Las Vegas Marathon/Half Marathon

Eric,

Sorry to hear you were treated so rudely, but I am not surprised. Speaking to one of the local LVM coordinators before the race it was made very clear to me that Devine Racing does give a rat's-glute about the citizen road racer. They might go out of their way and be polite, correct and accomodating to the elite runners but as for the rest of us they could care less. They want our $95 and that is really all they to hear from us.

You make a very good point about the risk management plan being submitted at the time of their permit application or prior to receiving their permit. I work rather closely with the City of Las Vegas regarding permitting issues for the agency I work for. The City is pretty strict and demanding on their permit application requirements but I am unfamilar with their requirements with regards to special events in CLV right-of-way. Worth looking into if I should ever change my mind about running here again but right now the rat's-glute is in their court and will remain there indefinitely.

Story about the IU guys.

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-xc/spec-rel/121306aab.html

Has anyone from the race apoligoized for the screw ups?

Or are they just going to ignore all the problems and think runners won't remember the problems and sign up again next year?

I wrote a very long email to Devine outlining many of the issues I felt were unacceptable and need to be fixed if they expect to succeed. I seriously doubt I will ever get a response from them though.

It was one of the most unorganized races I have ever run!

I ran the half. I put in my estimated finish time. Show up at expo. I have no corral start. Lady manning expo booth complete idiot. Says nothing they could do.

So I get as close as I can and passed people jogging along until 2 miles in. Insane.

Does anyone know the real distance of the race, I talked to three people with Garmins after the race 13.16, 13.44, 14.0 miles the guy with 13.44 said he was in my corral right behind the fat assed elvis runners.

I can't believe these guys can't accurately mark a course, you don't even need to be a high school graduate to mark a race course.

What was with the start, I've been to the following races this year, wharf to wharf, dam to dam 20k, fifth season 8k, and the medtronic 10 mile. I'm no where an elite, but I shouldn't be starting behind 500 jolley joggers. No less 15 minutes late. The guys holding the snow fence in my corral actually told us that after the gun went off we would have to wait for them to pull the fence down, they did finally figure out to get out of the way. The race listed above all had accurate mile markers.

I don't really care about the "after race festival", but you have to be kidding, water, frozen apples, bannanas, wtf, I would have killed someone if I ran the marathon, for 90.00 dollars they could have at least had a donunt.

I have never been around such a disorganized mess, and I can honestly say I've never been so upset about running a race. This was to say the least one of the most frustrating experiences of my life.

Hey at least I got a finishers medal

It is interesting to hear that someone else got ill during the race. I was running a PR pace til mile 10 and that is when my stomach cramps started and thankfully there were plenty of port-o-johns because I used many of them through the finish. I have never been so sick to my stomach in all of my life!

Everybody is right that race sucked and I will never run it again or suggest it to anybody to run. How can you not get the mile markers right??? That is the most important part.[

I didn't run the race (ran LA last year), but I got this email today:

Dear Fellow Runner,

I am writing to you as the Executive Race Director for the New Las Vegas Marathon and a person who has run all 21 Los Angeles Marathons. While the response to this year’s New Las Vegas Marathon and Half Marathon has been overwhelmingly positive, we have also heard from a number of participants with concerns about the placement and visibility of mile markers, as well as a shortage of food in the post race food and fluid area. I want you to know that we hear you.

It is always our intention to improve our event each year. In response to feedback on the 2005 race, we tripled the number of porta-potties in the start/finish line and out on the course and arranged for a donated performance by Blue Man Group to start the race.

In response to your concerns, here’s what will be in place for 2007.

1. There will be highly visible and accurately placed markers at each mile.

2. We will also have a secured, runners’only post race food and fluid area accessible by bib that will be closely monitored by volunteers to ensure that every participant gets their fair share of nutrition following the race.

We depend on your feedback to improve our event. Please e-mail me at

tcollier@newlasvegasmarathon.com

or call me at (702)731-1052. As always, I look forward to hearing from my fellow runners.

I wrote a letter to the race director and received the same form-letter reply. Nice to know that they are going the fix the mile marks. You would think that they would have done that before. I guess they figured out was a pretty important thing but only AFTER runners had to tell them. This guy says he is a runner. He should understand the frustration and instead of emailing out form letters, he should be mailing out refunds.

This letter did little to quell my frustration with the race.

you guys with comments about the race should post them at www.marathonguide.com

Is Pam Reed responsible for this?

I got the same form letter back, these clowns are a class act, refunds are you kidding, take 85.00 x 16,000 runners, Devine is going to have a green christmas.

Article about some of the problems in the race. Story said they would concentrate on having accurate mile markers next year. Of course, this doesn't help the one who ran into the problem this year. http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Dec-17-Sun-2006/sports/11474181.html

As someone who runs one half marathon annually, I was really bummed out by the race. The start was a joke, bobbing and weaving through 9 minute milers for what seemed like an eternity after an ambiguous (to say the least) actual starting gun (15 minutes late I might add!)

Mile makers seem to me to be a rather easy task to accomplish accurately....maybe if we pay $125 next year (which I will not go even if offered free admission!) the clocks will be on the markers.

The wind--There is nothing that race promoters can do about this one (other than move the date.....Vegas is begging for customers pre-XMas maybe that's something to look at)! It makes no sense for people to travel from "All 50 states" to run in crappy conditions!

The last straw for me was the 13 mile mark and 26 mile mark were in the same spot! This was genious!

Get it right Devine!!!

So I write Terry a lengthy letter detailing my HORRIBLE experience there and I get this letter:

Thank you for your comments..

At the New Las Vegas Marathon we have a passion to deliver

Superior service to you the Runner our customer.

We listen to you, We Hear you and we will address your concerns to make

the 2007 Las Vegas Marathon your Best experience ever.

December 9, 2007 save the date.

I then write back:

Superior customer service??! Thanks for the form letter.

And I get the EXACT letter not 1 minute later.

Hilarious. Avoid this race at all costs!!! Pathetic.

Just talked to someone here in Louisville who just ran the race. They loved it. Loved the atmosphere. Loved the strip, Elvis's, wedding chapel, etc. So the organizers piss off maybe 100 elite and sub elite athletes...meanwhile the midpackers who bring in most of the money are happy as can be.

Alan

Hey jolly jogger, there were more than 100 elite or sub elites pissed off, on the whole everyone got screwed, I doubt you would have been happy with your finishers medal,apple slices and bottle of water, speak for yourself, you were not there. This event was a mess.

I loved the old Las Vegas race that started out in the desert. No hoopla, nice desert scenery, mile markers accurate, sane course, fairly well organized.