Disclosure: I am a member of the Rock 'n' Blog team for 2017. In exchange for helping to promote the races, team members received free entries to the races. All opinions are my own, and race reviews are not required by Rock 'n' Blog.

This is my third year doing the 5k and half marathon "Remix Challenge." (Do both races, get a piece of bonus bling in the shape of a guitar with a spinning guitar pick!) Due to the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas, several aspects of the race weekend were altered at the last minute (well, within the weeks leading up to the race). Overall, I think the changes were positive, and improved the race weekend experience. In addition, I'm impressed at how quickly the big pieces were rearranged to accommodate the races and local security concerns.

Registration: The Las Vegas races are the most expensive in the Rock 'n' Roll series. I don’t remember what the pre-sale price was for 2017, but during the 2018 pre-sale, you can register for the marathon or the half marathon for $99. (The pre-sale race runs from just before the race weekend to I think a week afterwards.) If you miss pre-sale but want the best price, sign up at the Rock ‘n’ Roll site to be on the email list, and they will send you an email when registration opens. Otherwise, the price goes up rapidly. I do not know whether this race was available on Groupon, but sometimes Rock 'n' Roll races do show up on Groupon a few weeks beforehand. You could also register at the expo. Per Rock 'n' Roll series policy, you must pick up your own bib. (Long-time runners may recall that you used to be able to pick up friends' bibs with their ID, but those days are long over--and in the wake of the violence in Las Vegas, I doubt that would have been allowed anyway.) If you absolutely could not make the expo--which was the case for the people who ran at Disneyland in the morning and then flew in with just enough time to hit the race--race-day pickup was available for an additional fee. (Said fee is justified when the race is this huge. You really need people to pick up their bibs before race day.)

Expo: speaking of the Expo, I was really excited for this year! Las Vegas had one of the better expos, and it was by far the best of the seven 2017 Rock 'n' Roll Races I have run so far. Like the other Rock 'n' Roll expos, first you get your bib, then you pick up your shirt and gear check bag, and then you enter the Brooks (clothing sponsor) area with the Rock 'n' Roll specific Brooks gear (and Moving Comfort, and some other products), then you enter the expo proper. The usual suspects were all there (all the race's sponsors and series sponsors, like Geico and Toyota), but also a few new ones like Science in Sport (SiS), the new official gel of the Rock 'n' Roll series. SiS had the option to sign up for their mailing list to get a free gel, so you could try it out before race day. (Nothing new on race day!!) The expo had a few vendors with night-themed things like lights and visibility gear. There were also some rarely seen vendors like Sparkle Skirts, and a bunch of end-of-year clearance gear booths. I tried some new stuff, and managed to avoid the eye cream/face cream sales people that show up at every Las Vegas expo. (Fortunately they were not as obnoxious as the ones that showed up to the IDEA World conference expo in July! Why on earth do these people assume that people into fitness want to buy their overpriced anti-wrinkle creams?)

Starting line and course access: As I mentioned, the mass shooting required some changes to the race weekend. The old starting line had been down by Mandalay Bay, across from the concert venue. The new starting line was by New York New York, with the runner staging area around the arena. The race did everything possible to tell runners to expect it to take a long time to get to the starting line. The marathon and half start at the same place, and the 10k starts separately, with all three races sharing a finish line. In the years when I have taken the monorail, I left at least an hour for travel on the monorail, in addition to time before the race to meet with friends. (The monorail is awesome, but it's not designed for a Vegas weekend crowd plus 40,000 runners.) Patience is the key in getting around Vegas during this race weekend! This year I stayed at Planet Hollywood, so I was able to walk to the starting area. As with any high-security race, THE ONLY BAG allowed for gear check was the clear plastic one we got at packet pickup. Gear check was done by UPS, and all gear had to be on the trucks by a certain time. One nice thing about being outside the arena is that the electric sign on the arena had information regarding when the corrals opened and closed. The new starting are staged runners in a T shape, with three different sets of colored bibs.

In the waiting area Geico, one of the race sponsors, was doing spray-on airbrush “tattoos,” and the line was huge (but they seemed to be shuffling people through pretty quickly). There was a big We Run Social meetup, and other groups were clearly meeting up for photos. Security in the area was pretty high, and allegedly people without race bibs were not allowed in the area. The police had K9 units out, as well as some mounted police, and helicopter surveillance. My basic life philosophy is that living in fear is letting terrorists win—I was going to go to Vegas even if the city cancelled the races, because I don’t let “bad guys” boss me around. I heard that some people did cancel and ask for a refund, but the vast majority of runners seemed to be there. Also, the Rock ‘n’ Roll series sold soft tech shirts with #VegasStrong on them, and there were a ton of them out on the course.

Course: This the one and only (well, two or three if you count the marathon, half marathon, and 10k as different…but they share the course) #StripAtNight race. Even though the maps and such in the app were not changed when the course was, they were changed online, the changes were emailed to registered runners, and the information at the expo accurately reflected the course. I really liked the new course. Since we started about a mile up the strip, changing only the starting line would have added about a mile to the course. To compensate, a mile of the old course was removed—and it was the boring, dark, blah mile between the strip and Fremont Street! Hooray!! As a result, almost the entire half marathon was on the strip. This year, I stayed with the Rock ‘n’ Blog “Party at the Back of the Pack,” and aimed for an 18 minute mile (to finish in official course limit time of 4:00…though I ran over that…I blame the daquiri).
Bands and DJs entertained at key points. There were plenty of people cheering (especially when I stopped for a strawberry daquiri and then ran to catch up to my friend), as well as some friendly unofficial aid stations offering questionable hydration choices. (Wine from strangers? Wine-not?) Aid stations on the course had water and Gatorade. The gel stop had SiS gels, which don’t require any water with them. Instead of being thick and frosting-like (think Gu, Cliff Shots) or thin and watery (like Glukos, the prior official gel of the series), SiS gel has the consistency of super soft jello. I found it very easy to slurp down and with zero tummy upset—but always try stuff before you eat it on course during a race!

Post-race: the usual Rock 'n' Roll finish line celebration! Lights, flashing lights, a gymnast on a trapeze suspended by balloons, everyone’s favorite announcer (Ann is THE BEST), and a chute lined with cheering people, runners who have finished, and music! Post-race snacks included water, Gatorade, chocolate milk (with enough left for even the longer-than-4-hour half marathoners), pretzels, Pocki sticks (not kidding—they had pallets of them!), bananas (too brown for my taste), and Pringles. I never thought I’d like Pringles again (they are kind of weird), but after a race they are delicious! The entire chute from finish line through the “beer garden” (really just an area where you got your free beer) was about 0.4 mile, so most people took it slowly.

Outside the chute were a series of tents. The gear store had many of the same pre-race items at the expo, but also had some things I didn’t see at the expo, such as race shirts with everyone’s name on them. The lines at the Remix Challenge and Heavy Medals pickup booths both moved quickly.
Swag: This race has had pretty cool medals for the past few years, including a slot machine themed medal that had spinners and glowed in the dark. This year the marathon, half, and 10k medals had a larger frame, an interior spinning circle designed to look like a roulette wheel (but only with the numbers 5, 10, 26, and 13), and a center single die that was also a spinner. On the half marathon medal, the die has only 1 and 3 (instead of the numbers 1 to 6). The outline of the strip runs along the bottom of the medal. I think I have a new favorite series medal! The technical shirts, which you pick up at the expo, are Brooks, and the women's sizes run small (just like they do in every other Brooks style). I wear a size 12, and need an XL in the women's specific designs. If you are a larger body or have a bigger chest, you're much better off choosing a "unisex" (read: men's) size; those fit more like a traditional tee shirt. Unlike in years past when every race city had a unique design, this year most of the shirts had a semi-generic design (such as a guitar graphic that looked like a neon sign) with maybe a small add-on (like the outline of the strip at the bottom). I think it’s kind of disappointing, especially to people who ran multiple races and ended up with essentially the same shirt, but at least they aren’t all grey like they were in 2013! I did dock the swag a star because Las Vegas deserved much better shirts.

This is one of my favorite races just for the buzz and excitement that bringing this many runners together can cause. Every group has a meet-up. There are a ton of first time marathoners and half marathoners. I see people I only see once a year. I really hope they keep the course changes, as they made the course SO MUCH better than it has been in the past. If you don’t catch the pre-sale and want to do 3 Rock ‘n’ Roll races, the cheapest option will be the 2018 TourPass 3-pack.