Las Vegas, Nevada
I had been unable to run all week due to injury issues. My legs were plagued with problems and I am not sure why. I was worried about being able to run at all. I especially had a nagging ache in my right leg behind the knee that just wouldn’t go away. I felt it every day while walking around Vegas the two days we spent there before the race. We also signed up for this 24 hour buffet deal. For 24 hours you can eat at all the buffets for free. I ate to my limit in the 24 hours which ended up being from 2 pm on Friday to 2 pm on Saturday. So besides the leg issues I was also packing on weight and clogging my system with sugar, fat, grease and anything else I could get my hands on. Part of the reason we wanted to run in Vegas was to be in Vegas though. And how can you turn down a 24 hour all you can buffet deal like that. The buffets in Vegas are so good. They are not just buffets, They are the Buffets of Buffets. In fact that is what the deal was called. Not the best preparation for a race I know. This is especially true when I was already having leg issues.
Despite my issues and ill preparation, race day magic showed up and I ran fine. In fact my leg issues disappeared after the race. Running 13.1 miles actually cured me. I may never understand the physiology of my body and running.
This is the first year they have held the race at night. It was pretty cold. Christian and I warmed up in the hotel room and timed it so we would only be outside in the cold wind for a few minutes. Unknown to us though they pushed back the start of the race and we ended up freezing in the wind for over a half an hour. The good part of this race was the scenery. I can’t imagine a more interesting night venue than running the Las Vegas strip. I always thought the strip seemed longer. I have walked it many times and it seems like miles from one casino to the next walking out there amongst the masses. We started the race in front of the Mandalay Bay where we stayed. In no time it seemed we had run the strip and I was looking up at the Stratosphere hotel. As it turns out, it is only 4 miles from the Mandalay Bay to the Stratosphere. After passing the Stratosphere we spent some time winding around some downtown streets with little interest and headed back down the strip. This time it did not go by so fast. A mile or so into the race I latched on to a pace sign reading 1:52. I had no trouble staying with it, so I decided I would make that my goal. It gave me a pace and something to do. For the first eight miles I had no problem staying with it. At eight miles however my legs started to deteriorate and my pace slowed. I was really struggling. It is not that I couldn’t run, I had just lost the ability to run at any speed near my normal pace. I decided my new goal was going to be to keep it under two hours. As the miles wore on, that began to be more and more difficult. There was no specific hot spot of pain, but an over-all pain just set in and running became very unpleasant. I started to ask myself the questions, “why do I do this? What is the point? I am not fast. It doesn’t make me lose weight. What am I putting myself through this for? I was hurting and lashing out at myself. I even thought, “Who cares if I walk?” They will still give me a medal, I will just cross a few minutes later. Christian had dropped off at about 4 miles in and I knew he was somewhere behind me. I didn’t want for him to come across me walking. For all I knew he might not be that far behind me. As it turned out, he wasn’t. It was at this point dismissed the negative thoughts and said to myself, “You are right where you want to be. You do this to suffer and you are in the zone. Lap it up and quit feeling sorry for yourself.” So I did. In fact at 12 miles searched for a good song on my glasses and I forced myself to run at an 8:30 or better pace and really brought on the suffering. I was worried about making under 2 hours. My watch had been bumped 26 seconds into the race and I was running this race without my watch. Between my sun glasses and the darkness, I couldn’t really see it anyways. As it turned out, I made it. This is a great venue. This was my second Rock & Roll Marathon Series event for 2011.
Despite my issues and ill preparation, race day magic showed up and I ran fine. In fact my leg issues disappeared after the race. Running 13.1 miles actually cured me. I may never understand the physiology of my body and running.
This is the first year they have held the race at night. It was pretty cold. Christian and I warmed up in the hotel room and timed it so we would only be outside in the cold wind for a few minutes. Unknown to us though they pushed back the start of the race and we ended up freezing in the wind for over a half an hour. The good part of this race was the scenery. I can’t imagine a more interesting night venue than running the Las Vegas strip. I always thought the strip seemed longer. I have walked it many times and it seems like miles from one casino to the next walking out there amongst the masses. We started the race in front of the Mandalay Bay where we stayed. In no time it seemed we had run the strip and I was looking up at the Stratosphere hotel. As it turns out, it is only 4 miles from the Mandalay Bay to the Stratosphere. After passing the Stratosphere we spent some time winding around some downtown streets with little interest and headed back down the strip. This time it did not go by so fast. A mile or so into the race I latched on to a pace sign reading 1:52. I had no trouble staying with it, so I decided I would make that my goal. It gave me a pace and something to do. For the first eight miles I had no problem staying with it. At eight miles however my legs started to deteriorate and my pace slowed. I was really struggling. It is not that I couldn’t run, I had just lost the ability to run at any speed near my normal pace. I decided my new goal was going to be to keep it under two hours. As the miles wore on, that began to be more and more difficult. There was no specific hot spot of pain, but an over-all pain just set in and running became very unpleasant. I started to ask myself the questions, “why do I do this? What is the point? I am not fast. It doesn’t make me lose weight. What am I putting myself through this for? I was hurting and lashing out at myself. I even thought, “Who cares if I walk?” They will still give me a medal, I will just cross a few minutes later. Christian had dropped off at about 4 miles in and I knew he was somewhere behind me. I didn’t want for him to come across me walking. For all I knew he might not be that far behind me. As it turned out, he wasn’t. It was at this point dismissed the negative thoughts and said to myself, “You are right where you want to be. You do this to suffer and you are in the zone. Lap it up and quit feeling sorry for yourself.” So I did. In fact at 12 miles searched for a good song on my glasses and I forced myself to run at an 8:30 or better pace and really brought on the suffering. I was worried about making under 2 hours. My watch had been bumped 26 seconds into the race and I was running this race without my watch. Between my sun glasses and the darkness, I couldn’t really see it anyways. As it turned out, I made it. This is a great venue. This was my second Rock & Roll Marathon Series event for 2011.
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