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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 201 to 211]
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S. K. from North Carolina
(12/5/2011)
"What were you thinking marathon officials?" (about: 2011)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 For those that ran the FULL Marathon, first part was just strange running through the warehouse areas, but all marathons have these areas. The second half of the marathon was just ridiculous. The Half Marathon merged with the Full Marathon, and with all the Half Marathon people on their 'CELL PHONES' and fixing their playlist on their 'IPODS' it was a massive traffic jam. Even when people were telling them to move to the right on a six lane highway, they couldn't hear or wouldn't move over. Full marathon had one lane out of the six lanes, but still nothing. This was poorly managed in this area. I thought that having headphones on would DQ you? It is sad when people stop and start walking the half marathon at mile 2 and people are running into them stopping their progress. Too many in considered people doing the half marathon and not listening to simple instructions. I'm not going to win any prizes doing these marathons, but that was just horrible. Running Las Vegas BLVD was awesome. A big THANK YOU to all the volunteers that were out there, these runs would not happen without you all. It was humbling to see all the people in the freezing cold handing out water while getting soaked. | |
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B. Y. from Ventura , CA
(12/5/2011)
"Will Not Run Another large Rock n' Roll event" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 4-5 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 After running 20+ Rock n' Roll events, this will be the last one. I ran the full Marathon and it seemed to go great 'till we merged into a wall of half marathoners at mile 13. They promised us a separate lane for us Full Marathoners and what we got was a lane full of walkers and sloggers. Small 2 foot orange cones every 50 feet or so to separate Half and Full marathoners - a complete ugly mess. This did not work at all, half marathoners were full engulfed blocking up all of the Marathon lane. In a few instances I saw some pushing and shoving which almost led to blows. After the mayhem was over I posted a disappointing and frustrating 3:37 time. 12 minutes off of my goal time mostly due do to this catastrophe. I later talked to half a dozen Marathoners and also Half Marathoners and they all shared pretty much the same frustrations. These guys went way over there heads trying to host an event of this magnitude. My advice to all listeners and of all physical abilities DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT enter this event. You will be sorry if you do. Signed, Dazed and Confused | |
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S. A. from Minnesota
(12/5/2011)
"Major disappointment" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 Overall, the race is tolerable. However, the experience of running on Las Vegas Blvd is far outweighed by the major annoyances and disappointments of the race. 1) The first half is extremely boring. They may as well have people just run around the desert for a couple hours, then allow them to return to the city. I did not enjoy the industrial district of Las Vegas. 2) The second half was the most crowded, annoying, and disappointing large race experience I've ever had, exceeding the cattle-corral nature of the walk through Central Park after the NYC marathon. There were thousands of walkers and slow half-marathoners running throughout the lanes, blocking the faster marathoners and other half-marathoners from getting through. My wife and I estimate this added 6-10 minutes to our race time in just 13 miles alone. If you are slow, move off to the side...way off to the side. 3) Electronic devices were allowed, but should be banned. I ran into numerous participants who were checking text messages or changing their music. If you are listening to music, move off to the side...way off to the side. 4) There was not enough water or Cytomax. By the time we hit mile 16+, it appeared the volunteers were unprepared or the half-marathoners had already gotten to the water stops, and there were at least 2 or 3 stops where I did not have any fluids available to me. This demonstrates very poor planning. 5) We had understood there was a cut off time of 4.5 hours for the full, 4 hours for the half. This was clearly not enforced, as looking at the race results demonstrates around 1400 marathoners did not finish in the time allotted. The race was overly crowded, and the number of total participants should be greatly reduced to improve the experience. Overall, this was a tolerable race. Other Rock 'n' Roll marathons this year have been enjoyable (New Orleans, Nashville). However, Las Vegas was a major disappointment. I would never run this race again, and I encourage any serious runners to avoid it. | |
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Trish O'K from Montreal, QC
(12/5/2011)
"Could have been realy good - poor execution" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 This could have been a great race, beautiful venue. Poorly organized in that 1/2 marathoners way outnumbered marathoners and many were walking at the point where the highest distribution of marathoners arrived on the strip. Water stations with lots of empty tables, again at the time with the most runners. Too bad, I expected a lot more. | |
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C. M. from Cincinnati ohio
(12/5/2011)
"Failure" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 This with out a doubt was the worst ran marathon ever. The only thing they (rock and roll series) were concerned with was setting a record. I truly feel sorry for the full marathon runners. For 5000 runner to merge with 39000 was ridiculous. Then they ran out of medals at the end for half marathoners the food at the end was lousy and then there was no place to sit at the end. But I did learn something from this marathon and that's I will never run another rock and roll event again They truly are a joke. | |
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T. M. from Fort Collins, Colorado
(12/5/2011)
"half marathon and full marathon mayhem" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 This is my third RnR event, my 8th marathon. I have run in large races (NYC marathon, LA marathon, Nike Women's Marathon, and Chicago marathon) before and have dealt with crowds, but this one had the worst organization that I have EVER seen. There were some good things too, so I will post both: The Good: 1. Great expo- RnR always brings out a lot of good vendors. 2. Nice medal- glows in the dark (RnR does a good job with medals too) 3. The race as at night! The second half of the marathon was on the strip which was fun to run (minus the crowded field size (see below)! 4. Great volunteers at the aid stations 5. First half of the course was very flat and fast- a lot of turns, but still relatively fast. The second half could be fast if there weren't so many people. The Bad & Ugly 1. The marathon had a 4:30 time cut-off and started at 4 pm, only to merge with the half marathoners who had a 4 hour time limit and started at 5:30. There were 5,000 marathoners and around 40,000 half marathoners. This meant that most of the marathoners had to merge with walking masses of half marathoners. We had a tiny designated space on the left with only a cone and a sign to separate us which a lot of the half marathoners ignored or the signs got knocked down. We had to dodge, swerve, and in some cases walk to get through the massive numbers. 2. The aid stations from miles 13 to the end were ransacked by the massive numbers of half marathoners who had run through before us. We had to wait to get water, forget about any Cytomax- that was gone. 3. There were bikers trying to separate the marathoners and half marathoners but they actually only caused more chaos. 4. Not enough Porta Johns at all. With a race this big, there should be tons of them out and available. Some people even ran into McDonalds where there was also a HUGE line. When it is a night race and cold, that is not good at all. 5. The end of the race meant no medals for some people (I was able to get mine, but I heard they ran out for others). Getting out of the race finish and into the hotel was crazy. There were no clear directions of where to go so I went into the back of the Mandalay hotel (race headquarters where I was staying) only to literally walk into a massive crown of runners AND people who were trying to go to the Michael Jackson show that just opened. It took an hour to go 400 feet with runners passing out on the ground everywhere and no medics available to get to them through the crowd. Very dangerous!! To sum it up. I talked with half marathoners who also said they had to dodge a lot. So I really think the course needs a smaller field size. The roads were not big enough to accommodate 45,000 runners!! I'm afraid that RnR is more concerned with quantity in numbers ($$$- they are not cheap races) and not quality of races because I heard they were going to raise the size to 65,000 next year, needless to say, I won't be running this again. | |
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R. P. from Erie, PA
(12/5/2011)
"The Race Needs Organization" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 Great idea - running on The Strip at night. But too many runners for the level of organization. It seemed the organizers gave up even trying to keep the tens of thousands of runners and the similar number of supporters informed. The coral system wasn't enforced - slow runners and even walkers started near the front and so had to be avoided. Those there to cheer on a runner where not given any direction to the finish line. | |
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Tom Baschnagel from Las Vegas, Nevada
(10/6/2011)
"Vegas Needs a better full course" (about: 2010)
2 previous marathons
| 2 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I rated the course 3 stars. The 2nd 1/2 is a 1 star. They need to figure something better than running in circles thru the warehouse district. The first 1/2 is a 5 star. Nothing in the world can beat running the entire strip. At least in 2011 they have reversed the course so you finish running the strip instead of start. Spectators are awesome. Rock n Roll series races are so much fun. Competitor Group puts on a great race, and a GREAT Expo. Vegas has really started to embrace this race, and since it is going to be run at night this year, I am optimistic it will be even better, but skeptical at the same time. | |
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R. P. from Calmar, Canada
(8/30/2011)
"Lots of fun in sin city" (about: 2010)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I loved this race. Vegas was my first marathon and I could not have picked a better race. I was able to come in at 3:53 and change on two months training.(Have not been able to do better in the 4 marathons since) Sure once you left the strip the energy levels dropped and there was less crowd support, but there was still a decent number of spectators, cheerleaders, and bands in the second half. Entry fees are a bit high, but it's Vegas so the fees were the cheapest part of my week. Would recommend it to anyone. I will be back in December to run the strip at night and hopefully get back below 4 hrs. | |
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J. L. from PA
(5/2/2011)
"Major Letdown!" (about: 2010)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I did the full marathon in 2010 with a friend. It was her 5th, my 4th. We were really, really excited, with it being Vegas and our first Rock 'n Roll experience. We'd seen tons of ads for the race in Runner's World and it looked awesome. It was not awesome. The expo was OK. We got to meet Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, which was cool, but otherwise, for such a hyped-up marathon series, the expo was only so-so. We enjoyed the expos much more at the Flying Pig in OH and at the Vermont City Marathon. The race itself...kill me. The first half went by fast because it was on the strip and in Old Vegas. The scenery was great for this half, but the spectators were still only so-so. There was not a lot of cheering, because it's more that you're running past regular people visiting Vegas. I personally have enjoyed the smaller-town marathons where it's the biggest event of the year and the entire town turns out to cheer and make signs and have front-yard parties. This did not happen in Vegas. The second half of the course was absolute, utter torture. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. I cannot say it enough. I ran this course in a 4:27, which was my worst time ever (I also had a cold, but that is beside the point). The second half felt like it took me 6 hours to run. It was so terribly boring. Not scenic at all. Barely any spectators. It was a concrete wasteland. The neighborhoods weren't great because barely anyone came out to cheer. We ran over the freeway and ON the freeway. I swear...I thought it would never end. I will never run this race again and honestly, I don't recommend it. For a town known for its glitz and glamour and spirit, this marathon was the pits. If you want to run it, run the half. The full is torturous. Nothing in the second half to lift your spirits, distract you, or spur you on to the finish. I will say that the bag check was well organized, there were ample porta-potties, Bret Michaels was awesome and genuinely seemed to be having tons of fun with the runners, and it was easy to get to and leave. Other than that, save yourself the mental torture and skip the full marathon here. |
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