My Running Journey

Bonked Las Vegas Race Report.

Sunday I ran the Las Vegas Marathon with every expectation I would finish between 3:15 and 3:20 and the training had gone well for me. I had been fighting a sore hammie and knee since my half marathon a month ago and unfortunately it would be my undoing.

Overall I was not pleased with the organization of the race. To get in the proper pen you had to climb a fence, no one could figure out or tell us how to make our way to the right staging area. This resulted in two good cuts on my leg. The mile splits were off mile markers ranged for me everything from 5 min miles to 12 min miles in the beginning. So split times were no good. Race started late and it was cool and windy so not good on that either.

Race went off eventually and I settled into the 7 min mile (as best I could tell) and at mile 3 my left hamstring tightened up. At that point I knew I was in for the long day and manage to still hit the half way mark around 1:40:00. The wind was strong and the extra effort to maintain the pace was really straining my left hamstring and eventually at mile 19 it tightened up. Stretching and working it out helped out some until Mile 23 when it still tightened up to the point I had a medical tent slap some wraps on it. They wanted me to stop (knee was swollen at that point but I still was determined to make to the end). At that point it was just a bloody ugly 5K and my final time resulted in 3:35:04 gun and 3:33:36 chip time. Finished 68 out of 504 (M45-49) in age group and 508th out of 5,903 finishers.

Interesting note was they had over 7,000 finishers on the half marathon this year.
Still the trip to Vegas was fun, I enjoyed the food, shows and the fun time despite the ugly race I had. So it looks like no Boston for me this year and I can now heal up and focus on the shorter races.

Enjoy the day everyone.

Kurt