Red Rock Canyon Half-Marathon (Clark County, Nevada)

 

Last year, while visiting Red Rocks Canyon on the outskirts of Las Vegas, I saw a number of bibbed runners in the park. After researching it a bit, I learned of the Red Rocks Canyon Half-Marathon and knew immediately that I wanted to run it the following year. The following year is now and last night I drove from Reno to Las Vegas to participate in the event.

Normally, Las Vegas is very warm as compared to my home in northern end of the state. However, the Sin City received a little bit of snow the day before I arrived. This is not unheard of, but it is rare. The race officials were scrambling with last minute changes to the course to ensure runner safety and sent a number of emails out to this effect, but the good news was that the race was still on.

I awoke at about 4:45 AM, put on my running gear (including a couple of extra layers) and departed my hotel for the bus pickup point a few miles from the starting line. It was cold out - really cold. When we arrived at the starting line, someone mentioned the air temperature was a frigid 23 degrees. My legs were aware and had already started to stiffen up a little bit. After picking up my bib, I joined several others huddling in the mens room of the visitor center. It wasn't exactly warm in there, but it was certainly better than outside in the dark. 

As 6:15 AM approached, several of the runners left the bathroom and prepared to start the marathon. Since I was only running the half-marathon, I decided to stay for a while longer. Eventually, I crawled out of my hiding place to hear the race instructions for the half. Instead of the standard loop around Red Rocks Canyon Scenic Drive, which is just about 13 miles, we would be completing two lollipops, with a 5.7 mile up and back and a short loop around the visitors center, followed by an additional mile or so up and back. There were concerns with black ice on the roadways and on the bridges, prompting the race organizers to make these changes.

With the clock striking 7:00 AM, we were off. The sun was now rising in the southeastern sky, but not enough to make much of a difference in the air temperature just yet. Because of the cold, it took my legs a bit to loosen up and for me to get in a groove. Then just as I found my groove the grueling uphills started. I knew this was going to be a hilly race, but I underestimated the difficulty. The first time up and back, I maintained a reasonable pace up the hills, but I wasn't sure that I would be able to do the same on my subsequent visits to this section.

Reaching the turnaround point, I grabbed some water and headed back the way I came. The turn around itself is worth a mention. Instead of having some sort of actual turn around, they simply barricaded a portion of the traffic lane, which forced the runners to make a 180 degree turn in just about 6 feet of width. It forced everyone to slow down a bit and caused a fair amount of congestion. Anyway, the first trip back to the visitor center was fast. With all of the downhill, I was feeling really strong and my knees were surprisingly not screaming too much about the steep downhill.

I ran by the finish line and then the near mile around the loop they had set up before returning to the out and back again. This time on the hills, my stamina was fading and I was forced to walk a bit on the tougher sections. By now the sun was well overhead and all the beauty of Red Rocks Canyon was spread out before us. It really is an amazing place for a race and despite the cold and incline, I'm glad I came. Not surprisingly with the cold temperatures, the snow had decided to stick around a bit and provided a rare site of pure white snow blanketing the magnificent red and orange landscape.

After making the final turn, I started back towards the visitors center. At that point, my inner "eye of the tiger" kicked in and started pushing my pace. It was all downhill from here, but I was still probably running about 8 minute miles there for a long section. I completed the lollipop loop and then had to ask one of the volunteers about the final section. He directed me back the way I came and said there would be a turn-around sign.

This time I was pushing hard and passing a number of runners as I made my way to the turn-around, which arriving at it, found very obvious. I made a quick turn and then started for the finish line. I passed a few others on the way before finally making the turn into the visitor center parking lot and crossing the finish line. I ran a 2:29:31, which is not what I had hoped for, but given all of the challenges of frigid temperatures and route changes, I was not totally upset with. I would later find out that based upon the rerouting of the course, this was not only the most difficult, but also the coldest run in the event's twelve year history.