Registration was available online until a week before the race. Some registration was also available at the expo. Prices increases were advertised via email and social media so runners could take advantage of the best prices. The Half marathon could also be part of a Remix Challenge- run the 5K on Saturday and any of the other distances- 10K, 13.1, 26.2, on Sunday and earn an extra medal.

Swag included a race specific tech tee, Competitor magazine, fruit snacks and a sample of something similar to BodyGlide. It also included an awesome medal post race. Note- size up on the tech tee, they tend to run small.

The expo was held in the Las Vegas Convention Center and was pretty big. It opened with an awesome selfie station followed by the amazing organization I love from Rock n Roll. Bibs, shirts, Brooks, expo! There were a variety of vendors at the expo- most expected- R8, Garmin, ProCompression and few surprising ones- nail polish. The Rock n Roll Las Vegas merchandise was great and was unable to leave empty handed.

Pre-race communication was on point. From the time I registered to the time of the race I received 40+ emails. Seems like a lot but it wasn’t. Each one communicated something important or shared information runners needed to know. Particularly as it got closer to race day and recent events necessitated a course change as well a change in starting location and concert venue.

The course was an out and back primarily on Las Vegas Boulevard. This is the only race that completely shuts down the Strip for hours at night under the lights. This year’s race started in front of the New York, New York and headed south for 2 miles before turning around. These miles were mostly quiet in deference to recent tragedy. While I appreciated this, it also seemed like these miles were super dark, and I should have brought a light. However, it was light enough to see people starting to cut the course at the first water station. I have never actually seen course cutters until this race and unfortunately, I saw more after these 3. Once at the turn around, runners headed back into Vegas and lights of the Strip made the rest of the race awesome. Live bands were playing at points as well as DJ’s. Runners ran down to the original Fremont area before looping around and heading back towards the finish near the Bellagio. Elevation wise- I'd call this race pancake flat but my watch showed about 140 in gain.

Course aid was every 1 to 1.5 miles. Water was at all stations but Gatorade was hit or miss. I would have appreciated Gatorade at all the stations. Bathrooms were plentiful but the first section was kind of a mess. The port a potties were set up on a center divider and 2 were back to back so the doors were facing the middle instead of a side of the street. This meant the bathrooms were open to both sides of the course which caused serious line confusion and some cranky people. Having the bathrooms face the street would have been better.

Medical stations were on point. I was running this race with a friend and she unfortunately became injured early in the race. We had to stop at a med tent around mile 10. They were able to help her out quickly but while we were there I observed them helping out other runners. I liked that they were taking down the bib numbers of the runners they were giving aspirin to.

Post race snacks included with a bottle of Gatorade, a banana, pretzels, Pringles, an Oatmega bar, Chocolate milk and a Beer if you still had the beer wristband on from the expo the day before. And this leads to my biggest gripe- they don’t give you anything to carry all the goodies in post race so people are left juggling a handful of snacks, medal and drinks in sweaty, tired hands. I remembered this from another Rock n Roll race so I had shoved 2 dog bags into my belt so my friend and I both had a bag. This actually worked great but a bag would have much appreciated.

Overall, this is an awesome race and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who asks. My friend and I didn’t have the race we hoped for but we still had a great time out there.