No Vegas HM, Marathon reports this year???

I was curious how the course change and time of day change felt this year.

I know of some local runners who ran it and they reported to a friend of mine that the course was not wide enough, causing them to get stuck behind people walking at the end, and that it ran out of water and Gatorade.

Also, apparently it rained a bit during the race? My girlfriend's sister ran/walked it (bum knee gave out at mile 9) and said the weather was great for running, freezing for walking, and it rained.

I'm not sure I'll post a report I ran the HM so badly.

The coldest I've ever been in a race, and I've run races while it was snowing. It was in the 40s, but the wind was blowing over 30 mph.

They went from 24,000 runners in 2010 to 48,000 in 2011. The logistics were still set up for 24,000.

To get a flavor, go check out the reviews on marathonguide.com. People are not happy, especially the marathoners.

Running on The Strip is very cool. I'd do it again, assuming they get the problems worked out.

scottk wrote:I'm not sure I'll post a report I ran the HM so badly.

The coldest I've ever been in a race, and I've run races while it was snowing. It was in the 40s, but the wind was blowing over 30 mph.

They went from 24,000 runners in 2010 to 48,000 in 2011. The logistics were still set up for 24,000.

To get a flavor, go check out the reviews on marathonguide.com. People are not happy, especially the marathoners.

Running The Strip is very cool. I'd do it again, assuming they get the problems worked out.

Yikes!!!

I think Matt M is omniscient. It seems that the marathon will become a relic of the past, obliviated due to capitalism of the worst kind in favor of the HM. I guess Vegas will still have the Valley of Fire and the Boulder City marathons.

BTW, the scenery of VoF beats the strip any day, from someone who lived in Vegas for >10 years.

I heard that Vegas was a nightmare and those reviews confirm it. I ran Valley of Fire and I agree that it was more than worth it.

Valley of fire is on my marathon wish list. I have been hiking there and loved it.

I ran the full helping a friend pace a 3:55 pace group. The merge of the full into the half at the 13.5 mark was a disaster. Spent most of our time dodging around slower runners and walkers. Needless to say we did not keep the pace. Ended up about three minutes slow. A number of people complained of GI illness and distress during and after the race and there was a colossal logjam of people trying to move through the convention center and shopping areas of Mandalay Bay after the race in which several people passed out, panicked etc. It was obvious the planning for so many more runners was inadequate. I won't run it next year unless there are some fundamental changes made and I have run it seven years straight.

I think the long term plan is to turn it into the world's largest half and charge people an extreme amount to register, even more than what they did this year. Competitor group seems to be all about the money and let the rest of the chips fall where they may. At some point, this will backfire on them in terms of lawsuits etc. It is inevitable based on what happened this past weekend.

jon c wrote:I ran the full helping a friend pace a 3:55 pace group. The merge of the full into the half at the 13.5 mark was a disaster. Spent most of our time dodging around slower runners and walkers. Needless to say we did not keep the pace. Ended up about three minutes slow. A number of people complained of GI illness and distress during and after the race and there was a colossal logjam of people trying to move through the convention center and shopping areas of Mandalay Bay after the race in which several people passed out, panicked etc. It was obvious the planning for so many more runners was inadequate. I won't run it next year unless there are some fundamental changes made and I have run it seven years straight.

I think the long term plan is to turn it into the world's largest half and charge people an extreme amount to register, even more than what they did this year. Competitor group seems to be all about the money and let the rest of the chips fall where they may. At some point, this will backfire on them in terms of lawsuits etc. It is inevitable based on what happened this past weekend.

I read a bunch of coments on marathonguide.com and heard About the facebook assault(outraged racers) post race. Drinking water from garbage cans where the disinfectant used wasn't rinsed likely caused the GI distress(lucky no one died). If the runners who experienced this so desired they could easily file a class action law suit. It sounds like the medical tent was not staffed to handle hypothermia either. What a serious mess! Lots of blame to go around, but most importantly, the standard of care used for most marathon races was not followed and therein lies the lawsuit (if folks were mad enough!!).

I ran the full. A couple of observations, which I may put into a race report when I get time:

1) Running a marathon at night was a factor. Didn't really think about it but you forget that you burn energy and end up walking around all day prior to the race. I read some interviews where the leaders said that they thought it really dropped their times. This was somewhat offset by nice weather though. If you are a sweater, this is the race for you. Started around 47 degrees and was about 30ish at the end of the marathon. Clothes ranged from shorts and tank, to full-on winter gear.

2) Course from a pure dynamics perspective was actually kind of cool. Some hills at the beginning (nothing major though) and then decline from 10-20, with light elevation changes for the last 6. The strip thing was pretty cool I guess. I was so pissed (see below) during the last 10 that I never really was focused on the strip aspect of this.

3) The race itself, from all perspectives, was a cluster-F. Huge half-marathon. Small marathon. First half of the marathon was fine, but you ran right into the half with 40k people running 3 mins slower than you. They tried to set up some cones to create a lane for marathoners, but it didn't matter. I lost all my rhythm dodging people miles 14-17. I was running into people with nowhere to go. Ruined my race.

4) The setup after the race was a mess. Just a huge amount of people and it got bottlenecked. Need to move the pictures way outside of everything and let people get out of there. A ton of people were upset about this. It was also freezing and they ran out of shiny blankets. Windy and 30 degrees, so that was a mess too. Seemed to be mainly a logistical problem that can be fixed.

5) I had two friends running the half and they both felt it was quite crowded but they had fun.

In the end, they really need to ditch the marathon part of this race. It is just not fair to throw people halfway into a marathon into a mass of people that they have to dodge. I think it can continue to be a fun, huuuuuge half marathon if they just work out some kinks. I would not recommend the marathon to anyone for any reason. But, for the half, if you are looking for a recreational, run race to loop into your Vegas trip, I would recommend it. If you are trying to crush a PR or run a competitive half, make it another race.