Ellie Stevens accomplished her goal of winning a marathon at age 40 on Feb. 8 in Mesa, Arizona.
The England native followed that up by winning the Rock ‘n’ Roll Running Series Las Vegas half marathon Sunday night on the Strip for the second time in four years.
“I won a marathon two weeks ago so this was just a bonus,” said Stevens, now a Las Vegas resident who won the 2022 event. “I love this race so I wanted to do it regardless of the timing. I just love racing this course and being in my hometown. It’s fun to win again.”
Stevens was beaming after crossing the finish line in front of the Fountains of Bellagio — which was transformed into a party with a DJ, fog, flashing lights, plumes of fire and a dance floor with a giant disco ball — completing the 13.1-mile course in one hour, 17 minutes, 21 seconds.
“I’m an old lady now but I just keep getting faster, so I’m happy and I’ll keep running as long as I can keep getting faster,” Stevens said. “I don’t know how this is happening.”
Stevens held off runner-up Katie Watson, 32, of Austin, Texas, by 10 seconds.
“My marathon legs definitely took hold the last three miles,” Stevens said. “I was just trying to hang on.”
More than 27,000 runners and walkers took part in three Rock ‘n’ Roll races, including a 5K downtown Saturday night, and Sunday’s half marathon and 10K, which were run entirely on closed-down Las Vegas Boulevard.
The start line village was in Toshiba Plaza outside of T-Mobile Arena, while the start line was in front of New York-New York.
Men’s winners
Johannes Motschmann and Mason Tope set a fast pace for the men, running the first five miles together well ahead of the pack.
Then they parted ways as Motschmann went on to win the half marathon and Tope won the 10K.
“I ran with the guy who ran the 10K. I followed him, then he took a turn after five miles,” said Motschmann, 30, from Germany. “I had no idea. I thought he was doing the half.”
Tope, 28, an Iowa native who moved to Las Vegas in October, sprinted across the finish line of the 6.2-mile race in 30 minutes, 24 seconds.
“I wanted to hit under a five-minute pace. I had some guys around me but I wasn’t sure who was running the 10K and who was doing the half,” Tope said. “It was really funny. The whole time there was someone right next to me or right behind me. I was pulling them along because at the first mile, people were going a five-minute pace and I wanted to go 4:50. So I had to push and I got ahead.
“Then, right when we got to the turnoff from 10K to half, the guy behind me was like, ‘Oh, you’re doing the 10K?’ So it was super funny. Then, looking back, there was no one around me.”
Tope was almost five minutes faster (4:34) than the 10K runner-up (Michael Rusnaczyk) in his first race on the Strip.
“I’ve ran on the Strip early in the morning on the sidewalk,” Tope said. “It was just so cool having the crowd cheering us on and running on the Strip like that. I love it.”
Motschmann, who competes for adidas and Marathon Team Berlin, said he’s doing altitude training for a month in Flagstaff, Arizona, and used the half marathon as “a good fitness test.”
He aced the exam, running a sub five-minute pace en route to winning the 13.1-mile race in one hour, four minutes, 13 seconds.
“I absolutely love the course,” Motschmann said. “It was pretty flat, with no wind at all and amazing fans that always push you forward.
“I’ve never raced in Vegas. Just seeing all of this is very different to Germany and very different to Europe. It’s a lot of fun to race here.”
‘More energy to party’
Lindsey Knast, 35, a police officer from Erie, Colorado, was the women’s 10K winner. She finished in 39 minutes, 3 seconds after running the half-marathon here the last two years.
“I’ve been wanting to do the 10K because every time I go past it, it looks like a lot more fun,” Knast said. “Now I can have more energy to party.”
Runners wore neon pink tutus and kilts. One couple ran together dressed as Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. Another couple was comprised of a man dressed as movie character “Forrest Gump,” who had a fake beard and carried a blowup doll wearing a shirt with the words “Run Forrest Run.”
“I like that they have the different bands on stage,” Knast said. “That’s always a good boost when you’re out there kind of suffering.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.