Per the usual, I began my drive out to Vegas shortly after eating lunch. Once again, I stopped at the Chevron gas station to fill up the gas tank before hopping on the freeway. The traffic was moving along at the usual pace until I was around the Yermo area where it would come to a dead stop. I turned on the Waze app to see if I could find out what was happening up ahead. It would turn out to be a major crash on the Southbound side of the 15 near Newberry Springs. All of the cars were inching along every so often with a few impatient idiots driving on the shoulder. When I finally got to the site of the accident, it looked like a big rig's trailer had caught on fire and completed burned up down to the frame. While sitting in that crawling traffic, the car in front of me first dumped ice out the window from a large McDonald's drink cup. Then they proceeded to dump what looked like urine a total of 3 times. Classy. When you got to go, you got to go! Can't really blame them. The traffic incident caused about a 2 hour delay.
Major crash
Semi truck fire
I arrived at the WorldMark Las Vegas - Spencer Street property at about a quarter after 6 pm. I got myself checked-in and was assigned unit 215. This was my first time being assigned an unit in this building. It was pretty much the same as any of the other units, but this one was located right next to the corner in the parking lot that was designated as the smoking area. I guess all of the windows will have to remain closed for the duration of my stay.
After I got settled into my room, I hopped back in the car to go get dinner at Chick-fil-A. Using the mobile app, I ordered a Cobb salad with grilled nuggets and used a reward to get a free grilled chicken deluxe sandwich.
Grilled chicken deluxe sandwich
Cobb salad with grilled nuggets
After finishing dinner, I took a shower to get ready for bed. I will have to make a note that the water pressure in this building was nice and strong. Prior to calling it a night, I watched some WWE Friday Night SmackDown and laid out my flat runner. I had dug out my arm coolers, but eventually decided not to wear them because it wasn't going to be hot enough.
WWE Friday Night SmackDown!
Flat runner
Saturday 4/24
I woke up early to catch the Liverpool v. Newcastle match at 4:30 am. Salah scored an early goal and it looked like it would be a win for Liverpool, but Newcastle managed a very late stoppage time goal to earn a 1-1 draw. I left my unit at about a quarter after 6 am to head over to the race venue at the Cornerstone Park. The drive over to the park took about 20 minutes. I found a parking spot and walked over to the tents are the start/finish area to pick up my race packet. Per the usual, I ran into a couple of my friends. I still had a little over an hour to wait before the start of the race, so I used the park restroom and headed back to my car.
Packet pick-up
Swag
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Robert
Before the 8 am start time, we gathered by the steps near the start/finish line to take a group photo and to receive last minute instructions from the race director. It was already feeling a bit warm while standing in the sun.
Michael
Pre-race photo with everyone
The race started right on time at 8 am. I ran out at a decent pace, about 8:30 per mile. Everything was going fine until I crossed the second bridge and made a right turn for my car to get my neck cooling scarf. I totally didn't see the sign at that point directing the runners to make a left turn. When I got my scarf, I returned to the course. However instead of going back and turning down the dirt road to the edge of the lake, I continued running straight ahead. After I crossed the timing mat, I looked at my watch and realized that something was wrong. I turned around and didn't see any runners behind me, but I did notice that they were emerging out of the dirt road. Eventually, I doubled-back and went around the timing mat and rejoined the course. Getting lost on that first loop added about .2 miles to my distance. Unfortunately, my left Achilles was feeling sore, so I decided to back off on the pace and run at a slower pace where it didn't feel like I was aggravating the tendon.
Here we go!
Early running from Ryan
Meili just finished her 100 miler!
Each loop was 2.5 miles. After completing my 4th loop, I pulled out my phone and decided to document the course. I was already beginning to struggle, so I used that as a distraction and hopefully regroup a little bit.
Start of loop
Pascal!
So many goslings!
Here was where I missed the turn on my first loop
End of loop
After completing my 5th lap, I got my bottle filled with water at the aid station. I then veered off the course to get an electrolyte tab to add to my water and a new sleeve of CLIF BLOKS. This was about 13 miles into the race. It took me about 2:30 to reach the halfway point of a marathon. I knew that my goal of completing at least the marathon distance was slowly slipping away. The weather conditions continued to get worse as the day went on. It was getting quite toasty and the winds had picked up. The sustained wind gusts were strong enough that I had to wear my cap backwards whenever the wind was blowing into my face. They were passing out snow cones and ice pops, but I felt it just encouraged us to slow down even more!
Eviltwin!
Rachel!
Snow cone
Robert and Michael
Super pop
Hot and windy
Hot and windy... reduced to only walking
The race director told us that we could do partial laps using markers that we would drop into buckets along the loop to count fractions of the 2.5 miles loop. However, when I crossed the mat after completing my 10th loop, I knew that I would not have enough time to go out and cover enough distance to have completed a marathon. So my race ended there.
Finish: 25 miles
Actual distance covered: 25.31 miles in 5:51
Click here for my Garmin data.
After getting my finisher medal, I got a cup of water and a couple of pickle slices before finding a spot to sit down. That heat really got to me as I was feeling a little dizzy. I was hoping that eating the pickles would help out. After waiting a bit, I finally got up, used the restroom and headed back to my car. I talked to the race director on the way out. He told me to come back on a regular year as the weather conditions are much more favorable in February. I'll definitely have to keep that in mind as today was quite the struggle!
Finisher medal, pickles and water
Along the way back to my timeshare unit, I stopped at the Chick-fil-A on Stephanie St to pick up lunch. What I was really craving was a frosted lemonade! In addition to that cold treat, I also ordered a Chick-fil-A deluxe sandwich with American cheese and a spicy Southwest salad with grilled nuggets. Once I got there, I hopped into the drive-thru lane. When I got back to my place, I noticed that they had forgotten the seasoned tortilla strips and chili lime pepitas for the salad. They also forgot to give me a fork and knife. Thankfully, I had utensils available at my timeshare unit.
Chick-fil-A drive-thru
Spicy Southwest Salad with grilled nuggets
Chick-fil-A Deluxe Sandwich w/American cheese
After finishing my meal, I got cleaned up and pretty much vegged out for the rest of the day. Later that evening, TNT was showing the Avengers: Infinity War, so that's what I watched for the hundredth time. That was followed by Avengers: Endgame.
"I don't feel so good..."
"Mother f..."
At about a quarter past 8 pm, I headed back out to pick up dinner at Chick-fil-A. This was pretty late for me as I normally eat dinner at around 5:30 pm. Along the way, I noticed something that definitely caught my attention. Most cars in Vegas have heavily tinted windows. Mine are not tinted at all. While sitting at a long red light, I looked over to the lane next to me. The guy in that car had his windows down and was staring at me quite intently as if he had a staring problem. He looked like a hard dude that you'd want to avoid. Turned out that he wanted to overtake my car just so he can make a left turn. I guess he was sizing me up. For this meal, I ordered a Cobb salad with grilled nuggets, a Chick-fil-A deluxe sandwich with American cheese, and a fruit cup. Back at my unit, I ate my meal while I finished watching Avengers: Endgame.
Cobb salad with grilled nuggets
Dang it, Sam. It's your shield now. You could've saved us from a few episodes in your mini-series
Sunday 4/25
I woke up early to watch the Wolves v. Burnley match at 4 am. Chris Wood scored a hat-trick before the 1st half was over! Burnley went on to win easily 0-4. I followed that with the Leeds v. Man United match at 6 am. I caught the first half before checking-out and hitting the road at 7 am. That match would end up in a 0-0 draw.
At 8:30 am, it was the Man City v. Spurs match for the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. José Mourinho was sacked last week on 4/19, so Ryan Mason will be managing the Spurs. I was not a fan of Dan Levy sacking Pochettino to bring in José. I thought he totally panicked with a slow start to that season. José's infamous "park the bus" strategy was not a very good fit for the Spurs as they did not have the defenders to execute his boring to watch strategy. I kept an eye on the score during my drive. The Spurs hung in there, but a free kick from Kevin De Bruyne led to a goal by Laporte in the 82nd minute of the match and that was the final score, 1-0.
As I approached El Cajon Pass, the traffic pretty much comes to an unusual complete stop. Turns out that a pick-up truck had flipped over on the Northbound side of the 15. I wish drivers would please stop rubbernecking! It was actually drizzling a little bit driving through the pass so most of the traffic slowed way down. Usually this was the spot where drivers would bomb down the long stretch of downhill.
I got home early enough to catch the majority of the Aston Villa v. West Brom match that started at 11 am. That match ended in a 2-2 draw. A defensive blunder by the Baggies allowed Keinan Davis of Aston Villa to score his first Premier League goal in stoppage time.
No comments:
Post a Comment