The Vegas R&R half marathon starts at 5:30pm, so you essentially get to run on the strip from Mandalay Bay all the way to the old downtown area in the night time in almost freezing temperatures. In comparison to the Seattle R&R:
Pros:
-The bands were excellent!
-45K runners (vs Seattle's 26K) meant a lot more cheering, happily drunk, people holding signs and shouting encouragements on the street - since I wasn't competing I got to stop and take pictures of all the debauchery, which was super fun!
-The scenery was beautiful
Cons:
-Same with Seattle, the bus service to the start line was poorly coordinated and people were left without transportation to the start. We were lucky and ended up on one of the last shuttles, but had to start in the very last corral behind an impenetrable mob and right in front of the sweeper vehicle.
-45K = lots of bodies to dodge
-Froze my butt off before and after.... we had to find our way back to the hotel ~2+ miles away, on foot, in the freezing temperatures
-Marathon start time of 4pm means if you can't finish the first half in 1:30:00 (yeah, right), you will get mixed in with the half marathon starters/runners, and that sucks!! There's no separation of the course, unless you count the silly orange cones they tried to put out.
I'm glad I did this, and even more glad I didn't catch a cold! I'm very proud of my friend who got healthy this year and was able to complete his first half marathon, and am happy that I was able to be here for him.
Didn't really get to do much in Vegas this time around, but I was just here in May and it's way too cold out to really do anything fun here. So, I'll spend the day working remotely and will be happy to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night.
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