For lunch I ate at Makino for some all-you-can-eat food with my friend. My friend and I love eating a lot of food and the price isn't too bad for lunch for what they offer here. I thought it would be a good place to carb up for my half marathon tomorrow.
I didn't make the drive out to Vegas until after I had some dinner after work. The traffic wasn't too bad. I rolled into Vegas at about 11pm.
Welcome to Vegas!
I normally make it a point to stay away from the Strip when I'm in Vegas, but I couldn't pass up on a really good deal for a place called Royal Resort, just east of the Riviera. This was still too close to the Strip. There were quite a few shoe-less people walking around in the lobby when I was checking in, rough night? There were drunk idiots in the lobby as well. Security was there handling the situation. Thank goodness the room that I was in was pretty nice and clean. Definitely worth every penny. The sliding glass door even opens to allow you onto the balcony. This was a pretty nice place to stay for a couple of nights especially if you're on a tight budget.
The sink
The crapper
The fridge
The bed
The desk
The TV
The sign
The view from the balcony
Another view from the balcony
Since the race was a St. Patrick race, I brought all of the green gear that I had which wasn't many. I laid out my gear before calling it a night and hitting the hay.
Race gear
Saturday 3/15
I love races with race day packet pickup. I parked at the Hacienda Hotel and walked over to the starting area to pick up my race packet. There was a trail leading down from the parking lot. If you run this race, allow for some time as people were walking very slowly down the trail. If you opt for race day pickup, they'll give you a plastic water bottle instead of a mug. I gave it back because I had no need for another one. They also gave out a nice green cotton t-shirt but they ran out of medium. That makes no sense to me. I registered for a medium and they're out? I hate races that do that! Oh well, I guess I can wear a small.
There was a guy playing a bag pipe at the starting area. They had no gear check and I thought about going back to my car, but that trail was too clogged. Thankfully one of my friends wasn't running in the race was able to hang onto the t-shirt for me.
Bag piper
Half marathon course
The half marathon started first. I lined up near the front. We first headed west on the first out and back. We would go through the 1st small tunnel with the guy playing the bag pipe on top of it. It was pretty much a steady gradual climb until the turnaround at little after 2.5 miles. I sped up a bit on the way back because it was now a gradual decline but the left calf was very tight. By around mile 4, I had to slow down to alleviate the pain. At the slower pace, it started to feel better. We passed by the start/finish area as we head out on another out and back to the other 5 tunnels with the turnaround at the Hoover Dam parking lot. It would be about 4 miles out and 4 miles back. I've run the Hoover Dam Marathon enough times to be very familiar with this section of the course. As usual coming back up from the parking lot at the Hoover Dam was a pain in the butt. On the last steep incline, I had to walk it. The course would smooth out after that and I was able to finish feeling relatively well considering I had a rough time last weekend at the LA Marathon.
Finish!
Finish: 1:54:59
My friends ran the 5k. I was surprised and happy to see that they had waited for me to finish. They both won age group awards. I was content with my time on the relatively difficult course. It was a small race and my time was good enough for 8th in my age group. Normally I don't usually come close to breaking the top 10 in my very competitive age group.
Great friends!
After saying goodbye to my friends, I stopped by Albertson's to pick up some snacks and drinks before heading over to my usual lunch spot at Fukumimi Ramen. I had my bowl of ramen and tried their new honey garlic karaage. No thank you on the honey garlic version. It cost extra and I definitely regretted ordering it. I prefer the regular karaage.
Fukumimi ramen and honey garlic karaage
Race shirt
After getting back to my hotel room and getting cleaned up, I snacked on some cookies and drank some tea while watching some TV. It's weird the cravings that I have after a race. I don't have a sweet tooth or even like cookies, but sometimes after a race I'll eat a dozen cookies in one sitting.
Post race cookies!
6 pack
I met up with my friends in Chinatown at Jenni Pho for dinner. I love a bowl of pho and they really like this place, so I thought I'd check it out. I ordered their pho dac biet and some Spring rolls. The pho tasted okay, but I thought there wasn't enough flavor and that the broth wasn't hot enough. Maybe it was sitting for a while before they brought it out. I've had better pho elsewhere, but this was definitely not the worst. The Spring rolls had way too much lettuce, but I think I like it better this way.
Pho dac biet
Spring rolls
Sunday 3/16
After checking out of my hotel, I thought I'd go have a burger before hitting the road. I drove over to The Cosmopolitan to eat at Holstein's Shake and Buns. It was a bit overpriced even for gourmet burgers. I had one of their most expensive burgers, the appropriately named Billionaire Burger. One of the ingredients was foie gras which made it taste really good. I miss foie gras, too bad it's banned in California. The burger came with a small bucket of fries. I had an Old Rasputin to go with the burger. Even though the burgers were super expensive, I would like to come back to try some of the other burgers on the menu.
Old Rasputin on nitro
Billionaire burger
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