Vegas Race Report: Part 2

Things have been a little crazy this week, so I'm just now getting a chance write about the Vegas Half Marathon. Don't mistake my delay as a lack of enthusiasm about the race. If you have heard anything about the Vegas Marathon from years past, it might not apply any longer. This was only the second year of the new course and date, and the first year for Vegas as part of the Rock 'n Roll series.

With both the half and the full starting together at 6:15 a.m., Mike and I were up at before 4:00. My eye will still swollen from the Santa fluff incident from the day before, but I could at least see out of it and my nose wasn't running. I looked terrible but it wouldn't effect my race. Because I had broken my camera, there was no decision to make as to whether to bring it. I would just run with my race belt and some throw away clothes. We boarded the monorail at 4:45 and headed down the strip.

I'll go ahead and get my only complaint about the race logistics out of the way at the beginning. This race was conducted with a minimum of volunteers. Organizers certainly planned for this situation. The bag drop was in the same location as the bag pick-up after the race. Large tables with cups stacked three levels high were at every water stop, but there were few people actually handing them to you. The GU's at the GU stop were just sitting out on tables. After the race, you were handed a medal in the package instead of having a volunteer put it over your head. None of these things were incredibly inconvenient or effected my race, it was just something that I noticed.

The star of this race is the course. The race starts at the very south end of the strip outside of Mandalay Bay. After a short trip south, the course takes a u-turn and heads straight down Las Vegas Blvd. The strip is completely shut down for the race. Not only was it a heck of a lot of fun to run down the strip as the sun came up, but the road is completely flat. There is not a single rise of any kind for the complete 13.1 miles. After running past all of the casinos, all the way down to the Sahara and into a little residential area, a four point turn sends everyone back down the strip on the other side of the road. Marathoners turn off at 10.5 miles, but us lucky half marathoners continued back to Mandalay Bay. With few turns and no hills, this has to be one of the fastest half marathon courses out there.

The weather was perfect for running with temps in the mid thirties and virtually no wind. With 17,800 half marathoners and 5,800 marathoners, the start was very crowded. Everyone was assigned a corral and they tried to stagger the crowd out by pausing people at the start line. I decided not to try and weave around people and just take the first mile slow. After a 10:52 first mile, I was able to pick it up a little bit and get into a groove. By mile 4, I was running 9:35 pretty consistently and was feeling great.

This was my fourth half marathon and my time was my second fastest. I finished in 2:09:45 which was well under my goal of 2:15. This race was by far my favorite half marathon. My PR is from a race that I truly suffered the whole race and was sick at the finish. During the other two half marathons I was in pain from IT band issues. This race was completely different. I started easy and slowly picked it up. The course was easy and fun. I felt like I was truly running and not just shuffling along. I felt good throughout all 13.1 miles and was never in any pain. What a blast.

Since I signed up for this race just for fun, I didn't have any expectations other than to just have a good time. I certainly didn't plan on having any epiphanies, but that is kind of what happened. Having such a great day has redirected the way that I think about my body. Before I started running seriously a few years ago, I was pretty happy with my body. I don't mean the physical attractiveness of it, I mean the actual functionality of it. I've always been active and played sports, and my body never let me down. I had skied, hiked, swam and pretty much done whatever I wanted.

With running more miles, my body started to fail me. I got injured. I looked around at my peers and realized that they were more gifted, that they had been given better functioning bodies to work with. I was perturbed that my mind and personality was that of a runner but that my body just couldn't take me where I wanted to go. It didn't seem fair that I could work as hard as someone else but that I was somehow stuck running a 10 minute mile.

Running down Las Vegas Boulevard with the sun rising, I felt like I was flying. I know that others saw a middle aged, shuffling woman, but to me it felt like my legs were striding out and I was moving gracefully. I was truly thankful for this body and what it has allowed me to do. It may not be perfect, but I should appreciate it and treat it with more respect than I have in the last couple of years. So at the end, when I crossed the finish line with a big smile and in no pain, I was thankful and I will try to remain thankful for what I have, flaws and all.

Vegas Race Report: Part 1

Okay, folks, this weekend report is long enough that I need to divide it up into two posts. For those of you with a short attention span or that just can't stand the suspense, here is the Reader's Digest version: I ran a Santa Race on Saturday and I beat my time goal on Sunday. Now, for those of you that are still reading, here we go.

While Mike and I were on the plane on Friday, we struck up a conversation with two women across the aisle. It turns out that they were doing the Vegas Marathon and had volunteered at Ironman Florida. They had signed up for a Santa Race on Saturday for charity. Well, a race to Mike is like a party and heaven forbid that there be a party without him. We got the details and kissed sleeping in on Saturday morning good-bye.

The idea of the race was to try to break the Guinness World Record for the most Santas in a race. The registration fee included a five piece Santa suit to wear for the race and to keep. This was the cheapest Santa suit imaginable, so there would be no point to giving it back. Luckily, both Mike and I had packed some extra running clothes, but since we knew we would be wearing the Santa suit on top, we didn't bundle up too much. Big mistake. The race didn't start for two hours and we were freezing by the time Robin Leach gave a few words and all the Santas sang a silly song.

Here we are trying to stay warm and checking out some of the booths before the start. They actually had a lot to eat and drink which really helped.

Watching all of the Santas wandering around was pretty amusing.

In the end, there were 8,000 people dressed up as Santa and ready to run or walk. I was a little worried that I would lose Mike and that we would have trouble finding each other because everyone looked exactly the same. I convinced him to run with me, even though he didn't look thrilled that running my pace would bring down his 5K racing average on Athlinks. He didn't need to worry. This race was purely for charity purposes. There was no attempt at timing, and the 5K course was only 2.5 miles long. He was a good sport about shuffling along with me and it was kind of surreal to be running in a sea of red Santas.

Here is a short video of the start that will give you a little idea of what it was like:

It would have all been worth it to support a cause and to be a part of such a spectacle except I had two mishaps. The first was that I dropped my camera while we were waiting around. It is broken beyond repair and certainly solved my dilemma as to whether I should run with it during the half marathon on Sunday. The other bad thing was that I think some fluff from my Santa suit went up my nose. After the race I started sneezing, my nose wouldn't stop running and my right eye kept watering. I thought that maybe it was a cold, but it felt more like a needle in my sinuses. Sorry, too much information. You get the idea.

After cleaning up, walking around the Vegas Strip and having lunch, we went back to the room and I took a little nap. When I woke up, my right eye was so swollen I had trouble seeing out of it. I looked ridiculous. With a swollen eye and a nose that would not stop running, we ended up eating a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and going to bed early. Yes, we are boring accountants. We didn't do any drinking or gambling. Cyclops lady and her husband put out clothes and gear for the race the next day, set the alarm for 4:00 a.m. and went to bed around 8:30.

I'll tell you about the half marathon tomorrow!

I'm Going to Vegas, Baby!

The Las Vegas Marathon and Half Marathon are this weekend and I'm getting pretty excited. Mike will be running the full and I'll be doing the half. I've been checking the weather forecast each day and this is what it says right now: low of 38 degrees, high of 59 degrees, and 4mph winds. Perfect! The race starts at 6:15 a.m., so it should be in the 40's for my whole race. I love it!

Seeing that the race is only 5 days away, I guess I should do a little planning. The most important thing first: what am I going to wear? I bought a new pair of running shorts for the occasion. After running the last month in tights, it will be great to be in shorts again. As for the shirt, our Thanksgiving Day run nicely provided an ugly, gold, long sleeve cotton shirt that will serve as the perfect throw away shirt for the start. I can always count on that race to provide a hideous shirt that I am happy to chuck to the side of the road. Some poor homeless person will probably end up wearing it, bragging to all of his friends that he ran a 5K in Indiana. I'll wear my tried and true tank underneath and hopefully will be comfortable within the first mile or two.

To bring a camera or not to bring a camera? The few times I have run with a camera, I have never stopped to take pictures. I'll be running by myself as everyone else that I know is either running the full or is a lot faster than I am, so I won't have anyone else to take pictures of. On the other hand, I've never run a race in Vegas before and I'm guessing there will be some picture worthy events and people along the way. Has anyone run Vegas before? Did you wish you had a camera? I would have to wear my race belt with a pouch to accommodate it, and I just don't know if it's worth the extra weight and jiggling. What to do?!

Since it is a race, figuring out what pace to run might be a good idea. I started thinking about my schedule for next year. In January, I already have two races penciled in. I'm hoping to do a 10K on January 1st and The Securian Frozen Half Marathon on January 23rd. I've decided to concentrate on the January 23rd race and train pretty hard for that. Since it's only 7 weeks after Vegas, I've decided to not push too hard for this race. I have some chronic hamstring soreness, so if I go all out in this race I may not be able to train as hard as I would like right afterwards.

Ultimately, I have to think about the two half marathons together. Vegas will be flat and ideal temperatures; The Frozen Half will be hilly and horrid conditions. Vegas will be fun and full of smiles; The Frozen Half will be miserable no matter what pace I run. My goal for Vegas is to finish in 2:15 and hopefully come out of it in reasonable condition. My goal for The Frozen half will be to beat my Vegas time by 5 minutes. Secondary goal for Vegas: to beat an Elvis or two. Secondary goal for The Frozen Half: to not freeze to death.