Rock n Roll Las Vegas is usually a good time. Although last year, I was incredibly sick but ran it anyway. (That was the race with many regrets.) I was still feeling the 10K kick so I downgraded at the expo.
RNRLV is a special race since there are so many people in town. It’s the largest Rock n Roll Marathon Series race, from what I can tell. The 10K started a few hours before the half and full marathon, which meant that even at my speediest I would still finish many hours before Erik was set to cross the finish line.
I headed over to my start line while the sun was still high in the sky. I’m so used to starting closer to sunset, so this was a nice change. I could also pace my meals a little better. The 10K boasted about 5,000 runners, which strangely enough is the total number of runners for Rock n Roll Denver.
The 10K starts at the Las Vegas fairgrounds and heads north to Fremont Street and downtown Las Vegas, and then winds back to the same finisher chute as the other distances. It was so surreal to run in the sun in Las Vegas! I cannot stress that enough, since I’ve ran this course many times at night. The course was unfortunately pretty narrow. Sometimes we had three lanes, sometimes we had two. I jumped up to the sidewalk as much as I could to give myself an even running surface. My hip had started bothering me around this time, but I was pretty sure it was my shoes. It didn’t feel too bad after resting, so I didn’t think anything of it.
Unfortunately, I was still using the half marathon bib even though I technically downgraded to the 10K. I tried as hard as I could to trade my medal for the 10K, but no one at the solutions tent was willing to switch it for me. I even listed it on Facebook just in case. No dice! I ultimately sent off my half marathon medal to a friend who couldn’t make it that weekend.
Amara in Training 