2013 Las Vegas Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon Recap

*note: I just read this and it is really long, you might want to take a bathroom break first or grab a coffee*

I did it!  I ran 13.1 miles!  Actually, according to my GPS watch I ran 13.25 miles but that was probably because of all the zigzagging I did.  I don't want to get ahead of myself so let me back up a bit.

This post will only be about the race.  I will write about the trip in general next week.

The race started at 4:30 pm so we (Chris, Bob, Zach, and I) decided to head to the "start line" at around 2.  One of the benefits of staying at the Flamingo was that there was a Monorail stop at the hotel so we decided to take the Monorail to MGM Grand (the last stop) and walk the rest of the way.  There were a lot of runners waiting to get on when we got there and more coming all the time.  Once the Monorail arrived we were lucky to get on because it was already pretty full.  At the next stop a few more people were able to squeeze on while a lot of others were out of luck and left to complain about how that was the third time they had been unable to get on.  I guess that's the downside of staying at the next to last stop.  Anyway, once we got off we walked through the MGM Grand and down the strip to the "start line."  I put that in quotes because it was more like a small village with a couple hundred porta potties, bagel/banana/water booths, a huge stage with the All American Rejects singing, and about 25,000 people.  We decided it would be a good idea to get in line for the porta potties so we got in line.

Not a picture from my race but you get the idea

There were about 50 people in each line so we had to wait for about 20 minutes.  After that business was done we stretched a little bit and then decided that we should make our way to our corral.  Based on our projected finish time of 2 hours, Zach, Chris, and I were placed in corral 14.  The corral system is used to space out the runners and let the faster runners out first so they aren't stuck behind slow people like me.  Corral 1 goes first and then every other corral is released 1.5 minutes apart.  Each corral is designed to hold ~1000 runners although I have no idea how many people were actually in our corral.  It was a little disappointing to see people from corral 33 (probably an estimated 3 hour finish time) walking through my corral on their way to who knows which corral in front of us.  I know that during the race I passed people that were probably walking the entire race.  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people walking the race but I don't like that they went to the front just so they didn't have to wait for their corral.

View in front of me (you can just make out the start line)

View behind me

Anyway, right at 4:30 pm they had someone sing the National Anthem and then the race started.  There was an emcee at the start line calling out the corrals as they were released.  There was also music blaring out of speakers at each corral and I have to admit that I was definitely getting pumped up!  Maybe 5 or 6 minutes after corral 1 was released we saw the first runners racing past us.  Holy cow they were going fast.  I'm not sure I can sprint as fast as their race pace.  I don't know if the first corral was all marathoners or also some half marathoners mixed in but they were all moving fast.  It turns out first place of the marathon finished in 2:35:26 (5:56 min/mile pace) and the first place half marathoner finished in 1:06:17 (5:04 min/mile pace.)  Wow.

As we got closer to the start line I definitely had butterflies but I was also excited to get started.  Once we finally got started I didn't feel like I was going much faster than when we were walking our way to the start line.  Because I decided to do run/walk intervals I thought it would be nice of me to start near the back of the corral so I didn't stop in front of anybody when I did my first walk.  That was a big mistake.  There were so many people that it was almost impossible to set any type of pace.  At around 0.75 miles I looked at my watch and saw that I was only doing a 12 minute mile!  I really didn't want to be so far behind my target pace so I started running faster and darting in and out of people and running on the sidewalk.  I ended up getting my first mile done (with no walking because we were going so slow) in 9:30.  I decided that I didn't want to completely give up on my intervals so I walked for around 2 minutes and then started running again.  It was really had to walk because as you walk, all the people you worked so hard to pass while running, go right past you.  It's like making a stop at a rest stop during a long road trip and you see the big semi, that you worked so hard to pass, blow by.

Course map.  We started out going south and turned around just before mile 1

We did get to pass by the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign which I had never seen in person...that was pretty fun.  There were quite a few people that stopped to take pictures.

I saw this sign for about 30 seconds

My intervals were all over the place and I tried to keep them around 5 minutes of running to 1 minute of walking.  It was tough, not just because of the number of people, but because there were times the road narrowed and everybody got crammed together.  Or, at the water stations, there would be people that would run right in front of you to get over to the water.  A few times I had to come to a complete stop so that I didn't run into anyone.  Another time a lady in front of me stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture with her cell phone and I narrowly avoided crashing into her.  I think, on average, I walked between 1.5 to 2 minutes per mile which is just about what I was hoping to do.

As many of you know I was pretty excited to listen to the Broncos games during the run.  I found out that Las Vegas did not carry the game on FM radio (my iPod has an integrated FM radio) so I decided to take my phone along and stream KOA.  That didn't work out so well.  I think the number of people trying to stream music (and just people in Vegas using their phones in general) overloaded the cell tower because the game kept cutting in and out.  And by in and out I mean out.  I fought with my phone for probably about 2 miles so that really helped the time go by!  I finally ended up putting my phone in my fuel belt and listened to my book on tape.  I have to say that I listened to my book for about 1.5 hours and I don't really remember any of it.  I was so busy enjoying the scenery and dodging other runners I wasn't really paying attention to the book.

My time at the 10 mile mark was 1:35:21 which was pretty close to the times for my 10 mile runs in training so I was pretty happy.  I ended up running the last 3.1 miles at a faster pace than I did the first 10 so I guess that means my training was successful, right?  The last mile was a blur and before I knew it I was crossing the finish line completing my first ever half marathon in 2:04:54!  Five minutes under my goal!  What a great feeling it was to finally finish something I have been training for for almost 8 months.  I met up with Zach, who finished in under 1:55:00! and we took our time walking through the finish line village drinking water, Gatorade, chocolate milk, and eating bananas, bagels, and pretzels.

My medal that L loves because it glows in the dark!

Overall I thought the race was organized very well and ran smoothly.  The course was pretty well lit for the most part (with the exception of the part where we ran around some neighborhoods just before we turned around and headed back down the strip) and the volunteers were great.  There were a ton of people on the sidelines giving high fives and cheering on the runners.  I didn't have any one there to specifically cheer me on but it felt like the streets were lined with hundreds of my closest fans.  As we ran through the aforementioned neighborhood people were sitting on their patios cheering us on.  As is the case with most half/full marathons (or so I hear) people were holding up the usual silly signs.  Some of my favorites were "Worst Parade Ever", "Toenails are Overrated" and of course:

Again, not from my race

I'm not sure I would ever run a half marathon with 20,000+ people again but I'm glad I did it once.  I had such a great experience and am so glad I did it (and that it's over!)  I think 10k's are more my distance but I would like to try another half marathon at some point.

As I mentioned, I ended up finishing in 2:04:54 which comes out to a pace of 9:32 min/mile.  Subtracting out my walking I averaged a 8:36 min/mile (or around there) while running which I am very happy about.  My splits came out to: 9:30, 9:54, 9:17, 10:10, 9:16, 9:28, 9:20, 9:28, 9:44, 9:16, 9:29, 9:19, 8:57, 7:18 (for the last 0.1.)  Overall these splits are pretty consistent which was the goal of my intervals.

13.25 miles! Note my random walking intervals

I think the flat course and lower elevation helped quite a bit and I wish I could run that course with about 24,500 fewer people!

Thank you all for your support over the past 8 months, especially my wife Angie!  I didn't know it at the time but she was watching my times from home and was cheering me along, even though she was home with the stomach flu!  Thanks sweetie!

Needless to say I'm enjoying taking some time off of running but soon it will be time to figure out my next race!

Please post any questions you have for me about the race!

Time's Up

Well, it's Friday afternoon and at this time tomorrow I'll be on my way to the airport.  It's hard to believe that my last week of training is over and the only thing left in front of me is the race.  Unfortunately both of my little girls were plagued by the stomach bug this past week and I'm actually home with both of them right now.  I've been using so much hand sanitizer that my fingers are about to crack off of my hands.  I'm doing whatever it takes to try to stay healthy for the run.  I really hope Angie is able to fight off this bug as well as it wouldn't be much fun to have two kids at home by yourself while sick.

Anyway, assuming I don't catch anything in the next 51.5 hours I think I'm ready to go.  As I've mentioned before, I know I shouldn't have a time goal for myself and just run to have fun and finish but I can't help but predict how I'm going to do.  Running at 2000 feet (as opposed to 5000+ feet here in CO) and on a flat course should definitely make things easier but I'm guessing running with 35,000+ other people will probably cancel all that out.  I'm not sure how difficult it will be to do my run/walk intervals with so many other people but I'll try to stay out of the way on my run to walk transitions.  I'm going to stick with alternating 4:30 of running with 1 minute of walking and hope that by the end of the race I'll have enough energy to push hard at the end.  My final goal is to finish in under 2:10.  I'll update you next week on how it went.

Quick prediction on the Broncos.  HUGE game this week at home against the 9-0 Chiefs.  I keep going back and forth on this one mainly because it's supposed to be chilly (20s-30s), maybe a bit windy, and Manning with 2 bad ankles.  What finally wins out for me is the fact that I can't see the Chiefs scoring more that 17 points against the Broncos unless they get some defensive touchdowns (which you can never predict.)  I'm expecting a great crowd and a big win for Denver, 31 - 17.

Have a great weekend!

That Blows

Of course I am referring to the wind and, of course, the last two times I have decided to run it has been very windy.  I'm sure it's good for me and builds strength but I'd much rather run on a calm day.  We were in the mountains all weekend so I didn't get my long run done until Monday.  And what a long run it was!

The kiddos enjoying the mountain air

I was undecided whether I wanted to do 11 or 12 miles and the cold, windy weather made me want to turn around after 2 miles but I ended up going 12!  That run was the longest (time and distance) I have ever run.  For the most part the first half was uphill and into the wind so most of the second half felt pretty good.  The last three miles, however, I hit a bit of a wall.  I've done 10 a couple times and felt pretty good at the end.  I'm sure the weather (30 degrees and 14 mph winds) didn't help but I'm guessing the fact that I ran 12 miles had something to do with it!  You'll probably notice from the picture below that I stuck with the run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute intervals the entire way and I think it was pretty successful.  I'm hoping that on race day I'll be able to up the running to 4:30 or 5 minutes.  I ended up going 12.05 miles in 1:55:51 for an average pace of 9:37 min/mile.  My splits were: 8:47, 9:08, 9:23, 9:45, 9:53, 9:43, 10:00, 9:29, 9:32, 9:53, 10:03, 9:55.  A couple of those longer splits were due to bathroom breaks.  Guess I drank too much water before the run.

Longest run of my life...and it felt like it!

I wanted to run yesterday but ended up being really busy at work and didn't fit it in so I went today.  Yesterday was in the mid 60s with no wind and of course today was windy.  I felt pretty tired the entire time and don't think I could have gone 13.  Good thing the half marathon wasn't today.
 You want to know what scares me?

CSU blew and early lead at home against Boise St. and ended up losing 42-30.  I didn't get to watch the game but from watching updates on my phone it doesn't sound like the game was that close.  Still no Connor Smith sighting.  This week the Rams host Nevada.  I don't know much about the Wolfpack but I think CSU gets back up to .500 by winning 38-28.

The Broncos had an eventful bye week as coach John Fox had to have a valve in his heart replaced and may miss up to 6 weeks.  Obviously the top concern is for his health and I hope he makes a full recovery.  It is probably a good thing that we have another former head coach on the team as Jack Del Rio will take over in Fox's absence.  Denver travels out to SD for a game against the Chargers.  This would have all the makings of a trap game since the Broncos play KC next week but I don't see Denver looking past San Diego.  I do think it will be a close game and I'm interested to see how the defense plays.  If you'll remember back to last season (maybe it's just me) Denver came back from 24 down at halftime to stun the Chargers 35-24.  Denver really needs to hold on to the ball this week if they want to win.  I think it will be a close game but I see Denver coming out on top 38-31.

Have a great weekend!

Running Out of Time

Sometimes I think I am really clever with my titles.  This week isn't one of them!

I don't have much time to write today because we're going to head up to the mountains for the weekend and I need to pack.  I'm not bringing my running gear so that makes this a recovery weekend.  I still want to get one more long run in before the race so it will probably have to wait until next weekend.  With the time change this weekend I think it will be too dark to run 2 hours after work this week.  I can't believe I'll be getting ready for my race in just over 2 weeks.  I think I'm ready and I have to hope my training me has prepared me for it.  Last month I mentioned that I only ran 48.76 miles in September due to some soreness/injuries.  In October I ended up running 69.86 miles which is almost 10 miles more than I have run during any month!  For my 10 mile run last Saturday, as I mentioned in my last blog, I decided to switch up my intervals.  After running the first mile I alternated 1 minute of walking with 4 minutes of running.  Compared to the last 10 mile run I cut 1 minute 14 seconds off my time.  This might not sound like much but considering this route included an additional 100 feet of elevation gain, I think it was pretty successful.  Whenever I get out for my next/last long run I think I'll try it again although I might push the running interval to 4:30 or 5 minutes.

Turning around at 5 miles and going downhill felt GREAT!

L's newly appointed "favorite holiday" occurred last night.  I'm sure that will change as we get closer to Christmas but she was so excited for Halloween.  She dressed up as Ariel (as a princess, not mermaid), N dressed up as Sebastian the crab (even though the costume may have been a lobster), and Angie was the evil sea-witch Ursula.

My adorable family

Unfortunately I didn't get into the spirit of Halloween like the rest of my family.  Maybe next year.  L has the next 4 years of Halloween ideas mapped out and next year will be a Star Wars themed event.  We'll see if that holds.  This morning L woke up and one of the first things she said to me was: "Daddy, candy!"  I love the way kids' minds work.

Don't forget to comment, you can be anonymous!

Did you dress up for Halloween?  What were you?  Did your family do a theme?
Do you have a long run this weekend?  How long?