Run the Vegas Strip at night as part of the Rock’n’Roll Marathon series! Learn about the race and how to travel-hack Vegas!
About Rock’n’Roll Vegas
We love the Rock’n’Roll Running Series! They have events in all over the US and abroad. My husband has run the events in Nashville and Savannah. The courses for these events are sprinkled with live bands and DJ’s. It makes for a really fun experience no matter where you are.
But there is something special about the Rock’n’Roll Las Vegas. They shut down the Las Vegas Strip entirely to cars for the evening. It’s the only time you can run in the middle of the road on the Strip.
Rock’n’Roll Las Vegas has three races: a 10k, a half-marathon, and a 5k fun run the night before. All races are chipped and have age group awards. And there are extra awards for running the 5k with the 10k or half, and for running two Rock’n’Roll events in different locations.
Travel-Hack Vegas: The Flight
There are generally a lot of low-cost flights to Vegas, but prices can fluctuate depending on the time of year and what is going on in Vegas (i.e. flights to Vegas during the weekend Taylor Swift was in concert were outrageous!). The most expensive flights are on Fridays and Sundays because of all the people arriving for weekend festivities. By booking Thursday through Monday instead, you can save quite a bit of money.
We booked our flights on Southwest with points we’d accumulated with our Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card. We booked roundtrip tickets from Wichita to Las Vegas for about 24k points each. If you don’t have Southwest Points, you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Southwest as well. Learn how to get into the Chase points ecosystem here.
Travel Hack Vegas: The Hotel
When we travel, we like to have our own kitchen to make healthy food and save money. I looked at using points to book a Hyatt or Marriott, but then I remembered seeing a timeshare deal for Las Vegas in my Facebook feed.
Tahiti Village
Tahiti Village Las Vegas was giving away 3 nights free in exchange for attending a timeshare presentation. Please note that you should only use this travel hack if you can say “no” – no matter what happens in that presentation! But we are pros at this and have mastered the art of listening respectfully and then politely, but firmly, declining all of their offers. Afterall, the presenters are just people trying to make a living like everyone else.
The room at Tahiti Village was large with a separate kitchen/living area including microwave, sink, mini fridge, and pull out couch. There was a door to the bedroom to provide privacy from the living area. The space felt very outdated and the bathroom definitely needed updates but it was clean and fit our needs well for this trip.
It was unusually cold on this trip so we didn’t get to use the expansive pools and got tubs, but I could see this being a great place to stay if you have kids. Life guards were at the pool even in the 40 degree weather! The grounds were well manicured, if a little manufactured. The gym was sad – no free weights, run down.
Location
The location was about a ten minute drive from the strip if there was no traffic, but there was often a lot of traffic – probably because of the race. One night we got stuck down at the strip during a rainstorm and the Ubers were $70 to get back to the resort! However, the resort does have a free shuttle that runs once an hour between the resort and a few other hotels on the strip. There was also a hotel shuttle that went to the grocery.
Timeshare Presentation
The timeshare presentation included a short one-on-one meeting with a sales rep, a half hour presentation, and then the hard sell with the sales rep followed by a closer. We were polite but explained that we get better deals by travel hacking so it was a hard no. In the end, the sales rep asked us for resources on travel hacking! We were out of there in under 1.5 hours but they had said to reserve two hours for this presentation so we were pleasantly surprised.
After the presentation I did some research on the company – definitely don’t buy from them. They have terrible reviews. But overall, this timeshare deal fit our needs for a free stay and I think it would be a great value if you have kids who love pools!
Running the Vegas Strip at Night
I signed up for the 10k event and my husband ran the half-marathon. We were able to start the race at the same time which nice. One huge tip if you run this race: Get to the corrals EARLY! We arrived more than an hour before our start time, but by that time, the race organizers had already corralled our pace group. There were long lines to drop off our bags and for the port-a-potties. Then we had to push our way through crowds of people into the coral. We ended up starting our race two groups behind where we should have been.
It rattled us a little bit, starting so late and not getting to warm-up. And we also had to weave around slower runners which cost us a bit of time. But in the end, I actually enjoyed whizzing past the group I started with. It built my confidence!
The 10K Course
The first couple of miles of the 10k had a gradual incline until you hit the turn around. Then I felt like I was flying down the strip! At the halfway mark, I glanced at my watch and realized I was on track for a PR!
I chose not to wear headphones for this race so I could be more present in the scenery. There were DJ’s set up along the way playing all kinds of upbeat music. And the sights were amazing, too! The Welcome to Vegas sign, the Bellagio and New York-New York whizzed past in the sunset as I ran. There were plenty of crowds cheering on the runners. It was a really festive atmosphere.
With a mile to go, the course started uphill. I was glad to see the well-marked turn-off for the 10k finishers. Running through the finish line, I glanced at my watch and new I’d not only hit a PR, but had probably placed in my age group! Indeed, I came in 2nd place – the winner beat me by 4 seconds!
The Half-Marathon Course
The half marathon course continued past the 10K turn-off. And it continued going up in elevation. My husband and our half-marathon friends said the second half of the race was definitely a challenge! And although they saw more of the Strip, there were some sections they ran through that just weren’t glamorous (“seedy” might have been the word they used). But a benefit of the half was getting to see the Strip truly after dark (I finished just as the sun set).
It was an epic experience running the Las Vegas Strip at night! It’s a race I would enter again. And some of our friends said they would probably do it again, but try the 10K instead!
