Originally I was going to drive into Vegas on Friday after work. However I noticed that I had some points that were about to expire with Virgin America. Friday flights were not available so I ended up cashing it in for a free flight on Saturday afternoon. I thought that that flight would work since the race was at midnight and if the flight was on time, I would have plenty of time to make the expo.
So of course the flight was delayed for about an hour since the plane was coming in late from Seattle. At this point, I still wasn't worried and thought to myself that I had plenty of time. Once I landed in Las Vegas McCarran Airport, I headed straight over to the shuttle stop for the offsite Rent-A-Car Center over on Gilespie St just South of the 215 freeway. It was mighty hot outside, so I waited in the shadows until the rental car shuttle arrived.
I had reserved my car with Payless. It was my first time renting a car from them. The lady at the counter was nice and friendly. She asked for a lot more information that I've ever had to give out in all the times that I've rented a car. I'm guessing it was just a Vegas thing. After taking care of the paperwork, it was time to go pick up the car out in the parking structure. However it turned out that it was like watching grass grow for the next guy to get me a car. There were frustrated customers ahead of me that had already been waiting for a while for their car. The counter had put me down for a VW Jetta. I ended up with a Kia Sorento SUV. It was more car than I'd wanted. I wanted a small car with a trunk so I could hide my stuff from plain sight. Stuff like this makes me paranoid that somebody would break into the car while I was away. Anyways after doing a visual inspection of the car for damages, I was ready to finally be on my way. The guy gave me a bar code to scan so I could get out of the structure. Now I had to hurry to the hotel to drop off my stuff.
I drove over to the Silverton to check-in. This was my first time that I was staying at this hotel. Once I found the check-in counter, the check-in process was quick and painless, but I quickly remembered why I had been staying at 100% smoke-free hotels for most of my visits to Vegas. My room was pretty nice. Fortunately I was able to take a quick dump and changed before rushing back out to buy some drinks and snacks at a nearby Albertsons for the race. I didn't have enough time to go buy GU's or Shotbloks at REI like I had originally planned.
Hotel
No fridge?
Flat Runner
I then hurried over to the Silver 7's to park my car and pick up my race packet at the National Atomic Testing Museum. By this point, it was about 8 pm, the time that the packet pickup would be closed. So I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I got back to my car and got everything ready. I was just about to head back to the bus pickup at the museum when I realized that I didn't have my bib. I went back to the car to look for it. For the life of me, I couldn't find it until I realized that it had fell into a crack between the seats. I hurried back to catch the bus to the start just as they were about to start loading at 8:30 pm. The buses were scheduled to leave by 8:45 pm. Thank goodness I found my bib, because I needed the bib to board the bus!
When I got on the bus, I was finally able to relax a bit. My friends and I didn't try to get on the Maniac bus. We rode on one of the regular buses. After about a two and a half hour ride, we arrived at the starting line. The black mail box was indeed missing as we were informed by the race director in the final email. We took a photo before my friends got back on the bus to go run their half marathon.
Pre-race photo from Casey
Sunday 8/30
The race started promptly at midnight after a few final instructions and official photos were taken. I didn't run very hard from the very beginning of the race. It was warm and felt a bit humid. As the course began to get steeper, I started feeling as if I was overheating. Per the usual, I kept slowing down and slowing down. This was the first time that I saw dead animals on the road. There was a dead jack rabbit and a dead steer on the race course. The steer was on the east side of the road and the stench of death was quite strong. For most of the first half, I was tired and sleepy. It was as if I was sleep running. I swore to myself that I would not run this marathon again or at least take a break. It wreaks havoc on me since I'm a morning person.
As with prior years, I did not feel better until the second half when the course finally flattened out and was mostly downhill for a while until it reached mile 20 at the Little A'Le'Inn. Again I was dealing with leg cramps, but I just kept taking frequent walk breaks and taking deeper breaths. Eventually I got the legs to loosen up just as I approached the turnaround point at about mile 23. Then it was a long downhill stretch back down to the finish line. These last 3 miles were my favorite section of the course because it was just as the sun was beginning to rise. Perhaps this particular moment in the race was what keeps bringing me back! This year I ran my personal worst for this race at 5:50:55. We'll see if I return anytime soon! :)
Near the finish line from Gio
As soon as I finished and got my medal, I started heading towards the bus. They were just about full and ready to head back to the Strip. So I quickly used one of the nearby portapotties before hopping on the bus. I was able to catch a few zzzzz's on the ride back.
The bus dropped us off at the Silver 7's parking lot. The lot was pretty empty. It was a relief to see that nobody broke into my car. I drove back to my hotel to take a shower and get my stuff in order. There wasn't enough time to take a real nap, so I just lounged around until the noon check-out time. I had been sleeping through my alarms lately, so I wasn't about to take a chance. Upon check-out, I had to pay $14.55 for the resort fee. That was a complete waste of money as I wasn't there to use any of what was included in that fee!
Back of shirt
Front of shirt, medal, bib
Time to head on out! Originally I had planned to go eat at a buffet with my friend, but that fell through. It all worked out for the best as my stomach was in no mood to cram in a bunch of food. I packed up the car and drove out to Nem Nuong Bistro in Chinatown to eat lunch before returning the rental car. I came here to check out their nem nuong. They came highly recommended. As with most over-hyped food, there's almost always a letdown. They were pretty good, but not spectacular. I thought the ones at Pho Bosa were better. At least this restaurant was a million times cleaner than Pho Bosa and they also had working air conditioning. For my meal, I ordered the Crispy Chicken Skin with tomato rice, but shortly after placing my order, the waiter informed me that they were out the chicken. So I went with the Shaking Beef instead. It was not bad. It had little cubes of filet mignon.
Rental Car
Nem nuong
Shaking Beef with tomato rice
I still had some time to pass, so I drove down to the REI in Henderson to check out some of the Garmin watches before I made my final decision and buy it on Amazon. My flight wasn't until later in the evening, but I decided to drop off the car earlier to avoid extra hourly charges and just hang out at the airport. I gassed up the rental car near the Albertsons that I normally shop at before heading over to the Rent-A-Car Center. The drop off process was a lot easier than picking up. Just follow the signs to your rental car company and pull up to the front of the lane. I anticipated it being a long ordeal, but it turned out to be easy peasy lemon squeezy. I then hopped on the shuttle for Terminal 3. There was a separated shuttle for Terminal 1. After getting through the TSA checkpoint, I walked up and down the terminal to check out my food options. I decided on getting drinks at the Las Vegas Chophouse & Brewery. I had two Grey Goose martinis which is my favorite drink.
Las Vegas McCarran Airport
Grey Goose Martini
Landing in LAX
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