When do you get to see the famous Las Vegas Strip empty of traffic — and full of runners? During Rock ‘n’ Roll Vegas weekend, baby! Moms on the Run hit the jackpot when more than 60 of us descended on the city of neon lights for our fourth destination run weekend, Run the Night, Feb. 20-24. Coupled around the race were early morning runs, an ultra challenging and extremely rewarding hot springs hike, free swag, iconic landmarks, food and dancing.
Thursday we welcomed all of our athletes with a hospitality suite and awesome swag from our sponsors: $150+ worth of gifts from HOKA, Knockaround and FitVine wine. The next morning, our National Fitness Director, Olympian Carrie Tollefson, led an early morning run along the Strip. We then drove out of Vegas to Goldstrike Canyon Trail for a challenging 5.5 mile hike with a series of nine rope scrambles to hot springs and back. We ended Friday with a welcome reception of food, drinks and fun and prizes and the start to our photo scavenger hunt.
Saturday we hit the race expo, relaxed a bit at the rooftop pool, and shuttled to Fremont Street for the 5K, where 34 of our athletes ran the 3.1. It was a completely different race experience having our key races at night versus early morning. It was thrilling to check out this famous area of Vegas and cheer on our runners. Afterwards, it was showtime for about half of us who went to “Menopause the Musical,” while others toured the town!
Sunday featured the 10K and Half, so we enjoyed a day of free time before the evening races, when we cheered on our 35 10Kers and 14 Half marathoners. Congrats to Chris Davis from Onalaska, Wisconsin Moms on the Run for winning her age division (out of 658) and coming in 30th overall out of 6,132 females! She ran a 7:16 min/mile! We also want to congratulate Andrea Conway from St. Paul Moms on the Run for finishing 16th in the female 40-44 age division. Big kudos to Karen Paquette of Chanhassen Moms on the Run for finishing her first-ever race, and to Renee Erdahl with Bloomington Moms on the Run for finishing her first half marathon! After, we celebrated with a “sparkles and sass” dinner and dance party — a total blast. We have an awesome album of all of our fun photos and even some videos you can find here.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for fitness, fun and friendship at Run the Night! We loved hosting you and hope you have lots of great memories from the weekend. Where shall we run next?
