Vegas Vacation

We are back from Las Vegas. We never would have chosen it for a vacation destination, but because the timing of their marathon, and the purported "flat and fast" course, it worked out to be our choice. I hadn't been to Las Vegas in about 17 years. My, how things can change. Many beautiful hotels, but so much yucky stuff as well. The yucky stuff was overwhelming to me, and I just wanted to hide.

We stayed at Mandalay Bay, and we pretty much didn't leave the hotel. It was a beautiful place, with about 400 restaurants inside. The attached convention center was the host of the marathon expo, and the start and finish lines were in the parking lot. We drove the course the first day, and then parked the car and didn't use it again until we drove to the airport. Honestly, there was nothing I wanted to do or see in Vegas. If only it had been warm enough for Mandalay to have their beach open.

Some of you think Las Vegas is flat. Overall, it is. Especially if you live somewhere like I do, you could say that Las Vegas is "flatter than..." The marathon organizers had promoted their "flat and fast course." The did not publish the topography of the course until one week before the race. I know why. The course was NOT flat. The first 10 miles of the half and the full were the same course--the strip. We started at Mandalay Bay and ran about 6 1/2 miles north--downhill, at which point we turned around heading south on the strip--uphill. Who makes a 1/2 marathon that has the last 1/2 of the course continuously uphill? The full marathoners took off at Treasure Island and headed west toward the mountains. They were uphill until mile 20. Not rolling hills where your legs get a little reprieve--solidly uphill. Anyway, let's just say that my second half of the race was slower than the first half.

Some people might think of Las Vegas as a warm winter destination. It's not. We came prepared for weather because---wait for it-----we checked the weather forecast! What a concept. 27,600 runners were there, and I think about 10 of them had checked the forecast before packing their bags. Doesn't everyone look at the weather for a place they are going on vacation? The race promoters had advertised an average high temperature of 58 degrees for December 6th. However, because of my higher reasoning skills, I did the math. The race started at 6:15 in the morning, at which time I knew it was not going to be the daily high temperature. With a couple of clicks of the mouse, I learned that the average morning low was 39 degrees. Right there I knew I would not be wearing my shortie shorts and a tank top. But then we went a step further and checked the actual weather, and discovered that a cold front was heading to Vegas--projected morning lows of 32-34 for the days we would be there. So into the suitcase went the tights, gloves, sleeves, hats, jackets. We were perfectly dressed for the weather. But we sure heard a LOT of angry runners complaining about how they didn't know it was going to be so cold. All I could say was DUH!

We had chosen Mandalay Bay for our stay because the race started and ended in its parking lot. Sometimes race logisics are very tricky if you have to wake up super early to take a shuttle to the starting line, or find parking at the finish line, etc. We just stayed in our warm and cozy hotel room until 6 AM, at which time we joined all the suckers out there who had been in the cold for more than an hour. No 32-degree port-a-potty for us at the start line!

Mark had high hopes of qualifying for Boston, but he also knew that this was only his 2nd marathon since getting back into running, and it might not happen. He trained so hard and diligently, and in the end his time was 3:23:29--which is lightning fast. But he needed 3:20:59 to qualify for Boston. So close, but so far away. This was easier to take because the Boston Marathon has already closed its registration for the race in April, and so he wouldn't have been able to run it until April 2011 anyway. He has already registered for the Newport, Oregon Marathon in June, at which time I have no doubt he will shave that 2 1/2 minutes off of his time and be Boston-bound.

I had originally planned to run 1:58:00 for my race. But when I found out a month ago that I had a stress fracture in my tibia, I had to cut my running way back. I hadn't run more than 9 miles in about 6 weeks, and I had been alternating days of running 5-6 miles with swimming for the past few weeks. My Seattle time last summer was 2:22:30, and I knew I could still kill that time. I decided before the race that if I could come in around 2:05 that I would be happy. I started out holding a good 8:45-9:00 pace, but that was on the downhill first half. When we turned uphill at mile 7, I slowed down a bit to 9:30. And then, at mile 11 my IT band decided to cause a problem. I stopped to stretch for about 3 1/2 minutes, and then I started running slowly. I discovered that if I kept at about a 10:30 pace--which made me crazy to run that slowly--I could run with minimal pain. Any faster, and the IT band would force me to stop and walk, and I was determined to NOT WALK the last 2 miles. So I made it. I found a kick in the last 300 yards, and crossed the finish line where my knee promptly gave out. My time was 2:08:45. 14 minutes faster than Seattle. I am registered for the 1/2 in Seattle next summer, and I can't wait to see how fast I can get in the next 6 months.

By the way, I never want to go to Las Vegas again. Except to fly there in order to get to St. George, of course.