I had a pretty good marathon run on Sunday, and now that I’ve had a little time to think about it, here are some thoughts on running down the Strip. The headline is an allusion to the venerable “Strip Walk” feature over at Two Way Hard Three. Even though we ran only about 4 of the 26.2 miles on the Strip, I figure that you guys don’t really care too much about the view going past the North Las Vegas Airport and Texas Station, so there you go.
Just so you know, the marathon started at Mandalay Bay, headed up the Boulevard to downtown, then hit Bonanza and MLK before heading west on Carey/Smoke Ranch. We ran down to Torrey Pines, then south to Twain, made a right on Frank Sinatra Drive, and ended up back at Mandalay Bay.
— Mandalay Bay is huge…I’m always struck by how long it takes to get from self-park to the convention center, on the morning of a marathon everything seems a little more arduous. I think that we may be on the verge of “diseconomies of scale” with casinos. Of course, I had to park at the Trop, so after the race I had a whole new appreciation for the “Mandalay Mile.”
— City Center’s coming along nicely. I had a great view of the front and back as we started and finished. It looks monochromatic, but from the back you can see that they’re hiding something very bright and orange, which is a welcome relief. I tend to like being saturated with colors, so the CC exterior, as impressive as it is, is something that’s going to have to grow on me. Whatever this orange thing is (Aria convention space? Part of the Crystals?), it looks cool, though.
— No Bellagio fountain show this year, though P-Ho had a customized marathon graphic running on their big sign, including a “Run Eddie Run” screen meant, I’m told, for KLAS’s Edward Lawrence.
–Caesars construction is also coming along quite nicely. In addition to the tower, there looks to be a lot more convention space in the back.
–The Fontainbleau’s also looking very good. It really towers above the Strip, and with the condo across the street you almost, but not quite, get that “Manhattan urban canyon” feeling for about 10 feet. And you can see it from Torrey Pines and Edna. It’s going to be a real landmark. At street level, there are some interesting angles taking shape.
–That new McDonald’s north of Echelon looks quite ambitious for a fast food restaurant.
— Running down Frank Sinatra you get an even better appreciation for the size of City Center.
–Thanks to the construction on Echelon and the Plaza halting, there is a huge empty lot/abandoned construction site on the west side of the Strip stretching from DI to Circus Circus. It gives you a sense of true imbalance, with Wynn, Encore, and Fontainebleau on the other side of the street. For the time being, I don’t think Strip-view rooms will be at a premium.
–On a related note, the Circus Circus RV park has the best street names ever:
View Larger Map
Wouldn’t it be great to list your street address as “123 Dumbo Street, Las Vegas, NV 89109?”
— I think the skyline is taking the shape it’s going to have for the next few years. Everything that’s going to be finished in the next 2 years is topped out, and everything else (like the Palazzo condos, Echelon, and Plaza) is just sitting there.
That’s about all that comes to mind. It’s definitely a different perspective from the usual one, and it’s a view that you’ll only get once a year, unless you want to dodge traffic.