Race Report Las Vegas Marathon Dec 4 2005

Member

Short version: 4 hours 50 minutes

Long version: I never prepared for a marathon before by sipping coffee in a keno lounge at 4am, playing video poker and listening to the two drunk guys next to me try and pick up some women-I couldn’t tell if they were professional women or not. After I lost my ten dollars, I walked two casinos down to Mandelay Bay for the start of the marathon.
It was a cold morning-around 38 degrees F, and windy.. I wore a singlet, shorts, and throw away T-shirt and a last minute addition of a throw away sweathshirt. It was pretty cold standing around for 1 hour before the start. I ended up in a seeded corral, and spent most of that hour eyeing the folks behind the corral thinking they would run me over at race time.
6 am! Start of the New Las Vegas Marathon, running up the Strip! Fireworks went off over the Strip, and the announcers had already cautioned us to “not stop and watch the fireworks”.

Running the Strip was very cool, a once in a lifetime thing. The bride and groom couples (22 couples got hitched at mile 5.5) and the 26.2 Elvises merged right with me, so I had the pleasure of running the Las Vegas Strip next to 26 Elvi, who were also pushing a baby jogger (maybe that was the .2 Elvi) playing “Hound Dog”. The pedestrian bridges were crowded with specatators and it was also funny to see the casino patrons out, still with beer in hand, looking really puzzled as 11,000 runners went by. The Volcano at the Mirage was erupting as I ran by, a nice little event!
Around mile 3 I realized something was wrong with my Garmin, it wasn’t set in my normal fashion, so I tried to reset it about mile 4 and then realized my times would be off-oh well, nothing I could correct on the run now. I also was getting warm, and took off my sweatshirt, tied it around my waist, and t hen it promptly fell off. I didn’t stop for it, not with the amount of runners behind me. It was cold and windy and I hoped I would be okay in a singlet and Tshirt.
We entered the Fremont Street experience and ran down the rows of casinos, although it was too light out for the light show above us, but a nice experience. My sunglasses fell out of my pocket here and a nice runner scooped them up and handed them back to me. Thanks, guy with Tattoos on both calves!
The wind really started to bother me as we left the Strip area and headed into the desert. I didn’t know if it was really windy or it was just me until I read some other race reports and they said the wind was a factor. All I knew was I was running really s-l-o-w-ly and I couldn’t seem to speed up. My thighs, my quads muscles just never seemed to be getting warmed up.
At mile 13.1, I saw my time: 2.17. I thought “Man, you suck Kim”. I was very unhappy. I thought I should at least try to beat my first marathon time. But I still couldn’t seem to get any faster. In fact, now my stomach and intestines were bothering me, and I needed a Port o Pottie badly. I stopped at one, in a very long line, and my cramps stopped, so I thought I would just continue. Of course, once I started running again, the cramps began. And we were running through a residential neighborhood where each yard was walled off about 6 feet high. It was like running in a dry moat. And when you’re looking for some privacy, this was truly horrible. I continued along like this for about two more miles before I spotted a Port o Pottie.
And then, finally, relieved of everything, I got back on the route at Mile 16 and felt GREAT!! We were out of the wind, in this walled community, and the sun was actually hot. I was finally able to drink some water, which I had been afraid of doing for about 5 miles. Great! It only took me 16 miles to get into the run!
The rest of the marathon was really good for me. I was now running under 11 minute miles, enojoying the few crowds on the corners, the entertainment, although the GoGo Dancers at mile 23 didn’t look really enthused about being out there.
We turned onto Frank Sinatra Drive, which runs behind the casino, and I saw my casino, the Monte Carlo, it looked so far away. Dennis surprised me and was out on the course here and snapped a pic of me.

I finally reached Mandelay Bay, high fived about six Elvises on my way to the finish line, for my PW (personal worst) marathon finish time of 4 hours 50 minutes.
It was certainly an experience to run down the Las Vegas Strip surrounded by Elvises!!

Member

That last photo is AWESOME!!

Congrats on a great race.

Member

Congrats Kimba!!! Very nicely written report, I really enjoyed reading it. Sounds like quite an event! Bummer about the obstacles, but hey, the fact is that you got another marathon under your belt, and not many people can even concieve the idea of running one. Great job! Mr. Green

Pyromaniac

Great report Kim and cool photos also!

Excelent

You look great at the finish. Great race report

Hipster Doofus

The Pinball

congratulations Kimba! great report and well-done marathon cheers

awesome finish line picture too!!!

way to go Mr. Green

POTFH

Great Job, Great Report, Great Pictures!!!

The Movie Geek

PRESIDENT

Excellent job Kimba. You looked great. thumbs up

Member

kimba, sounds like a wonderful time. we were in vegas the weekend before thanksgiving...so i can very easily visualize your description...

great job...i may put this on the list of races i'd like to do, a friend that we went to vegas with mentioned it casually, we'll see if it gets either one of us motivated to train for another marathon..

oh, btw...congrats and great job!!!

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megawill

Hipster Doofus

Member

Member

Nice job and great pics.

Member

"Viva Las Vegas..."

...And VIVA KIMBA!!! Wink

Awesome job, great report and pics. thumbs up

This'd be worth running just for the sight of all those Elvii... Very Happy