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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 171 to 181]
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S. L. from canada
(12/7/2011)
"Terrible post race organization" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 Terrible organization of moving people. Running strip is awesome but crowded. Would not do this run again. | |
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S. C. from Portland Oregon USA
(12/7/2011)
"Marathon was a MESS" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathons
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 They moved the run to the evening (4pm start) and changed the course for the marathon. Now you run the first half (the very boring part) thru the warehouses first and then join the strip ... which was FULL of 1/2 marathoners (5:30 start) and really killed my time. Water stops were a disaster and the finish was okay, but they couldn't figure out how to get the mylar wraps out fast enough so we were lined up waiting and heading to hypothermia ... 40 degrees with a wind and 8:30 at night. Bad combination. 6,000 FULL 38,000 1/2 marathoners. This was my 14 marathon this year and the worse organization. Overall, very disappointing organization from a group that should have known better. i hope the fix this for next year. | |
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B. B. from Florida
(12/7/2011)
"Complete and total chaotic mess" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 2 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 I ran the half this year after running the full in 2009 and 2010. I have run many rock and roll races. Having said that, this was the most disorganized mess of a race I have ever run. Mistakes made: 1) No crowd control in the start corrals. I couldn't even get into the corral I was assigned. Not that this was even being controlled. After the start it was miles of fighting crowds of slower runners. 2) water stops were often staffed by what appeared to be temps. They probably did not have enough volunteers. Did the stop have water or Cytomax? Guess... because no one would tell you. 3) Finish line area was so congested that I literally could not walk a step past the finish line. The experience after the finish was people screaming at us to keep moving and to not stop for water or blankets. 4) in the most boneheaded move of the decade, someone decided that it would be a good idea to have the marathon runners start 1 1/2 hours before the half and merge them with the half marathon after the marathon runners ran 13.1 miles through neighborhoods. This guaranteed that all marathon runners would contend with slower half marathon runners. I felt sorry for those guys. 5) After the finish, it was a long walk to gear check. Then how do you get back to your hotel? Who knows? Competitor was AWOL. A booth with a sign that says information would help. Our experience was 1 hour of fighting crowds before we found a Mandalay employee who told us where a taxi stand was. There we waited over an hour in freezing cold. The race was allowed to be made bigger than the organization could handle. In the paper, there was speculation that the race would be made much bigger. Stay away from this race. If it gets bigger, it's simply not safe. Competitor has acknowledged the complaints and has said they will announce changes to the race to address them. If the changes don't involve a new race director, look elsewhere. Rock and Roll guys, you are much better than this. | |
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J. D. from Orlando, FL
(12/6/2011)
"Terrble Race at now that it is at night" (about: 2011)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 I ran the 1/2 marathon last year and this year there were just too many people for the hotel and the Las Vegas Strip to handle. It never thinned out and there wasn't even any electrolytes on the course! Afterwards the Mandalay Bay did a terrible job taking care of the runners. | |
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K. C. from United States
(12/6/2011)
"Poorly planned, terribly executed" (about: 2011)
4-5 previous marathons
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 The first 13.1 of the course was fine. Took runners through industrial area and views were better than I expected. However once the 4000 marathoners merged at 13.1 with the 40000 half-marathoners it was a tale of two races. The small lane reserved for marathoners was simply overwhelmed by the half marathoners since the volume of people was so large. Aid stations were placed to the left of the marathon 'lane' which encouraged everyone to cross over and basically stop. The post race was very congested. I have never seen so many green bananas in my life and wondered if they were picked earlier in the day. | |
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D. S. from Las Vegas, NV
(12/6/2011)
"You will be SOOO disappointed if you run it" (about: 2011)
First Marathon
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 First, I only gave the spectators one star to keep the total stars to one. They were great. I'm so bummed I trained four months for this race. I've run half a dozen Half's and since I live in Vegas and the timing worked I thought I would run my first full here. There was a huge traffic jam to get into the expo the previous day. Once you entered it was so crowded you couldn't really buy anything if you wanted to. The day of the race traffic was a nightmare for anyone arriving for the half. We ran the full and got there 2 hours before it started but with 3 hours to go before the half the parking was already a disaster for those coming in behind us. Many runners were running to the start. The course is flat and could be good but Rock and Roll executed a disaster once again. While their Seattle Half was well organized the Vegas half is an example of everything you can do wrong. The first half is through Industrial which wasn't bad but then you join the beginning of the half course and run that. With 44K participants it was unrunable. The half started 1 1/2 hours after the full so if you run any slower than a 3 hour marathon you're completely stopped by the walkers and very slow runners who fill the road from start to finish. Your next 13 miles are spent zig zagging and stopping, trying to make up time in the 10 foot gap that opened, running on sidewalks to pass. Virtually every water station looked like a black friday door buster sale with the station swarmed or out of water. Complete disaster. Did I mention they want to expand the run to 60 or 70k runners next year? Hmm what else??? Green Bananas; Forcing all 44k people out one hallway which resulted in 45 minutes virtually stopped till you could get to the first door to bail out; Traffic thousands deep to exit the secure area. No one supervising and getting spectators away from the exit route; No signage what so ever; no one manning the blankets at the finish. The competitor group has no desire to provide you with an enjoyable race experience or any value for your money. Run ANYWHERE else. | |
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C. B. from Harrisonville, Missouri
(12/6/2011)
"Poor organization for full marathon." (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 The race was poorly organized for full marathon participants in that the half marathon particpants began at the half way point of the full marathon route. Between miles 14 and 26, I was dodging and weaving around the slower runners and walkers who ran the half. If you are looking to run a personal best, do not choose this marathon. | |
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M. N. from Lexington, KY
(12/6/2011)
"Logistic Nightmare" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 Considering the number of events held in the Rock'n'Roll series, I was extremely disappointed in the complete lack of organization of this event. Obviously, an event with 44K people is complex, but Rock'n'Roll accepted those entries and had an obligation to plan appropriately. However, (1) the website had missing links to information, (2) there was no map of the start/finish area, (3) there were no signs directing participants to the gear check in, which was located at least 1/4 mile from the start, (4) there were few if any volunteers available to ask where the gear check area was, and those asked referred to the Mandalay Bay itself, not the convention center, (5) no verification was apparently required for corral assignments, or times were too widely accepted in corrals, or there was insufficient monitoring of entry into corrals (or more likely, all of the above) because I predicted a 2 hour half finish, finished in exactly that time, but I was in one of the apparently multiple 2 hour corrals, and was passing people, being stopped by walkers, and otherwise had to 'bob and weave' the entire 13.1 miles, this did not happen to me in even New York or Chicago marathons, which are just as large and far better organized events, (6) the marked off area of the course for the marathoners was completely inadequate: the half marathoners could not see the cones, they were knocked over, and there were not enough of them, if I was one of the marathoners, I would want my money back, their experience seemed miserable to me (and was confirmed by one of our group who ran it), and (7) the finish area was a complete mess with runners hardly being able to cross the finish line as a result of back-ups caused by medal pick up, the very ill-placed photograph area, and water hand out. Frankly, this was my second Rock'n'Roll, I said I would not do one after the first (San Antonio full marathon), tried this one again, but do not understand why anyone runs in these races because they are so poorly organized. My only hope in making this post is that some other runners can benefit from it in the future. | |
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J. R. from Indiana
(12/6/2011)
"Worst marathon I have ever been associated with" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathons
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 I have run in 35 marathons and over a hundred half marathons all over the world. I have run in dirt poor countries and thru farm fields in rural Indiana than reeked of pig manure. This marathon was by far and away the worst mess I have ever been involved in. Competitor / Rock 'n' Roll should be ashamed of themselves. I am embarrassed for them. If you don't believe me go on the facebook and search 'Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas marathon' and read the thousands and thousands of post about what went wrong. I will try to recap just some of the lowlights 1) The full marathon had to merge in with the back of the half marathon people. These were 90% walkers. There were cones supposedly seperating the full from the half but they could not be seen and all the slow half marathoners were walking 5 or 6 across wearing headphones and blocking the entire street. I was doing a 4 hour pace and spent the entire back half of the marathon actually having to physically stop to get around people or weave all over the street to get by them. My Garmin said I ran 27 miles. 2) They abandoned the water stop. ATTN ROCK and Roll MARATHON PEOPLE. if you are going to have an out and back marathons have people at the water stops for the way back also. There were cups and water pitchers on the tables but you had to stop and pour your own. Also just finding out the water was from the fire hydrants and many people got sick from it. Those were the top two lowlights. Just a few other things that were totally mismanged. 3) the expo - long lines and too crowded. Womens shirts were children sizes. 4) the crowds - no crowd control anywhere, the start, the finish, on the course. 5) the corrals, no corral control. Walkers were moving up to the first corrals. Elite marathoners and half marathoners were having to dodge walkers. 6) The medals. They ran out of half medals then started giving the 1/2 marathon people full medals. Then they ran out of them so people got nothing with no explanation on or when they would get one. 7) food at the finsh line - green bananas and power bars I could go on and on. If you don't believe me go to facebook and read the thousands of post, but hurry, rock and roll is deleting as many of the negative post as spam. All this for $150. Rock and Roll got $7 million dollars in entry fees and the runners get screwed. They are saying they are going to drop the full marathon next year and up the half marathon to 60,000 people. Oh good. More money for them. The should drop it to 5,000 people until they learn how to run a marathon | |
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D. T. from Madison, WI
(12/6/2011)
"For Novelty Only!" (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 A unique and shiny experience, running right down the strip at night. But that's it; the RNR group really fell down on most other elements of a well-operated race. Fans were sparse, and although runners sported creative costumes and many were in good spirits, the night was mostly quiet. Only a few mediocre bands lined the course, some of which was quite dark. Water stations were adequately stocked with supplies, but understaffed with volunteers so runners came up to empty tables followed by mobs around those with cups on them; hard to see. Same situation in the finish area, with adequate supplies but inadequate volunteer support. For example, runners were pulling their own space blankets from an unattended pile of rolls; it was 40 degrees. The crowds were unmanageable: this is no place to shoot for a PR, because the field is so thick; at one point 7:10-paced marathoners joined the field of 11:00-paced half'ers, and were simply unable to move through. Bumping and weaving throughout. Pre- and post-race crowds (of runners) packing the casinos created a body-to-body mob from which no one could escape or move or get medical attention. (Kudos to New York City, which in comparison seemed easy and safe.) I considered this element of the race operation downright unsafe and irresponsible. Consider this race for novelty only, if running down the strip is worth a bunch of money and headaches to you, and only if you are ready to deal with excessive crowds. (Or, I suppose, if you're way out front.) |
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