John Carrier

It has been just over a week since I ran the Las Vegas Marathon.  Though I’ve long since emptied my suitcase and washed my running clothes, I’m still “unpacking” the experience mentally and emotionally.  I had several incredible experiences leading up to the race and met many great people on my brief trip out West, both related and incidental to the race itself.  For now I just want to recount my experience of the race itself while it’s fresh in my mind.  I’ll continue to “upack” other aspects of the trip as my reflections unfold.

My run: I finished in 5 hours, 35 minutes, and 18 seconds.  I had set my goal time initially at 4:45, following my 5:06 run of the Twin Cities Marathon in October.  After coming down with a chest cold during my training for Las Vegas, I revised my expectations and just hoped to beat my Twin Cities time.  In the end I fell far short of that goal, due to a variety of factors.  First, the whole race is in a high desert climate, with altitudes ranging from around 1,400 feet to around 1,800 feet above sea level.  Consequently there were twice as many water stops (one every mile) as there were in the Twin Cities Maration.  I erred by not adjusting my scheduled walk breaks — 1 minute walking for every 10 minutes running — to account for these extra water breaks, and I wound up walking more than I think I needed to.  Since I have a hard time taking in water, sports drink, and energy gels without walking for 30 to 60 seconds, in future races I’ll be more diligent to deduct my “refueling” walk time from my 10-and-1 walk time.

 The weather: Perfect.  Started in the high 40’s, finished in the low 60’s, and dry but overcast all day.  Only the barren wastes that stretched out beside the road far in the northern suburbs reminded me that I was running in a desert.

The course:  Despite the noted variation in elevation, I didn’t notice any remarkably daunting hills on the course.  It felt really flat, except for a couple of dips under some overpasses.  The whole course was on asphalt-paved roads — easier on the knees than concrete sidewalks — but it was occasionally wise to stick to the middle of the road, as desert roads often are built to be convex so that flash-flood-causing rains will wash down to the sides rather than washing out the road.

The organization:  It was pretty clear that this is only the fourth year of the marathon and the third year of the concurrent half-marathon, compared to this years 27th running of the Twin Cities marathon.  Water stops, while welcome and greatly appreciated, could have been organized better.  By mile four, when runners were starting to get thirsty and before the half-marathon runners split off from the full-marathon runners, water stops brought everyone to a screeching halt while volunteers poured water in to cups for waiting participants, rather than just grabbing cups from great pyramidal stacks.  The relative youth of the race was also apparent in the relative dearth of spectators along the course.  The fans and the volunteers who came out were great, as were the police who did a great job keeping the course clear, but there were a lot more and a lot longer stretches with no cheering fans than you might see in a race of longer standing.

The punchline:  At the end of the 26.2-mile day, I highly recommend the Las Vegas Marathon, especially for first-timers.  It looks like I’ve got a lot of complaints about this race, from my own performace to the organization of the race itself, but all criticism here is to help me learn from my mistakes and help you prepare for the course.  All the dings can be fixed by experience — mine, as well as that of the Las Vegas race organizers.  There’s lots of water along the course, the first few miles are run under fireworks along the famous Las Vegas Strip, and there’s no other marathon on earth where you can take advantage of a run-through wedding chapel or see literally hundreds of Elvis impersonators running along side you.

I’m really glad I did it, and I’d like to run it again next year, only much, much faster.