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Las Vegas International Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Las Vegas International Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 3.7 
Organization 3.6 
Spectators 2.1
Number of comments: 154 [displaying comments 71 to 81]
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R. W. from New York City
(2/11/2003)
"Gone With the Wind" (about: 2003)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 At around mile 9,I saw a large bird of prey flapping its wings yet unable to move as the violent unrelenting winds held it in place midair, like something in a cartoon. Perhaps it was a vulture, awaiting a hapless runner about to keel over, like one of the portapotties! It was torture TRYING to run, and any hopes of a PR were surrendered to Mother Nature & her awesome power. I was expecting locusts & hail at the halfway mat. And a clock!We didn't even see a record of split times. The expo was puny & airless. The great wild gusts on race day more than made up for the lack of ventilation! The Las Vegas Expos of the 2 previous years were big shopping parties. The water stations were a bit sparsely placed & each cup of water & Mr Clean-flavored sportsdrink had a residue of desert sand at the bottom. I do appreciate the folks who manned those stations, along with the law enforcement personnel managing traffic. The finish area was understaffed. Maybe it was nearly abandoned by volunteers when I arrived there. The few snack items offered were quite poor & I didn't see medical tents. Had they blown away into the desert like many of the mile markers? The buses were efficient & the availability of real bathrooms at the Gold Strike Hotel at the start were high points. I recommend a post-marathon buffet dinner at the Luxor's Pharoah's Pheast. It's an all-you-can-eat wide variety of items, & not at all busy on a Sunday evening. | |
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S. S. from Ellicott City, MD
(2/10/2003)
"Disappointed" (about: 2003)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 They couldn't have picked a more unhealthy place to run a marathon, unless they host it in a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. The first half of the race was spectator free -- though I15 paralleled the course, the cops made the brave few leave. This should be a fast course, but the wind was abominal -- the winner for the last 2 years did it in 2:18; this year's winner did it in 2:33 -- making it my worst ever. Plenty of water and medical; Nice medal; Volunteers great. | |
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A Runner from Washington, DC
(2/10/2003)
"Tips for future LVMarathoner's" (about: 2003)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 Besides the wind.... about which there was not much you could do but grin and bear it.... 1) The LVMarathon site showed some 'deals' at the hosting hotels. I was able to book at the MGM two weeks prior and beat the $159/night price by $40/night for a Sat/Sun stay. Check around. BTW, MGM was not amenable to late checkout either (11 AM). 2) This is a chip race, but they did not allow use of personal chips. More of a nuisance. Otherwise, the organization, course, course support were all first rate. | |
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Terry Dobson from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
(2/7/2003)
"Enjoyed my first marathon!" (about: 2003)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 1 I completed my first marathon and loved every step of it. I had hoped for a 3:30, ended up at 3:37, and discovered afterwards that given the conditions it wasn't so bad. The wind was certainly strong but I didn't think about it much. We all like challenges or we wouldn't try to run these things, the wind just made it a little more challenging. I'm hoping my next one is under better conditions and therefore may find it a little easier. Thanks to Dan the bodybuilder from Ohio who encouraged me to drink at the early water stations, and thanks to the 20-30 anonymous guys and gals I ran in a herd with from about mile 14 to 21. Who were some of you? Any photos of that pack? Also thanks to the voluteers, it must have be terrible to stand in that wind while being soaked with water and Ultima. I can't really rate the marathon with nothing to compare it too. I really enjoyed the humour and encouragement of my fellow runners along the way. | |
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S. M. from Sumner, Washington
(2/6/2003)
"This was my first marathon..." (about: 2003)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 ...and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Yes, the winds made the course grueling. We all felt like we struggled uphill for 22 miles. We got sand in our eyes, debris flung at us, and our breath taken away. Personally, when I had a chance to look up and view the scenery, I thought it quite beautiful. Some people say how desolate it is, but it's important to remember you are in the middle of the desert. Still, with the mountains in the background I thought it had a quiet, austere beauty to it. Most of all, I thank all the many volunteers that had to bundle up against the winds and risked getting wet by handing out ultima or water. I thanked several along the way, but I don't think they fully realize how much they were appreciated. I also very much apprecaited the many police officers that held traffic in order to allow me to pass unimpeded even though I was a back-of-the-packer. I tried to thank them also. Lastly, there were the few spectators that came out to watch that made everything worth it especially considering the awful weather conditions that day. I am so very grateful to those that shouted and clapped encouragement along the way. This marathon will forever remain an exceedingly memorable experience. I will most definitely do this race again (probably in 2005). | |
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E. L. from Richmond, British Columbia, CANADA
(2/6/2003)
"Wind? What wind?" (about: 2003)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 1 ...Just kidding! It was very windy. My worst time ever for a marathon. I had hoped for a PR but was sadly dissapointed. Organisation was great from start to finish. I will be back to claim my PR next year! | |
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Kathleen Poe from Sacramento, CA
(2/6/2003)
"Braving the winds in Vegas" (about: 2003)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 I went to Vegas looking for a PR. I wanted to do this one because of the overall elevation drop, and the rumoured fast times waiting for the prepared runner. Who could have guessed that there would be 40-50 mph winds that prevented anything close to PRs and had most runners just hoping to finish? The desert is beautiful, and it's kind of fun to start in the middle of nowhere and feel like you're running back to civilization. The winds weren't as bad for the first 8 miles or so, but they were there from the beginning. Once they started hitting us with full force they never let up. I chuckled as I passed portapotties that had been blown over - that is, I chuckled until I needed one! The course was good, but monotonously straight. The race organizers did a good job, but some of the aid stations seemed pretty far apart, especially in the later miles. But the volunteers were very good in light of the weather they had to endure. The crowds, when we finally saw them, were lousy. They didn't cheer, they just stood there. I've never seen spectators that didn't cheer for anyone! In fact, when I was coming to the finish line, full of pep from the nice little tailwind, I wanted to hear some noise. But the crowd was silent! I actually yelled to them - 'Come on, I want to hear some cheers!' - and I got a few half-hearted attempts. Maybe they were mad at the weather too. I think I'd try this one again, though. In any other year, the conditions have to be better than this. Despite the weather, this was my second best marathon time ever. Imagine what I could have done without that darn wind!! I'll be back... | |
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K. K. from Oklahoma
(2/5/2003)
"Yeah, but it's a DRY wind....." (about: 2003)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 The winds for the 2003 race were absolutely unbelievable. It started as a stiff cross-wind during the 9-mile uphill segment, then, just as you passed the 'keyhole' at about the 15k mark to start the downhill section, WOW. It seemed to shift into a headwind, AND pick up speed (the weather folks said 35-40mph, w/ gusts approaching 50...I believe them). It ruined times, and it completely demoralized you to the point of wanting to just quit and get out of the wind. But, like some others mentioned here, the race folks couldn't do anything about it. It was just one of those freaks of nature that could happen at any race. Although lots of spectators or perhaps a trip down the strip past the big hotels would be nice, the race folks don?t promise anything of the sort. It?s pretty obvious that the town doesn?t make much of a fuss over the marathon. In fact, it was hard to know--even at the host hotels--that there WAS a marathon taking place that weekend. So, given that, what you ARE promised is a long run through the desert, and (usually) a fast course. You?re a complete moron if you come to this race and don?t expect long periods of isolation. The volunteers were really great. I don?t think I could have stood out as long as they did in those conditions for absolutely no glory. But they did. Thanks! Overall, the race IS well-organized. The only really big suggestion would be for there to be clocks or volunteers calling the mile splits at each mile. Oh well. My one piece of advice for future runners of this race would be to stay at the Gold Strike in Jean, where the start line is. There just isn?t enough that can be said for doing your entire pre-game ritual in the comfort of your own hotel room (and bathroom), until about 15 minutes before the race starts. Plus, the rooms are about 1/3 or less of the cost of those in town, and they are really big rooms, too (bigger than those at the MGM, for example). (By the way--It WAS a dry wind: dry, dirty, gritty, coarse, epidermal-erasing, eyesight-impairing, tooth-enamel-eliminating, monster of a wind. Put another way, fans of Michael Crichton's 'Prey' needn't worry about finding any nano-swarms in THIS Nevada desert!) | |
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M. L. from Seattle, WA
(2/5/2003)
"Decent Course; Tough conditions in 2003" (about: 2003)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 As everyone else has noted, the wind was tremendous and added anywhere from 20 secs to 1 minute per mile. It was 3/4 to head-on for 22 miles. There were times when I was literally stopped! And, dust and sand repeatedly pelted me, so much so that my eyes filled with sand/grit. At the end, my eyes hurt more than my legs and I eventually discovered the grit had caused some minor abrasions of the eye. The course has a lot of potential for a fast time, but 2003 was not to be. For instance, the winning time was a good 15 minutes slower than the prior year's. The Gold Strike Hotel as noted elsewhere is much less cooperative with runners, for instance with late check-out times---they just didn't seem to value our business much. Organization was fine, but not yet up to the standards of CIM in Sacramento. Thanks definitely to the hardy volunteers who hung on in the horrible wind for hours and hours. Their effort was comparable to that of the runners. The scenery was okay; when the sun lit up the mountains near the beginning, it was quite impressive. Overall, I think I would return if it worked for my schedule. | |
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M. V. from New York
(2/5/2003)
"not what I thought" (about: 2003)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 1 Well by now everyone knows about the 49 mph headwinds in 2003...so I won't go on about them. The course is supposed be fast and downhill but I don't think it is as intense as the map makes it out to be. I think it is more flat than anything else. The winds made it impossible to really get a feel for the course. If you are looking for an exciting race, I wouldn't recommend Vegas. The strip is awesome but the race is so-so. The town really doesn't care about the runners, and the host hotels could care less as well. I think vets wanting to PR should go for it, but first timers might have a better experience running a bigger, more organized race (i.e., NY, Chicago) |
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