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Rock N Roll Las 5K Race Recap

Nov 21, 2016 | Active Travel, Race-cations | 7 comments

Last year I applied to be part of Team Rock N Blog, an ambassador for Rock N Roll races and was thrilled to be picked, as part of a year long partnership, I was given a Global TourPass – giving me access to their races worldwide.

Sadly weddings, Kilimanjaro and finances prevented me from running in ANY of their races… so when I discovered that Rock N Roll Las Vegas, one of the races I most wanted to do was only a week after the New York Marathon, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take part.

It also happens to be the race with the biggest We Run Social meet up. SOLD.

Rock N Roll Las Vegas 5K

I originally signed up for the 5K and Half marathon, wanting the opportunity to run down the strip at night – the key selling point for these races – however chatting with my coach, Mary, the Tuesday before the race, she wasn’t keen on me running at all. We compromised and I promised to run super slowly, and to drop down and run the 10K instead of the half.

It seemed like most of the bloggers were running the 5K on the Saturday night, then either the half or 10K the following day, so I wasn’t too disappointed with this decision. I loved finally meeting Michele (NYC Running Mama) she’s an absolute inspiration to me, balancing full time work, motherhood and marathon training – she ran a 3.07 (and massive PR) at NYCM!

We Run Social Las Vegas meet up

We Run Social Las Vegas meet up

We also met up with the group of We Run Social – a fab online running community led by Brian aka Pavement Runner, and I met Dorothy from MilePosts who I’ve been chatting online with for ages. They even brought doughnuts, please can we do this sort of thing at UK races?

It was pitch black by the time we lined up with the 8250+ other runners in the plethora of corrals, but the lights of Vegas (and our mini light sabres) were more than enough to light the way.

Rock N Roll 5K Las Vegas

Jess, Zoe and I lined up together in corral 4, planning to run for fun. It seemed like a lot of people had the same idea, with people walking right from the start (bugs me at every race – please line up in the correct area if you are planning on walking!!)

I have to say, the route was a little disappointing, we ran along the side of a road that wasn’t closed to cars, through a big car park, behind Circus Circus (and sadly not down the strip at all). For quite an expensive race, it wasn’t the most scenic, but it was super fun to test out the legs before the following day, and if you’re in Vegas already for the marathon weekend, you might as well add another medal to your collection (plus you get a third medal if you run two races as part of the Remix Challenge).

Rock N Roll 5K Las Vegas

As we ran, very slowly, I couldn’t imagine having run a marathon less than a week before!

It was an out and back so we watched the speedsters run past us on the others side, and I discovered that bringing my GoPro instead of my phone for pictures was a mistake….

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Rock N Roll Las Vegas 5K

We ran together, zig zagging around other people on the course, taking blurry photos, and taking it easy. 33.52 minutes later and we crossed the finish lines and earned our medals…

We Run Social Las Vegas meet up

Our post race treat was a trip up the Eiffel Tower to see the lights of the Strip. We obviously arrived at the wrong time as we had to queue for about half an hour to buy our tickets before taking the lift up to the top, but the view was well worth it. Then devoured a ‘slice’ before hotfooting it back to The Venetian for bed – and boy did we sleep well after an amazing shower on those comfy beds, dark rooms & quiet halls. Probably the coolest people in Vegas on a Saturday night!!

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Rock N Roll 5K Las Vegas

7 Comments

  1. CARLA

    I would have been RIGHT THERE WITH YOU on the slice and sleep 🙂
    UNLESS we could find us some snoop dee oh double gizzle <3

    Reply
    • charlotte

      Haha I know- sadly SNOOG DOOOOOGG wasn’t at the 10k start, just the half 🙁

      Reply
  2. Kelsey Miller

    I signed up for the Half Marathon next year! I can’t wait! I’m so glad you were able to run this race!

    Reply
    • charlotte

      Ah I so hope I can go again next year!! Fingers (and toes) crossed!

      Reply
  3. Jill @ RunEatSnap

    This looks like so much fun! Rock n Roll Vegas is definitely on my bucket list! I am also going to check out We Run Social because that sounds awesome!

    Reply
  4. Freya

    Looks fun! I’m interested to join the next one… I had never participated to this kind of races yet (yeah, what a shame!).

    Reply
    • charlotte

      you definitely should!

      Reply

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