Leaving Las Vegas

What is the 1^st thing you think of when you hear “Las Vegas”?  Running a half marathon, right?  Every year in early April, I have to travel to Vegas for work.   I know I won’t get much sympathy from many people, but I am not much of a Vegas person.   Many people don’t realize is much natural beauty surrounds Las Vegas.  Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion are all within driving distance.  Closer in, Valley of Fire and Red Rocks are also amazing and put the Vegas strip to shame.  

I also make it a point to look for local races when I travel, so when a few years back I discovered a half marathon near Red Rocks, I was all in.  Some years the race doesn’t coincides with my work trip, but this year, this year it lined up.  The timing was perfect to use this race as a tune up for the Blue Ridge Marathon two weeks later

The race is held in Summerlin, a suburb of just west of Vegas, at the base of Red Rocks.  The community has a big health fair that weekend that includes a 20, 40, or 80 mile bike rides along with a half marathon.  While the hills are not as bad as BRM, the combo of the dry dessert air, higher base elevation (the race starts at 3,000 ft.), and yes, some hills, make it a challenging race.  

The weather at the start was a bit warm for my tastes (64 degrees), but that was my only complaint.  The course winds through neighborhoods and parks.  The parks sections are my favorite, as you run through desert trails that are very scenic.  There were also plenty of aid stations to keep me hydrated.

Right at the start of the race, many people surged out front.  I resisted the urge to do the same and locked into a pace based on my heart rate.   I watched as 20 + plus people passed me in the first ½ mile.  As the course climbed from 2,900 feet to 3,500 feet in the first few miles, I was able to slowly picked off a dozen or people who started too fast.   Staying in my target heart zone I was able to averaging just over 8:35 per mile.  I was happy when I found miles four through eight to be mostly downhill, which enable me to speed up a little and average a 7:45 pace.  For the remaining 5 miles or so, I paced myself to average those two, at 8:10.  The result was a respectable time of 1 hour 47 minutes, good enough for 30^th overall, and 8^th in my age group.  If I can run the same time next year, I will place on the podium, as I age up into the 50+ age group.