Las Vegas, Nevada Half Marathon

1 DOWN 49 TO GO

December 5, 2010

The first place I am going to write about is Las Vegas, Nevada where I completed the Rock and Roll Series Half Marathon 13.1 miles. I convinced a few of my friends from my boxing class and my best friend (the official cheerleader) to do a race in Las Vegas we were all excited to do it and travel together, there were 8 of us in total. Las Vegas in December isn’t the hot temps you hear about throughout the year the highs were about 60-70, which was a little disappointing when I went because I wanted to do the pool parties but they shut down in November.

DAY BEFORE THE RACE

We left NYC to Las Vegas Saturday December 4, 2010 and arrived in the afternoon; we arrived at the airport and took a limo to the Harrah’s hotel which was located in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip. After checking into the hotel we all decided to grab a bite to eat in the hotel then take a walk to the convention and pick up our race packet which includes (race shirt, bib # and goodies). After the convention we all headed back to the room to prep for the race which was the next morning Sunday December 5, 2010. A few of us attended the pasta party that was offered through the race organizers at the Mandalay Bay which wasn’t the best idea because there was a lot of traveling and walking involved the night before the race and the food was just ok.



Checking in at Expo



RACE DAY

Sunday December 5, 2010 race morning, we woke up before 5 am to travel to the start of the race and fuel up with bagels, water and Gatorade. I am not a morning person so it took me a while to feel excited about racing once the sun started peeking out my spirits were lifted and was ready for some photo-ops pre race haha. Race time was at 7am and I was excited once it started I felt good, kept a rhythm and was an awesome experience running through the strip and old Las Vegas which was a bit creepy and run down. At the half way mark I was still feeling good and clocked in 58mins at the 6mile mark, not my fastest time but I did put on weight that year by mile 9 I started to feel weird and very winded and couldn’t help but slow down, by time I crossed the finish line at mile 13 I felt horrible and sick to my stomach and all I could think about was get my medal and go back to the hotel. Not sure what happened that day but I felt as if I lost my Mojo in Vegas. I was happy to have finished the race but wasn’t too happy with my time and how I felt, I went back to hotel and took a much needed nap and woke up refreshed and had an awesome lunch in Venice (Venetian hotel).

The rest of my Las Vegas experience was great we celebrated at the race after party at Wynn hotel. We planned a bus trip to Hoover Damm and the Grand Canyon which was worth the 5hr bus trip and absolutely beautiful.

Overall my trip to Vegas was great and my friends that I traveled with only made it better. Some of us did great at the race and some of us didn’t but we all had a good time. I am looking forward to my next destination race and my quest to run 50 states.