Red Rock Marathon 2011

Pre-race Stuff

I left for Vegas on Friday morning at around 6am. I bought gas at $3.69 a gallon before hopping on the freeway. Thankfully it was a very uneventful drive. Once I got into town, I got off of St. Rose Parkway to head towards the REI in Henderson. I forgot to bring my water bottle, so I went and bought a new one. This time I tried out the CamelBak Podium Chill bottle.

Afterwards, I headed over to the Albertsons on Warm Springs Rd. to buy some drinks and snacks. I bought sweet tea, orange juice, water, and some Keebler Chips Deluxe Chocolate Lovers cookies. I then drove across the street to eat at Ohana Hawaiian BBQ. I got the usual garlic shrimp.

I drove over to the Emerald Suites right next to The Orleans to see if I could check in early. They put me in a room on the 3rd floor. The building had no elevator. While I was walking up the stairs, I saw used linen, towels and bagged garbage all along the hallways and stairs. I first thought nothing of it and figured everything would get picked up later since I checked in early. I put the drinks in the fridge and tried to turn on the TV. But it wasn't responding to the remote. So I manually turned on the TV. The channel up and down buttons were sticky and would sometimes get stuck jumping a bunch of channels. I watched ESPN while eating some cookies. I then took a nap before heading over to the Red Rock Casino Resort to pick up my race packet.

I got there a little after 5pm. Red Rock Casino was pretty nice. I should've stayed here instead. For some reason I kept missing the Rock's Lounge, but eventually I found it. After picking up my packet, I headed over to Monta Noodle House to eat some ramen! I ordered the tonkotsu ramen with nitamago and the mini mentaiko bowl. Good stuff.

Red Rock shirt - front view

Red Rock shirt - back view

Monta Noodle House's mini mentaiko bowl

After returning to my room, I noticed that all of the crap was still out in the hallways and stairs. I watched some TV and went to sleep pretty early. But I awoke in the middle of the night with a wicked stomach ache. I believe the cookies were a mistake. I suspect that they were what made me sick. I tend not to do too well if I eat too much sugar. I prefer salty food... beef jerky, salt & vinegar Pringles, pretzels, etc.

Race Morning

I managed to sleep a little more and woke up to get ready. I drove over to Red Rock Casino to catch the bus. Before getting on the bus, I used the casino restroom one last time. It was a tad chilly, so I brought my arm sleeves. In hindsight, I should've brought my gloves as well. My fingers were frozen stiff during the first 2 miles of the race. On the bus, I bumped into Maniac Casey.

Out-n-Back shirt

It was a short ride over to the starting area. It was still pretty dark when we were let off of the bus. Casey and I hung out near the van at the starting area. At dawn, we bumped into a few of our friends since it was bright enough to see people's faces. We got in line for the portapotties. A few minutes before the start of the race we snapped some pre-race photos.

Maniacs pre-race photo

Starting area right before 6am

First Half

I made sure to keep it slow from the very beginning. I was aiming for 10 minute miles. I resisted every urge to pick up the pace. I thought I was going to have a nice pain-free jog-a-thon until I came to a slight downhill on my way to mile 5. I felt discomfort in my left leg. Again I felt the discomfort on each little downhill. It hurt to engage the left calf. It was cool to see the Galindos at one of the aid stations. When we crested at mile 9 and started the huge downhill to the visitor center, I knew I was in for some pain. This section was very demoralizing. As everyone behind me zoomed by me, I kept having to slow down. There was also some need to dodge the half marathoners heading the other way. My one and only portapotty break during the race was right before I got to mile marker 13.
1: 9:57
2: 10:00
3: 11:36
4: 10:10
5: 10:49
6: 11:42
7: 11:28
8: 13:13
9: 10:10
10: 10:45
11: 13:48
12: 13:33
13: 15:23

Second Half

The two laps around the visitor center was hard for my leg having just trashed it coming down the long hill. It was a tough climb all the way to mile 18. I hiked most of it with maniac Diane but eventually she took off so she could finish under 6 hrs. There was again very noticeable discomfort during the big downhill back down to the starting area where we finish. Once again I was being passed by people behind me. All I was doing was trying to move without hurting the bad leg too much. I tried to pick it up a little bit starting at mile 25, but I was starting to cramp and the gentle downhill to the finish was causing discomfort in my left leg... making it hard to jog. Once I knew that the finish line was just a few hundred yards away, I finally opened up the stride and ran it in.
14: 15:18
15: 16:39
16: 16:41
17: 17:14
18: 18:12
19: 18:42
20: 17:00
21: 16:29
22: 15:52
23: 15:41
24: 17:08
25: 14:55
26: 15:04
26.2: 1:52
Finish: 6:09:19

Post-race Stuff

I stopped dead in my tracks shortly after crossing the finish line. The volunteer took off my timing chip and hung the medal around my neck. It was very cool that my friends waited for me to finish. One even brought me some water. I originally joked that I'll probably be taking about 8 hours to finish. After a few post race photos, we hopped on the bus back to the Red Rock Casino.

Finish

Maniacs at the finish

Finisher's medal

Calico Racing puts on fun races with challenging courses. The Red Rock Canyon Marathon was no different. It was hard, but it was well worth the hurt. The organization is top notch and the race director really takes care of the runners. Calico races are still fairly small with only 175 marathon finishers in this race.

After I cleaned up a little bit in the casino restroom, I went to my car and was ready to pull out of the parking lot. But there was a van blocking me. Apparently the driver who had also ran the marathon was feeling faint. They switched out the driver and moved the van so I could leave. I went back to Monta Noodle House to eat more ramen! This time I got the tonkotsu ramen with nitamago and nori. I also got some gyoza. I got some stares from people since I was still wearing my Out-n-Back shirt and had my compression calf sleeves on. Oh well.

Monta Noodle House's tonkotsu ramen with nitamago and nori

After I got back to my room, I crashed on the nasty sofa and watched some movies on TNT. They were showing all 3 of The Librarian movies. I haven't seen them before and they were quite entertaining. Reminded me a lot of Indiana Jones but a tad more cheesy.

Let the Recovery Begin!

Took a shower and slept. Next day before leaving for the M Resort, I filled up the tank for $3.56 a gallon. I headed over to the M Resort to eat at the highly touted Studio B Buffet. I got there at around 8am. I found out it didn't open until 9am. So I walked around the casino which helped with the achy left leg.

I ate 5 plates. When I was getting my 4th plate, the waiter cleared my table thinking that I had left. This buffet was pretty good, but it's about the same in quality as the Rio World Carnival Buffet or just about any other premium buffet on The Strip. I suppose you could say that this place is better if you like the included all-you-can-drink cheap beer and wine. I didn't bother with that, I just had coffee and orange juice.

Studio B buffet

Studio B buffet - plate 1: warm snow crab legs and breaded butterfly shrimp

Studio B buffet - plate 2: tempura shrimp, cocktail shrimp, green beans, mahogany chicken

Studio B buffet - plate 3: cold snow crab legs, breaded butterfly shrimp, green beans

Studio B buffet - plate 4: lox, green beans, kalbi, teriyaki wings, pork rib

Studio B buffet - plate 5: pear, cantaloupe, pineapple

The tables around me kept changing people and sometimes I wonder why other people eat at buffets. They usually don't even eat half the amount of what I ate and I'm barely eating my money's worth. They're better off paying the same amount for higher quality food.