Viva Las Vegas

It's been a little over a week since my return from Las Vegas and the completion of the Las Vegas marathon. The entire Las Vegas experience was interesting, to say the least. We landed at the Vegas airport, which is conveniently located parallel to the strip. After waiting in the rain on the runway, we hopped a shuttle and headed to the great Vegas Pyramid - the Luxor. The irony of staying at the Luxor only six weeks before heading to the real Luxor, was not lost on me. One thing is for sure - the pyramids and temples of Egypt will be nothing like the gargantuan tackiness of Sin City. That being said, some of the "authentic reproductions" (I'm still not sure what that means) of the Las Vegas strip were pretty incredible.

Our arrival at the Luxor was a bit traumatic, the quiet Yukon is nothing like Las Vegas. The noise and lights in the lobby were enough to convince Tony and I that we were never going to leave the hotel room. In fact, Tony was fairly adamant that I was going to have to run the marathon alone, while he hid in the room and watched television. Fortunately, our stomachs got the best of us and after an hour Tony was begging for food. We found a listing for "Burger Bar", which conveniently marries Tony's favorite two things...beer and beef. It only took a single bite before Tony was exclaiming that he would come back to Vegas just for Burger Bar.

The next day I met up with my parents, grandpa and sister who were staying next door at THEhotel, apparently there is an enormous difference between the hotel and THEhotel. I think that the difference translated mostly into a couple hundred dollars. Seeing my grandpa is always a treat, as it is an opportunity to learn from my elders. This trip I learned about the super cocktail - a thermos full of coffee, hot water, and six variety of tea bags. The health smoothie - a mixture of broccoli, blueberries, orange juice, walnuts, and everything else on the top 10 health food list. I don't quite understand the appeal of said food, but Grandpa has convinced me that I should give it a go as soon as I lose my tastebuds. He also taught me how to warm an Egg McMuffin on a lightbulb, an invaluable life lesson to be sure. Grandpa used to visit Vegas before it grew into the mega-tourist stop it is now, so he gave us all the dirt on what the city used to be like and told us some fabulous stories about $4 lobster and free limo rides. My little sister is also a great person to visit, especially in a place like Vegas where her high fashion contacts result in great deals at Gucci and Dior. I felt like quite the fashionista walking around in clothes "borrowed" from her suitcase.

The marathon was on Sunday morning, so on Saturday night I went for a pasta dinner and hit the hay early. The next morning I woke up at about 4 am, thanks to the rowdy 16 year old neighbors. It was at this point that I realized the dichotomy that results in a marathon in Sin City. Collections of spandex clad runners were warming up and stretching in anticipation of the long day, while collections of spandex clad fun-ners were cooling down (or more accurately - passing out) after a long night. I shared the elevator with a pair of paramedics escorting a younng lady in a wheelchair, with an IV in her arm. Aside from feeling slightly sorry for someone who had obviously mis-judged their ability to drink, I was mostly worried that said wheelchair and IV might not be available for me - a young lady who may have mis-judged her ability to run.

The marathon started in true Vegas style, with Elvis singing the national anthem. The race was comprised of 10,000 runners, including 50 couples that were getting married or renewing their vows and over 150 Elvis impersonators. Somehow in amongst all this I managed to find my Father before the gun went off. We agreed to run the first bit of the race together - then the gun went off and so did my Dad. Before the first firework erupted, my Dad was 500 meters down the strip. I took the first few kilometers much slower and enjoyed everything from the New York strip to the Eiffel Tower. Then the marathon seemed to really start... I met up with my Dad again just before the half way point, and we got to enjoy a few miles of running together. When my Dad stopped for the bathroom, I kept going and didn't see him again until the end.

After four and a half hours of running, I finally got back to the strip and close to the end of the race. With literally the last bit of energy, I managed to get myself across the finish line. I hung out at the "family greeting area" for a few minutes before realizing that nobody was there to pick me up. I tried to get a hold of my sister, but technology and too many people prevented us from ever meeting. Eventually, my Dad crossed the finish line and we got to the hotel room and my precious ice bath. After meeting up with Heidi, I realized that Tony was MIA. I dragged my sore, tired butt out of the bath and headed back down to the finish area. I finally found Tony, who had diligently been waiting at the finish line for 2 hours. After getting over the disappointment we headed back to the hotel - just missing my Mom's finish and completing our perfect record of missing everyone's finish.

The marathon finish was celebrated with a new pair of Gucci boots, admittingly not the best post-race footwear and a well-deserved massage. After we sat around looking at some of the pictures that Tony took of the race, I made a sad realization. Tony had gotten a great picture of a bride and groom crossing the finish line.

Here's my finish line photo:

I'm in the green running top, do you recognize the couple on my left??? Tony happened to take out his camera for a great bride and groom picture, right when I was coming in - which is why I went unnoticed. Tony didn't think it was quite as funny as I did.

What did I learn in my first marathon?:

1. Remember when someone told you to not do ANYTHING different on raceday? Don't think that buying fancy new shoelaces that are reflective and elastic is nothing. You will regret putting on your awesome new shoelaces when you have to take off your shoes every 7 km of the race because your feet are falling asleep and yet still in enormous pain.
2. Find a meeting place or a backup plan for the finish. Within the 3 minutes that I finished, 100 other people completed the marathon. It's packed and without a plan, you may end up like me - which is basically spread out on the concrete unable to move.
3. Figure out your eating schedule early. I have had bad stomach problems in the past, but I started following my race day schedule early in my training. I ate a Cliff bar and banana 2 hours before my run and Cliff Bloks every hour once I started running.
4. Get what you need to succeed (that came out way lamer than expected). I had a fabulous trainer design my schedule which worked beautifully for me. I also had a nifty GPS running watch, an IPOD and all sorts of other un-necessaries that were completely necessary.
5. You may need more support then you think. I'm not a big fan of the cheer squad during an event, but I could have used someone cheering me own in those last tough 5 km.
6. Budget in advance - the 42 km probably worked out to being around $150/km once you factor in air fare, trainer, equipment, massages, random electronic gadgets, replacements for random electronic gadgets that you break or lose, etc...

In the end it was all great and I'm excited for the next marathon...destination - unknown. I broke my 4:40 goal by over 15 minutes, so I think I'm going to go for a 4:15 next time around.

Sierra posted this on Dec 12, 2007 from the outside | | permanent link