I got ready and left the house at about 7 am for the drive up to Las Vegas. Per the usual, I stopped in Barstow to charge the car at the smaller Tesla Supercharger station. After plugging in, I walked over to the Starbucks to use their restroom and to get some coffee. On the mobile app, I ordered a grande flat white. With the bladder emptied and coffee in hand, I went back to the car to wait for it to finish charging.
Tesla Supercharger, Barstow, CA
Grande flat white
I made good time and arrived at the Rio Hotel & Casino at just before 11 am. For this year, they had changed the venue for the race expo. I believe with the new time penalty instituted by the BAA, the number of participants dropped by about 50%. I would assume that the cost was too much to continue having it over at the World Market Center. Per the email instructions, I followed the signs and parked in the Rio Masquerade Parking Structure. I found plenty of empty parking spots on the second floor. However, the pedestrian bridge over to the casino was up on the fourth floor. Man, I remember when this used to be the place to go for arguably the best buffet in Las Vegas! That was the Carnival World Buffet! I haven't been in ages, but I believe it has since been replaced by the Canteen Food Hall. It was a rather long walk to reach the convention center halls.
Rio Masquerade Parking Structure
Race expo at the Amazon Room
Per the usual with REVEL races, the race packet pick-up process was very streamlined. I started off by picking up my race bib. It was my 5th consecutive year running this marathon, so in addition to getting a purple colored bib, they also gave me a mug. They also gave me a gear bag with the usual swag and flyers. Next I picked up my race shirt.
Got another 5th year mug
Race swag
Flyers
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
From there, I moved on to the participants name wall to find my name. Then I went to each of the participating vendor booths to get their passport codes to earn points towards another free race entry. After I was done, I hung out at the pacing booth as I waited for my friend to show up to the race expo. During my wait, I bumped into a lot of the usual suspects.
Participants name wall
Found my name
JC! Rome to Mt Charleston!
A little UCSD reunion
David
Mr Mike
Beer selection
My friend showed up at about 1 pm. Once she got her race packet, we headed over to my car to go get lunch at In-n-Out. I ordered my usual, 2 Double Doubles with raw onions and a Neapolitan shake. Probably not the healthiest of food choices, but I tend to do well eating here before my marathons! Stick to what works, right?!
Heather
After we were done, I took my friend back to the Rio as she realized that she was not given a 5th year mug. Also she was staying at the nearby Gold Coast Hotel. I then drove over to the WorldMark Las Vegas Spencer Street property to see if I could check-in a bit early. Thankfully, my unit was already ready. I was assigned to unit #210. After getting my room keys, I made the dreadful stop at the concierge station. Nowadays, I really despise the fake ass conversation when they try to get me to attend another useless "owner update" aka high pressure sales pitch. I believe they had finally added notes on my account to not be dicks as this particular concierge only asked me twice if I would attend. At this point after being an owner for almost 10 years, I had gotten so tired of them making me say no at least 4 or 5 times before letting me go. With that out of the way, I headed over to my unit. I found it to be quite cold when I entered as they had left the A/C running. That was nice as it was going to be a hot weekend!
WorldMark Las Vegas Spencer St
Fancy new controls!
Although I had planned to get in an early morning charging session before heading to the bus pick-up spot, I decided to get a partial charge now as my Tesla only had about 10% charge remaining. It also worked out that the Tesla Supercharger station with the cheapest rate in the area was somewhat along the same route as the nearby Jollibee. This small charging station was located along the northern perimeter of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Platinum Lot. There were other adjacent lots and businesses, so it can be somewhat hard to locate at first. I mainly came here as it had the cheapest charging rates in the vicinity. There wasn't much close by, so I stayed in my car for the duration of the charging session.
Tesla Supercharger, LVCC Platinum Lot
While waiting in the car, I placed my order on the Jollibee mobile app for a palabok fiesta with 2 pcs Chickenjoy with a pineapple quencher and an ube pie. As soon as I submitted the order, I unplugged the car and drove over to pick up my food. It was pretty hot, so I finished the pineapple quencher on the drive back to my timeshare. I might have ordered too much food and ate too close to my late lunch as I ended up with a pretty mean stomachache.
Hello Kitty!
Jollibee!
Pineapple quencher
Palabok fiesta combo with 2 pcs Chickenjoy and ube pie
Per the usual with a Saturday race. I put on WWE Friday Night SmackDown while I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's marathon. Even though it was mostly black, I decided to wear the Rome Marathon race shirt. I then took a shower before calling it a night.
Flat runner
Saturday 3/28
I got up pretty early to get ready and left my unit at just after 2:30 am. I made the drive over to the Asurion Corporate Office to park my car and catch a bus ride up to the start line at the Mt Charleston Cabins. I used a portapotty before getting on a bus at about 3:15 am.
The drive up took a little over an hour. It seemed like the bus driver took a long roundabout way to get on the freeway. Once I got off of the bus, the first thing I noticed was that the area used was much smaller. The section further back was blocked by the portapotties which used to be lined up parallel to the road. Another change likely due to the smaller number of participants. It also wasn't as cold this year, so there was no snow and no heat lamps. It wasn't too long before I bumped into a few of my friends while in line to use a portapotty.
No snow this year, but it was still a bit chilly
Heather
Portapotties
Eventually, I checked my gear bag and was able to hang out in my friend's cabin. It was nice to use a flushing toilet to empty the bladder one last time before heading outside. With less than 10 minutes to the start of the race, we made our way into the starting corral. My friend didn't want to start the race stuck behind walkers, so we positioned ourselves next to the 3:40 pace banner.
Theresa
Beautiful sunrise
Here we go!
Originally, because the weather was going to be warm, I was planning to run it conservatively and shoot for about a 4:05. I took it pretty slow in the first mile as it had a decent climb. However, once the course became entirely downhill, I decided to just go by feel and let my legs go without any restrictions. It felt quite comfortable to run about 8:20s, so I went with it and took advantage of the cooler temps as I would inevitably slow down once it warmed up and got toasty. I ran with my friend for most of the first 10k or so, but she would eventually start creeping ahead. I didn't try to keep up with her, but just stuck with what felt comfortable. I got through the halfway point in 1:51:37 which was about an average of 8:31 min/mile pace.
1: 9:03
2: 8:23
3: 8:18
4: 8:22
5: 8:47
6: 8:20
7: 8:05
8: 8:07
9: 8:16
10: 8:29
11: 8:39
12: 8:35
13: 8:49
Mile 10
I paced the second half as best as I could to cover it in about 2 hours. As to be expected, my pace slowed as the course flatten out and was very much exposed to the sun! The weather just kept getting warmer and warmer the longer I was out there! Having run this race the past 4 years, I knew that I needed to just hold it together through mile 21 before the course got off of Kyle Cyn Rd, making a right turn onto Oso Blanca Rd. I was really starting to feel the heat when I reached mile 23, so I took a walk break when I made the turn up to Fort Apache Rd. This was where the 3:55 pacers passed me. Once I started running again, I tried to catch up to them. With that walk break, mile 24 ended up being my slowest mile. I made sure not to overdo it as it was a long steady climb up to mile 25. Just to be safe, I took another walk break as my legs felt ready to cramp up. Once I got going again, I made sure to empty the tank and run it in to the finish line. I ended up covering the 2nd half in 2:03:42 which was about an average of 9:27 min/mile pace. That was good enough for my very first sub 4 marathon!
14: 8:43
15: 8:48
16: 8:59
17: 9:08
18: 9:13
19: 9:11
20: 9:20
21: 9:18
22: 9:31
23: 9:51
24: 10:51
25: 9:58
26: 10:22
26.2: 1:54
Almost to the finish line!
Finish line!
Finish: 3:55:19
Click here for my Garmin data.
This was my 5th consecutive year running this marathon. Except for 2023 when I was coming back from an injury, I continued to perfect my strategy year after year. Sure it was at a REVEL super downhill marathon, but it took 291 marathons for me to finally be able to finish a marathon in under 4 hours!
2025: 4:01:54
2024: 4:08:23
2023: 5:00:02
2022: 4:21:20
After I received my finisher medal, I got a quick selfie with a couple of runners that I had run with for a bunch of miles. I then grabbed some post race goodies. As I continued down the finisher chute, I bumped into a couple of familiar faces. Once I got to the exit, I found a spot on the curb to get my stuff in order. A Korean runner that was there next to me asked to borrow my phone to call his friends and/or family. Once they showed up, I started heading out to go get my results printout and my gear bag.
Finisher medal
Ran with these guys for a good stretch
Post race goodies
Keith "Rocketman" Parks and Natalie
I then went inside the beer garden to get my post race non-alcoholic beer by Athletic Brewing Co. I went with the Mexican-Style Cooper as I've had it before. While I drank my victory beer, I bumped into my faster friends. I hung out there until my friend Heather showed up. It was one of the few times that I've finished ahead of her.
David
One of my favorite non-alcoholic beers
Rick Cooney
Chavet
Heather
I was feeling pretty cooked by that sun! So after finishing that beer, congratulating my friends, and saying my goodbyes, I started heading over to the pick-up spot for a bus ride back to my car. I swapped out my sweaty shirt for a clean shirt and put on my cargo shorts before hopping in the car and driving off.
Bus ride back to my car
I was pretty wiped out after the race. After getting back to my unit and getting cleaned up, I took a nap. Well, I didn't wake up from that nap until almost 8 pm! I hopped in the car and drove down to the Zippy's on Eastern Ave to get some dinner. There were now 4 locations in Las Vegas! With this visit, I had gone to 3 out of 4. When I looked over the menu, there were a lot of delicious food that I wanted to eat, but they weren't exactly very good for me. I ultimately decided to go with their loco moco. That meal was satisfying and really hit the spot. I guess my brain was still a bit scrambled as I fudged up the math when I was leaving the tip and ended up giving them an extra dollar. That was perfectly okay since the service was good.
Loco moco
Sunday 3/29
I woke up pretty early to get packed up and checked out of my unit. Per the usual, I drove over to the closest Tesla Supercharger station with one of the cheaper charging rates and a nearby Starbucks. According to the Tesla app, that location was on Eastern Ave just east of the airport.
Tesla Supercharger, South Eastern
I arrived and plugged in the car for a charge. Shortly after doing so, I witnessed something quite odd. There was a guy just running around in the parking lot. He had on a backpack and wore bright fluorescent colors. He reminded me of an ultra runner. Who knows, he could've been on drugs. On my walk over to Starbucks, I saw that he had picked up a shopping cart and was pushing it around while running. Per the usual, I placed my order for a grande flat white before going to inside to wait for my drink. With coffee in hand, I went back to my car to wait for it to finish charging.
Grande flat white
When I was just about ready to unplug, I saw that he had picked up a second shopping cart and was still running around! I kind of wished that I had taken a video of him. However on the off chance that the guy was crazy, I wouldn't want to do anything that would provoke him!
Per the usual, I considered stopping at a different Tesla charging station during my drive home. Eventually, I settled on returning to what was familiar. I stopped at the usual smaller charging station in Barstow to get a quick charge. I also stopped at the Starbucks to get coffee. On the mobile app, I ordered a grande blonde vanilla latte.
Tesla Supercharger, Barstow, CA
Grande blonde vanilla latte
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