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Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 3.3 
Organization 2.7 
Spectators 2.8
Number of comments: 736 [displaying comments 151 to 161]
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S. J. from Arizona
(12/7/2011)
"STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!!!" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 This was one big disaster and the first time I felt like my life was in danger on the course. My first clue should have been that they ran out of shirts at the expo. How do you run out of shirts? For $175, just give me my shirt! I ran the full marathon and have been training for the past 10 weeks and thought this would be the perfect race for a PR. Cool weather, flat course, run the Strip, etc. but noooooooooo. This turned into ONE BIG RUBBER FIST halfway through. The first half of the marathon went by okay, it is flat, there are four overpasses and weather was good. Gu was promised at mile 8... I didn't see any. Some water stations had water/cytomax, others just had water, some were in different order, others used different cups, others had same cups. Just stay consistent with water up front, cyto in the back and different cups for each. In the first half I nailed it on track for my PR! We went near some strip clubs and around the Hustler building. I saw a pair of crotchless panties hanging from a street sign. Cool. Then the fun began. At about mile 13.3 you hit this sea of people. The half-marathoners were let out 1-1/2 hours after we started our full. So, unless you were running a sub 1:30 split (I wasn't), you were screwed. I seriously thought when I first saw it that they were spectators because it was a wall of people not really moving, some were dialing their phones, a group of four had stopped in the middle to take a photo on the strip, I think I even saw a guy pushing a baby stroller with a dog in it. I was doing more weaving and bobbing than Manny Pacquiao and actually leap-frogged this one dude who had stopped to kneel down who I didn't see until the last minute. Apparently, the corrals are just 'friendly suggestions.' The corrals are absolutely not enforced. It is *bearable* for the full in the first half as we only had 6,000 runners but I was still running around slow people at Mile 5. However, for the 40+ corrals of the half, it is unacceptable. I used to work for the city and having that many people with that poor crowd control is an issue of public safety and borderline illegal. 38,000 half-marathoners just thrown on the strip could get out of hand quickly, especially when you had people shoving and pushing and elbowing and yelling at each other. It was clearly dangerous for everyone, made it difficult for speedier half marathoners and almost impossible for the full. I saw full-on walkers at the front of the half marathoner pack along with picture-takers, Ipod people, four-wides and a naked guy. There were two guys handing out those porn cards in the middle of the course at mile 19 (I took two). My pace slowed down by about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes and I probably ran an extra half mile going in and out of the half-marathoners. One woman was walking and she elbowed me as I passed her the best I could and she actually had the nerve to yell out at me like I was being rude. Us full marathoners were supposed to have a lane to ourselves, which on paper sounded great! That 'lane' was marked off my foot-tall cones with what looked like a SHEET OF NORMAL SIZED PAPER PRINTED OFF SOME LASER PRINTER WITH 14 POINT FONT THAT SAID: < full marathon half-marathon > These 'signs' were spaced out so far from each other it didn't really work. They just needed full on barricades up and down the Strip for this. They had cyclists that were course marshals yelling at half marathoners to move to the right. THESE GUYS DID THEIR BEST to do what they could but they were overwhelmed. Nobody listened to them and people just flipped them off as they rode through. Miles 14-18 was like Black Friday at Walmart for $2 waffle makers. I spent so much energy fighting the crowd that I had slowed WAAAAY down and I had nothing left. I gave up and slowed down to a near walking pace and though I could just enjoy a slow jog to the finish. Water stations were hard to access due to the people and I saw tables overturned and some were serve yourself I guess because I saw no volunteers. I heard they actually ran out of water towards the end which, again is a huge safety concern. Because I had to slow down and walk in so many areas, I began to cramp up which made me walk more and then the weather went very bad quickly (got real cold and started drizzling) so the last 4 miles were the worst. Finally got through and finished and was met with a huge bottle neck of people with picture stations just clogging up the way and lines to get to the bars, bananas, cyto, etc. I just said screw it and tried to get my bag from bag check. Most people were complaining inside. I heard they ran out of medals, too, half marathoners were getting full medals, etc. There were some good parts: running on the strip was a blast, most of the race crew were great and the expo was okay. But this is just turning into some kind of circus and maybe that's what they are going for, but for $175, just give me a good race. It had huge potential, but& Too bad, I had high hopes for this race and the event and my PR. But it was ten weeks wasted. I won't be back next year& their goal is to get over 60,000 participants! | |
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P. M. from NYC
(12/7/2011)
"Terrible Organization" (about: 2011)
4-5 previous marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 Horrible organization. The half marathoners were so jammed up at the end that we couldn't even cross the finish line! Had to come to a dead stop, then couldn't get a space blanket and my teeth were chattering non-stop and I had violent shivers. The shuttle buses to go back to the hotels were no where to be found and the later water stops were DRY! I finished around 2 hours for the half, so no reason to be out of water. WAY OVER PRICED, do not do this run. However, being in Vegas prior to the race was fun. Rock n' Roll, what a disappointment. | |
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J. B. from Shelby, MI
(12/7/2011)
"Horrible Experience!" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 I ran the half after reading many negative comments on this site re: the full marathon route. Wish I'd have spent my $150 elsewhere! The MOST poorly run race I have ever participated in, plus the most expensive. The only good things I can say are that the gear check was well run (assuming you could find it) and that the medals were nice (if you care). The shirts should have been long sleeved - hello this is December. No medical, no visible signage, Cytomax is terrible, no control in the corrals, no site of any shuttles after, etc. I felt so sorry for the full marathon runners!! | |
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m. s. from los angeles ca
(12/7/2011)
"Dangerous Conditions" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 Many Problems 1. 1/2 marathon and marathon meet up was a disaster. Meshing of the 2 was a terrible idea! I don't know what they expected from that 2. Walking out of the Madalay Bay to the parking garage was scary. People were throwing up, passing out and the crowd was completly jammed by people coming in the opposite direction to see the michael jackson show. Terrible planning! 3. Corrals were not enforced. Terrible and way to expensive. | |
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C. B. from Salt Lake City, UT
(12/7/2011)
"NEVER AGAIN!!" (about: 2011)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 5 The only two redeeming factor of this race was that the strip at night is beautiful and we had Las Vegas Blvd to ourselves. Other than that the organization was horrible. There were far too many runners, walkers didn't respect the race and didn't get in their correct corrals. The transportation at the end was a joke and there is no excuse for running out of water on course and not having food at the end. This race was expensive and unsafe. Runners spent the entire last half of the marathon course and full half marathon course dodging walkers and slower runners, expending much needed energy and slowing down their overall times. | |
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S. S. from Cleveland, OH
(12/7/2011)
"Great Race - Bad finish line planning" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 I decided to do the 1/2 marathon after reading input on here from last years race and was not disappointed in the course. It really was cool to run under the lights of the strip and see Vegas from that unique perspective. Kudos to the organizers on that. However, I rated the organization only one star because of the issues at the start and finish of the race. * There was very little signage to indicate how to get to the starting corrals from the gear check area. On top of that, there were so many people crowded around the corrals it took me close to 25 minutes to find mine and get to it. With that many runners they need to make the path to the corrals runners only. * I was in corral #2 which is where I was supposed to be considering I was planning on running a 7:20 pace. However, I saw people in my corral that were supposed to be in farther corrals back..and of course when the gun went off, these individuals went out much slower than a 7:20 pace (more like walking pace). Why were these people allowed to jump corrals? * The big issue was at the finish. My girlfriend finished about an hour behind me and she said it was chaos. In order to get back to our hotel, she had to get back through Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur. There are three ways to do that...the sidewalk (packed with spectators so that was out), the tram (a line so long it would have taken her all night to get back)or the walkways through the casinos. She chose the walkways which is what most people did. They were so packed there was almost no movement. On top of that people had collapsed and others were just walking over them and because it was so packed, medical staff could not be located to help them. Simply put, there were just too many people. AND they want even more next year! So unless they make major changes to the logistics next year my advice is this...if you can run a sub 2:00 marathon..you will have a great time. If you are slower than that..the race will be fun but the aftermath will be torture. Another thing we heard about were that they ran out of 1/2 marathon finishers medals so they were giving marathon finishers medals to the 1/2 marathoners. | |
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G. M. from Memphis, TN
(12/7/2011)
"Worst Marathon Experience ever" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 I wanted to make my 40th marathon a memorable one. Well, that was a success, but not the way I intended it to be. I have never commented on a marathon before, but I could not resist this one. This marathon was the worst experience of all of them. First half was in an industrial warehouse district with little crowd support and rough roads. I was on track for my BQ at the half point, and then...36,000 half-marathoners got in the way. Merging the two races at the half had to be the dumbest idea ever. If one could run a 90 minute first half, that was fine because you missed them. But after that, it was terrible. I wound up walking in several places, once behind a group of 3 hr halfers who were spread across the lane. And the Strip is not wide enough for 44,000 runners. Impossible to run tangents. And they want to got to 60,000!?!?! Folly. Absurd. Make it a half-marathon only. No serious marathoner (over 3.5 hrs) should ever run this marathon. Forget it. Overpriced, over-hyped, overcrowded, underfed. Runners getting sick from bad water piped in from fire hydrants! Even the largest convention space in the city wasn't big enough. Finish line was a crowded mess. My last RocknRoll. | |
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J. B. from St. Louis, USA
(12/7/2011)
"Critically flawed organization ruins the course" (about: 2011)
3 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 Half-marathon runner. Started in 5th corral, but there were walkers in front of me somehow. Crowd control nonexistent, and got crushed up at the finish due to slow shuttling through photo gates. Poor demarcation of marathon lane, plus portapotties were across the marathon lane anyway. Aid stations ran out of water later in the race, and the food afterwards (green, rock-hard bananas and stale minibagels) was inedible. Transportation out of Mandalay Bay post-race was impossible (tram and monorail jammed, taxi line 2+ hours), and all restaurants with 2-3 hour waits (although we got into Raffles Cafe and the tables were 1/3 empty...not sufficient staff to service them). How do you run out of shirts at the expo, swag bags, medals, and water on the course?? | |
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C. P. from California
(12/7/2011)
"Worst ever marathon" (about: 2011)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 This event was a disaster from start to finish. Every single aspect of this race was mishandled. Horrible marathon course, my time was ruined by a terrible merge, dirty water from hydrants was served to us, people got sick, there wasn't enough medical presence, not enough supplies, ran out of medals and shirts, served green bananas at the end (that I could not get to anyway) and on and on and on...... WORST!!! | |
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S. F. from Los Angeles, CA
(12/7/2011)
"Pricey with real issues in 2011" (about: 2011)
3 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 5 Actually ran in the Half not the Full. Vegas is a great destination city. Love the strip and thoroughly enjoyed running it at night. Running through downtown was okay, but lacked any decoration for the holiday season and had limited lighting. The merge of the Full and Half was terrible. The lanes were not properly separated. Hopefully that gets fixed. Too many people on the course at the same time. The start corrals were not manned and the releases were tight between them. Too many slower paced walker/runners in the front of the crowd. I'm not fast by any means and even I couldn't get my stride and tripped over people. Lasted for about 8 to 9 miles. No electrolytes on the course and water stations ran out. Conjestion at the finish was tough. Vegas is not a friendly place for walking and getting around. Only compounded with such large crowds. Need to plan for that. Finding a place to each so late after the race was practically impossible. I like the RnR series. This one in 2011 was really poorly executed to the point it caused major safety issues for many participants. Look for them to make future ones better. |
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