... or how I can still manage a half poorly trained. Hooray?
I don't know what my initial INITIAL goal for this race was, but it ended up being to have fun (always) and to survive. Maybe do 2:30. Who knows.
I drove out the Wednesday prior and picked up B Thursday in Las Vegas. We tried the expo ... but got there too early, so went and got lunch and returned.
Also at a new casino on Strip - Resorts World!
B was also doing the 5K.
No, we have no idea who the Geists in between us are.
If you want more details on the non-running part of the weekend, visit the personal blog.
Saturday, B ran the 5K. He probably won't blog about it, but he did really well - particularly for not training for it much.
Gooooo husband goooo!
When we first decided to do this, he was hoping to PR the 5K, but that wasn't realistic. But he did get sub-30, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Since the half was the next day, our stop post-race was the Peppermill for delicious breakfast-for-dinner (pre-race tradition).
And pancakes the size of his head. Because of course.
Sunday was weird because, like the last time we did this race, back in 2014, the race start was at night. So it was weird - eat breakfast like usual, eat some sort of snack, hope the stomach isn't too unsettled (ha), walk a very long way to the start.
Unlike 2014, things were a LOT better labeled/marked. Which, duh, 8 years later you'd hope so.
Start line area! Like some guy commented, it was a half-marathon to get to the half-marathon. Still more walking to go, though (spoiler).
Chilling out for a minute post-porta potties.
They had a wall you could write on. Obviously I did.
Because it's us and we head to races like triathlons - GET THERE EARLY - we had a lot of time to sit around and hang out. We got there well before they were even starting to load corrals (by 5 different color groups and we were the middle group anyway) ... but eh. The masses of people made for terrible cell reception so I couldn't even hang out on the phone much. What, I have to dance around to keep relaxed? Sold.
Eventually, it was time to head to the start ... another very long walk.
In the alley part of the walk. There were more fun murals than this, but this is the only one I was able to snag a shot of.
A lot of the Vegas Golden Knights support staff (...?) was out there. Pre-start, we had the Knight Line. B was happy.
The start arch. So close and yet so far ...
We finally got to start and kept the first couple of miles easy. There were a few random pauses - there were the ... VGK ladies, I suppose? ... handing out towels and of course we had to grab some.
Also Chance. Who I had to get a selfie with. And he bit my head.
But other than that, we just clicked down the miles.
Chance did not bite B's head.
3.1 split: 33:20
Surprisingly enough, I don't think we walked for the first time until sometime around mile 4.5. That's weird for me, but I was super happy with how things were going. But, unsurprisingly, B was a little sore from the day before. Still, he was fighting well.
5.4 split: 57:54
6.2 split: 1:08:05
I don't actually remember what mile marker this was.
Remember way back near the beginning when I said most of the morning/early afternoon was to basically hope the stomach wasn't too unsettled? Yeah, well, about that ... it seemed to teeter on the edge of settled and unsettled and finally yelled at me to stop at a porta potty sometime around mile 7 or 8. I wasn't happy about having to stop, but hey - the colon rules all.
Selfie in front of the chapel where we did our 7 year anniversary vow renewal.
The miles where we got off the Strip and downtown (that is, where it got dark) were really rough. It didn't help that mile 8 (between the official markers) was like 1.3 on the Garmin. And it was for most people. The walk breaks ended up being more and more frequent, but we were still doing our best.
10 split: 1:57:56
Late race mood.
We stayed together until around the last mile, as B was just dying. We also wanted to get post-race In-N-Out and felt that splitting up so one of us could get in line (in case it was ridiculous) was a prudent idea. So I left.
12.3 split: 2:27:13
I wasn't able to do as much running as I maybe would have liked (the feet, they hurt), and 2:30 (or 2:35) wasn't happening, but I definitely got sub-2:40.
DONE.
Final Stats:
Time: 2:38:16
615/1211 AG (F35-39)
3379/7360 gender
7451/13355 overall
I busted my booty through the corral (if you know Vegas, you finished basically at the start of the Mirage on the north side and exited the corral between Caesar's and the Bellagio), found my way out of the masses, over the bridge, and straight to In-N-Out ... taking the stairs and not waiting for the escalators. I think I kept moving quickly enough to not let the leg pain seriously set in.
Thankfully, the In-N-Out line wasn't too terrible, and the food came not too long after B joined me (he had to get his remix medal for also running the 5K).
He's dead. And VERY happy for food.
Not one of our best races, but we did it. Would we run it again (for a fourth time)? The short answer ... maybe. If a friend wanted to. As much as we hate 10Ks in general, the 10K might actually be the way to go for this event as it's ONLY on the Strip and could be mentally easier (less boring). So who knows. It'll still hold a place in our hearts though as the first half we ever ran, back in 2010.
