Wow. Talk about a super delayed reaction! The 2009 Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas event seems like a distant memory but I really need to write about it because I got my second (half-marathon) Personal Record in the same year! YESH. I totally did not expect to PR, either — which makes it even sweeter.
Ok, let me try to recall the event (seeing as it is nearly March and the event took place last December)…
Day Before
I remember going to the Expo the day before the race (Saturday). I believe we arrived on Friday evening and barely got any sleep (since we wasted additional time as we got lost inside the hotel whilst searching for the elevators to get to our room. And that is probably why Pharoahs are buried in pyramids; in case it’s a false alarm [i.e., they’re not dead after all], they’ll eventually die attempting to find a way out of the maze within their tombs. LOL.) But I digress…
We got to the Expo in the afternoon, I think. It was fairly large and lively (I should say, the best Expo is during the San Diego Marathon and this one’s a close second) and had some great deals!! I finally was able to buy the coveted 2XU compression tights! wOOt. I think I had 3 free glasses of MG64’s as well and got a bunch of other freebies, too. The evening’s carbo-load was at the scrumptious Enoteca San Marco restaurant inside the Venetian hotel — I had their pasta arriabiata and it was better than good but not perfect (they didn’t use pancetta. +_+)
I should mention that we stayed at the Luxor (if the pyramid reference wasn’t obvious enough) and I would NOT recommend that place even if your life depended on it (i.e., if you’re freezing and the Luxor is the last place that has accomodations, just sleep in the lobby of the Mandalay Bay.) I’d note what I didn’t like about it but I’d rather get into my race report and belay writing that hotel review for another time.
Race Day
I got my oatmeal (thanks to sis who woke up earlier than us and went to Starbucks for food!) and coffee and went through my race day morning routine. The beauty about our accomodations, despite all its shortcomings, was that we were literally next to the start line. This meant that all we needed to do was take a short walk over to the Mandalay Bay hotel (both places were connected to each other) find the exit and voila! The start line.
I could barely hear the pre-gun race festivities because it was FREAKIN’ cold and I wasn’t really paying attention. I only took notice when we paused for the national anthem and then there were fireworks signalling the start of the race. Only in Vegas! 🙂
The Run and Course
I think the novelty of running on the strip faded by the time we passed all the fun hotels and were met with just, well, the strip. LOL. I got to see LOADS of running Elvi, running couples at the “Run-Thru” chapel by the Paris hotel, more running Elvi, and spectators who were obviously wishing they were back inside the hotels! lol. I think by mile 6 or 7 I was faaaaareeeeeezing that I nearly picked up one of the gloves on the ground. I think my OCD kinda kicked in somewhat and prevented me from doing so (thank goodness). After all, I never did spot the correct pair of gloves. 😉
This is my first race (I think) where I ran a negative split! Or whatever that’s called where I sped up the 2nd part of the race. I know how it happened, too: it’s because of the cold conditions — I just wanted to get the race over with! This meant I skipped every other walk interval, too. Again, the longer I was on the course, the colder I got so naturally, I ran. 😉
Overall, I’m pretty happy with how I fared. Official chip time was 2:36:39! Nearly 5 minutes off my previous half-marathon best. Not a bad way to end the year, yeah? ^_^
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