Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon
The Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon & 1/2 Marathon is an annual marathon foot-race run around the Las Vegas Strip in parts of the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada. The 26.219-mile (42.195 km) race is one of the oldest marathons in the United States, having been run since 1967.
The course from 1967-2004 was completely in Clark County, with its start point in Jean and its finish point at Sunset Park. Al Boka ran the marathon since 1983, until he sold the marathon in 2005 to Devine Racing, a Chicago-based race organization company that is responsible for several other races, including the Los Angeles Marathon. Additionally in 2005, the date of the marathon was changed from January to December which offered better weather and the race was moved from Clark County to the city of Las Vegas.
The course between 2005 and 2008 began at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino - North on Las Vegas Boulevard. It headed west on the Fremont Street Experience, north on Main Street, then south on Grand Central Parkway. After going west on Alta Drive it turned north on Martin Luther King Boulevard. Looping back in a south-westerly direction it passed Carey Avenue/Smoke Ranch Road, Torey Pines Drive, Twain Avenue, then Redwood Street. Completing the circuit, it went east on Viking Road, north on El Camino Road, east again on Twain Avenue then south onto Frank Sinatra Drive. The final section went past Russell Road before reaching at Mandalay Bay parking lot for the finish.
In 2009, the race was acquired from Devine Racing by the Competitor Group, Inc. and incorporated into its Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series and the course was changed for a second time. The full marathon parallels Las Vegas Boulevard before heading west on Spring Mountain Road. A half marathon, most of which is run on Las Vegas Boulevard, was also introduced at this point.
Read more about Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon: Winners
Famous quotes containing the words rock, roll, vegas and/or marathon:
“In Little Rock the people bear
Babes, and comb and part their hair
And watch the want ads, put repair
To roof and latch.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“Rock ‘n’ roll is a combination of good ideas dried up by fads, terrible junk, hideous failings in taste and judgment, gullibility and manipulation, moments of unbelievable clarity and invention, pleasure, fun, vulgarity, excess, novelty and utter enervation.”
—Greil Marcus (b. 1945)
“Shoot, a fellow could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“The mountains look on Marathon—
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dreamed that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians’ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)