Overall the race experience was awesome, there is such energy with a race like this! Everyone who is there wants to be there and the running community is amazing! The t-shirt and medal were perfect for a high end 5k! The course was an out and back, and they shut down half the road for us. We ran behind casinos, so it was a bit boring, and it was pretty dark. They did have 2 or 3 trucks set up blaring music, fog and lights and that helped lighten things up. They also didn't have the water station set up until mile 2 and I think most of us thought that it's only 1/2 a mile further than most other races, but that 1/2 mile made a big difference! This is also a flat course, so I highly recommend extra stretches after the race unless you did a lot of training on flat roads.

This was the first event in Vegas after a mass tragedy, so I don't know if it will be the new "normal", but the monorail was overloaded, we had to wait 3 trains before we got on to a very crowded and way too "friendly" monorail ride. Once we got to the event, the additional security was nice; however, there wasn't enough, they were funneling a lot of runners and spectators through just a few stations.

Once inside, there was lots of room and we made our way to our corral; however, my parents and other spectators were left with nothing. The Goo Goo Dolls were performing later, and so I recognize that they didn't want chairs or bleachers in the concert area - but even all the way across the field there wasn't any where for the spectators to wait while we finished. My parents are in their 60's and were so excited to support me in Vegas, and I felt awful when I was told that as they were trying to get down to sit on the grass, someone laughed at them. I feel very fortunate that my parents still love to support me, in all that I do, and couldn't wait to be a part of this with me - only for them to struggle while I was running.

This was fun and a great experience and I would recommend it to others, along with the warnings of time management and be careful about bringing family or friends to support you.