Well, I finished the race, despite being sick for the most of this past week. I had resigned to a slow time, but I still wanted to try to make it something reasonable... I was hoping for 2:30 or something around there.
The race was insanely crowded. They claimed that there were 44,000 people running. For some reason, after the first few start corrals moved out, the rest of them were just all started at once it seemed. Once we turned the corner to head north they just said walk up and go. This I think added to everyone's issues with the race.
Pretty much the entire race was like playing football or something. I generally run/walk, so I wasn't angry at the people walking... but they didn't have to walk 4 side-by-side or things like that. Each time I ran (for the whole race), I had to dodge and weave between people. I thought it was actually kind of fun doing this (at least when it opened up a bit more later)... but I guess a lot of people hated it. I do feel bad for people running the full marathon who had to START weaving through people after completing the first half of their race.
The water stations were not always that great. And I didn't know that the water was coming from a fire hydrant until later (I didn't get sick). The porta-potties were pretty sparse. I had to stop at one around mile 6 and the lines were huge.
Overall, I'm glad I did it... it was pretty neat to run on the strip... but I don't think I would do this race again. The organization was just poor all around. And the dangerous situation in the hallway between bag check and the Mandalay Bay was the worst fire hazard I've seen. We were packed in like cattle for what seemed like 45 minutes, then got to a point where there was another herd coming from the other side, and had to turn back. I saw a number of people getting sick and moving off to the side... I was trying to not have a panic attack myself.
Anyway, glad it is over, glad I did it and finished. My time was a crazy slow 3:07... but it was good to end the year on a successful race (rather than the DNF at the Flag half-ironman). I think I will need to pick out a schedule for next year pretty soon, and an overall plan for what I want to do (tris/runs/other). This year was far too lax exercise wise, and I need to get it going back in the right direction.
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