Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon and 1/2 Marathon flops

Some time back, I had a post about a new Half-Marathon coming to Dublin next summer as part of the European Rock 'n' Roll race series. These are commercially organised events which are very popular in the USA. On Sunday the 4th of December, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon and Half-Marathon turned out to be a bit of a flop.

Just to give you some idea of how expensive it is to enter, the Half-Marathon costs $130 (~€95) with a late entry fee of $155 (~€115). The full Marathon costs $140 (~€104) with a late entry fee of $175 (~€130). With some 44,000 people taking part, that would mean that they took in some $6 to $7 million on entries alone.

As it turned out, things didn't quite go to plan as they were obviously way too many runners and it was badly organised. Here are some of the media reports...
....water was pumped from a nearby fire hydrant with hoses into a plastic lined garbage cans. Event volunteers then wearing plastic gloves would dip cups into the cans and pass them off to runners.The water tasted metallic and stale.
.....The photos, snapped with cell phones, show thousands of people pouring into Mandalay Bay hallways unable to move. People report being stuck for nearly an hour with numerous people vomiting and passing out.
....."We had heard that lots of people collapsed, Inside the hotel was horrible."
......It was the capstone to a race with 44 thousand people that runners say was too large with too little planning.

Video report from a US TV channel  in this LINK

Let's hope the Dublin Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon goes better!