Hoover Dam Half Marathon
Boulder City, Nevada
Saturday, December 13, 2014

On Saturday, December 13, 2014 I race walked the Hoover Dam Half Marathon in Boulder City, Nevada with the course being in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. It was a little cold as the temperature varied from 46 degrees at the start to 53 degrees at the finish with mostly cloudy skies and a 9 mph breeze. The course was a challenging out and back course with 3 miles uphill on a paved bike path, 1.5 miles uphill on a sand and crushed gravel old train bed, another 1.5 miles downhill on sand and crushed gravel, a return over the same 3 sections, a 0.5 miles downhill, a return back up, and a 0.1 mile downhill to the finish. The steepness of the hills varied often with many sections being challenging. The water/Heed stations were spaced from 1 to 1.5 miles apart and were manned by plenty of enthusiastic efficient volunteers. There were only three places where the course crossed a roadway which had very little traffic allowing for a single volunteer at each to control it. Joyce, the race director, puts on a series on 10 events over the course of a year in the Las Vegas area and all are extremely well organized, relatively small, and fun to do. I have done three of her events and many of my friends who live closer to Las Vegas do most of her events and make high recommendations for them. As a result many Half Fanatics, Marathon Maniacs, and 50 Staters enter them when they want to do a race in Nevada.