah, Greg, Sophy, and Soneth!).

The last two miles felt like I was running uphill even though it was flat. The stress of the crowd, the pain from more cramps, and the dwindling energy made me very emotional. Keith, my steadfast running buddy, encouraged me to think of my post-race meal as motivation. But it didn’t help. I hit the last mile and just started counting down the minutes. The approach to the finish was so crowded that I could not have sprinted even if I had wanted to. But finally, I was done.

While it was not my best race experience, I learned a lot. First of all, I learned that when signing up for a new race, I need to do more research on race size and set-up beforehand. And I can’t sign up for races that are three weeks apart from each other—that’s not enough time for a full recovery. I do think that I built up some mental fortitude by dealing with the crushed expectations and pushing through. Hopefully that will help me continue to improve.

Many thanks to Keith for sticking with me throughout the 13.1 and keeping me from losing it in the crowd!