The New Las Vegas Marathon went off yesterday, and it was quite an experience. From the LVRJ:
The gang of a couple dozen Elvises hit mile five, and a few of them decided to hydrate — with cold cans of beer that they had gamely pushed along in a stroller.
“It’s light beer,” said 57-year-old Jeff Padilla of Newport Beach, Calif., as he adjusted his wig and genuine 1970s polyester jumpsuit.
About 16,000 runners participated in the New Las Vegas Marathon on Sunday, most without beer, but all determined. It was the second year the race ran on a new course that started and finished on the Strip.
Pre-dawn fireworks, sideline performers such as Blue Man Group and 28 couples stopping at a quickie-wedding chapel during the race were all meant to put the Las Vegas stamp on the huffing herd of humanity.
“Running on Las Vegas Boulevard dressed as Elvis? Nothing’s better,” said Padilla, who said he has run in more than 140 marathons, many times dressed as Elvis.
Jason Thomas, who had just wed Kim Engle at A Special Memory Wedding Chapel, said “Where else in the world can you do this?”
But for a select group of elite runners, this was about more than personal accomplishment, getting married or showing off sideburns.
Kenyan Joseph Kahugu won the men’s field in 2 hours, 16 minutes, 19 seconds.
The women’s winner was another Kenyan, Jemima Jelagat, in 2:35:13.
reviewjournal.com — News – NEW LAS VEGAS MARATHON: Vegas kitsch flavors race
The wind made it a very tough day, but it was really a fun race for me, mostly I got to run it with my wife Suni, something I didn’t get to do last year. So even though my time was not a personal best, I don’t think that matters when you cross the finish line together with someone you care deeply for.
I don’t run marathons because I’m a born runner–far from it. I didn’t start running at all until a few years ago, and ran my first marathon in 2003. It’s not easy, but it is a lot of fun. The training is tough, but not impossible for someone of average physical fitness. You might think that running every Sunday morning at 6am is a real drag, but, in the end, it’s worth it. Running with the Roadrunners training group for the past 28 weeks has been great, so great in fact that I’d like to make a shameless plug:
If you live in Las Vegas, and want a real challenge, sign up for next year’s marathon and run it with the Roadrunners. The training program that Tim Kelly runs builds up runners over about 6 months, so that even if you’ve never ran more than a mile at a time, you’ll be ready for the marathon by December. On our first run, we run 3 miles, so if you can get yourself into good enough shape to run–or walk–3 miles by June, you should really consider it. I’m not saying that you’ll become a running convert, although you may. But running a marathon is one of those “do once before you die” things that, even though it seems impossible, isn’t out of reach, as long as you don’t have any major physical problems. If you walked the course at a fairly slow 3 mph, you’d finish in under 9 hours. If you’re a first-time runner who can dedicate themself to serious training, you should be able to finish under 5 hours, which is totally respectable.
The best thing about running a marathon is that you can dress up in any strange way you want, and people will be in awe of you. In my first marathon, I got passed by people dressed as fruit–guys (or girls) in giant, head-to-toe, orange, apple, and strawberry costumes. This time, I passed a penguin, and a few Elvises–and quite a few Elvis’s passed me (for the first couple miles, our Roadrunner group was directly in front of a huge contingent of Elvises that kept breaking out in song). So if you’ve ever had the urge to dress as Elvis, Benjamin Franklin, or anyone else in public but are too inhibited, this gives you the perfect excuse. My only caveat is that you should do it for charity–people often as “What are you running for?” and it sounds much better to say “I’m running for a cure!” than, “Um, because I want to.”
Bringing this back around to Las Vegas and gambling, it would be great to have a group of people dress as classic Las Vegas Strip casino signs and run to raise money for the Neon Museum. Seriously, someone with the museum should look into this–I can just imagine Aladdin’s lamp and the Dunes sign jockeying for position in the homestretch.