The Unlikely Competitor: Las Vegas Half Marathon Dec 2011

Whew! Last race recap from Ghosts of Races Past and then I can finally do current posts like a normal person!

I did the Las Vegas Half Marathon last year and had a great time. This year...not so much.

The Competitor Group held the third annual Rock 'n' Las Vegas Marathon/Half Marathon at night, which in theory, sounds like a great idea. Running the strip in the morning is a little boring, so when it was announced that the race would be run at night in 2011, I was totally stoked!

The race sold out this year with 44,000 competitors. It was incredibly crowded, not enough course support (although, it was obvious that the volunteers tried very hard to keep up with aid station demands).

This race was ridiculously crowded. I'm not sure how to fix the problem - maybe more corrals? - but we were definitely crammed on the course like sardines. It was also quite cold and the resources post race were scarce.

Boy, they look happy!

My biggest gripe? Trying to get through Mandalay Bay, which was the host hotel/casino. It was so packed, that conditions were dangerous. If there had been an emergency, it would have turned ugly quite fast.
To be fair, I doubt the folks at the Competitor Group could have foreseen the mess in Mandalay. Last year's race was well run so my guess is simply the number of competitors. I don't know if I will do this race again next year. I may stick around home and do the Fiesta Bowl Half Marathon. I've heard it's a good race and I won't have to travel!

One major bonus for this race: Getting to finally meet up with a "pen-pal" friend of mine, A. That was really cool. Hopefully, she and I will be able to run another race one of these days.

I didn't take any race pictures this run because I was freezing, but I took a few touristy type pictures.

Driving into a winter storm between Arizona and Nevada.

Actual snow in the desert!!!

I should note that T and I have become obsessed with picture editor apps on our phones. We spent an embarrassing about of time nerding it up with the pictures: