Rock n Roll Las Vegas Marathon

Buffet Mandatory, Marathon Optional
So the Las Vegas Rock n' Roll Marathon was the final marathon for the year. I always love going to Vegas to eat. I wanted to try out two sushi buffets, Sushi Mon and Hikari. Even though I kept telling myself that the marathon was optional, I knew that I wanted to run it to see the condition of my right Achilles. I had not run a step since the Malibu Marathon 3 weeks prior. I was even beginning to think that I had forgotten how to run. The Achilles was healing up really nicely. I had full range of motion and it was looking a lot more like the good left one. It was relatively pain/niggle free when I walk. Oddly enough just 2-3 days before the race, the Achilles was feeling a bit sore whenever I walked longer distances. In hindsight maybe it was telling me not to run the marathon. :)

Day 1 - Getting to the Expo
I decided last minute to take a personal day on Friday and headed out Friday morning. I was able to book a pretty nice place just off of the Strip for $50. I got into Primm in about 3 hours for my usual restroom break. Boy it was cold! Stupid me, I was wearing shorts. I got into Vegas shortly thereafter. I headed over to park at Luxor. I wanted to walk around a little bit to see how the Achilles felt. I got to the expo before it opened. I talked to one of the competitor group girls at the booth about the ultra with Dean Karnazes at the RnR Arizona. They were setting up outside of the convention hall and it looked quite hectic since it was not planned that way. There was a cowboy convention just next door to the marathon expo and that really added to the crowd. I met Meb Keflezghi, the winner of this year's NYC Marathon, at the Nissan booth. That was really cool. He was a very humble down-to-earth guy. He signed my bib and a postcard of him celebrating after the win at NYC.

I zipped through the rest of the expo with absolutely no intention of signing up for another race. I was however scouting for calf sleeves. All I saw were 2xu. Since I was getting hungry I decided that I would check those out the next day. Then I waited in the registration line to do a last minute sign-up for my friend. After I was done with that, I met up with my Bay Area friends, Cat and Aimee at the food court. I then bumped into Mae on my way to get my car to go check into my hotel and eat at Sushi Mon. I checked into my huge room at the Tuscany Suites. Then I finally headed out to eat a very late lunch or a very early supper at Sushi Mon. It was about 3pm and I was so hungry I could hardly think straight. I love almost all Japanese food and I stuffed myself to the point that I almost had to hurl. I then went back to my hotel to rest my stomach.

Day 2
I woke up the next day pretty early around 5am and read part of Dick Beardley's book, Staying the Course. I checked out at around 9:30ish and went back to the expo to look at the 2xu calf guards and meet up with a few other RWOL folks... Jake, James, Howard, Ingrid, and Marcia. I tried on the sleeves and they felt ok. I was told they were too tight for running by other runners, but I thought I'd give them a try. I bought a pair to use during the race. After saying goodbye to my friends, I stopped by a CVS to buy some sunflower kernels to snack on and OJ for race day. I then checked into the Bluegreen Club 36 resort. This was a really nice place with everything... a kitchen, washer and dryer, and a handicap access bathroom. I could actually sit down and take a shower. I swear the signs were all there. James and Howard joined me for sushi buffet number 2 at Hikari for dinner at 5pm. I tried not to eat too much. It was great eating with friends at Hikari versus eating solo at Sushi Mon. I wished them both a good race and headed back to my hotel. Back in my room, I popped in my Spirit of the Marathon dvd to get some motivation. I really did not want to run a marathon the next day. Jeanette stopped by to pick up her race packet. If you thought that I ran too many races... it's all kid's stuff compared to the amount she ran this year! Ever since I bumped into her at Montaña de Oro, I almost always expect to see her at every single marathon that I run. She's one of my maniac idols! :)

Pre-race
I got ready and checked out by 3:30am to park on the other side of the Strip. The instructions stated that the Strip was going to be closed at 4am. Lies! It was already closed. So I drove further south and was able to cut across onto the street that led to the Mandalay Bay and Luxor parking lots. I didn't want to deal with crowds so I headed for Luxor. I walked over to the Mandalay Bay and hung out at the food court eating my Powerbar. As it was getting close to the start, I headed over to exit and found Jeanette sitting in a corner. I hung out with her since we were in the same corral. Eventually we had to go out into the cold, check our bags, and run a marathon. I wore my Pearl Izumi visor, Worldvision shirt, Sugoi arm-warmers, Asics gloves, Mizuno shorts, 2xu calf sleeves, and Nike shoes. As you can see, no brand loyalty. Man it was cold... freeze warning cold! We hopped into our corral and after some fireworks we were off.

First Half
I started off very slow. When I eventually sped up, it was only up to about a 9:00 - 9:15 pace... a very comfortable pace. I even starting to think that maybe all is well and I would have a decent race. Well, that lasted all for about 3 miles. At that point I started to notice that I wasn't getting much of a push off of my right leg. It just got progressively weaker and weaker. As with my last several marathons, my left leg was again dragging the right leg. I eventually had to slow the pace way down just to avoid injuring my left good leg. The slower I went, the more miserable and demoralized I felt. The legs felt extremely heavy at mile 12 probably due to me not running for 3 weeks.
1: 8:51
2: 9:49
3: 9:01
4: 9:45
5: 8:55
6: 9:12
7: 9:43
8-9: 19:17
10: 10:32
11: 10:05
12: 12:07
13: 12:39

Second Half Maniac No. 1382 asked me for my maniac number when we bumped into each other at around mile 15 and 16... right about when my race turned into a piss-a-thon. I kept getting the urge to pee. I tried to drink less, but then my legs started cramping. So I had to pick the lesser of the two evils and kept visiting the portapotties at almost every single mile. Even after the race I had to keep going. I saw James when he was around mile 21 and headed back while I was still heading out. He said he was having a bad day and he even turned around to walk with me a little. Apparently he had caught the flu. Later on when I stepped out of the potty of my many potty breaks somewhere around mile 22, I bumped into Jeanette. She had just ran a marathon the day before and she was in better condition than I was. She really helped me out at that point. But after hitting yet another potty, I ran pretty fast up the last hill just to catch her. But hills and a bad Achilles don't mix, so I had to let her go. Besides my legs were starting to lock up, so I couldn't even keep up if I wanted to go with her. I saw my friend Ingrid around mile 25. I think she said that I made her wait an extra hour. Once I saw the 26th mile marker, I just ran with whatever I had left to the finish line bad Achilles and all. I don't know why, but what always lights a fire under my butt for the last .2 is when I tell myself that it's only a short par 4 to the finish.
14: 12:00
15: 12:26
16: 15:56
17: 15:19
18: 15:07
19: 14:52
20: 12:35
21: 15:27
22: 13:50
23: 15:02
24: 13:30
25: 12:26
26: 14:30
26.2: 1:56
Finish: 5:15:05

Post-race
I met up with my RWOL friends (Joe, Cat, Kristy, Mae) and Aimee at the House of Blues. I must say that Guinness is my new favorite post race beer. My former go-to beer, Newcastle, did not taste good at all for some reason. I had the "Cobb salad of defeat" and boy did I feel defeated! I really finished out the year with a whimper.

The greatest strength of a typical marathon maniac is the "never quit" attitude. Sad to say, it is also the greatest weakness. A normal sane non-maniac with my injuries would've drop out at mile 3 or maybe even at the 10k mark. It would be safe to say that it takes quite a bit to bring down a maniac. It's literally the finish line or bust.

The 2xu calf guards felt great throughout the race. They did not feel too tight. I actually prefer the feel of 2xu over Zensah. They both work well though. The last few races that I've worn calf sleeves, the calves were never sore or were the first body part to recover.

In case you were wondering which sushi buffet was better... the quality of the sakana (fish) and food art was definitely better at Sushi Mon. Hikari was ok with a few other items on the menu, but the quality just wasn't as good. Sushi Mon wins my vote.

The Future
Obviously the Achilles did not pass the test. So I will not be signing up for anymore races in 2010. I will only run the races in which I've already paid. In fact, I'm seriously considering downgrading a few of the earlier races in 2010 to half marathons or skipping them altogether. Right now Carlsbad is pretty much a DNS. We'll see... I have about a month and a half to recover.