I would've liked to have made it all the way to Primm, NV, but I opted for a stop at the Tesla Supercharger in Baker, CA. I probably could've held my pee, but the car didn't think it had enough charge to get all the way there. After I plugged the car in for a charge, I used the restroom, and returned to the car to wait. It was a short wait as I only charged it enough to get me into Las Vegas.
Tesla Supercharger Baker, CA
I was planning to charge the car at the Tesla Supercharger at The LINQ, but first I stopped at the Cracker Barrel to get some breakfast. The place was pretty packed, but I didn't have to wait long before I was seated at a table. I ordered my usual Country boy breakfast with sirloin steak and my 2 sides were hash brown casserole and grits.
Country boy breakfast
After I was done and paid for my meal, I made my way over to the charging station at The LINQ. This will be one of the few times that I venture out to The Strip. I only come out here because the charging rate per kW is the lowest in the area. However, on top of the charging costs, only the first hour is free for Tesla drivers to be in this parking lot.
Tesla Supercharger The LINQ
After the car was done charging, I drove over to the World Market Center to pick up my race packet. I pulled into the parking structure and found a parking spot on the 3rd floor. As I opened the door to the elevators, I came across my friends from the Seattle area as well as a couple of snowbirds living out in Arizona. It was a quick hi and goodbye as we went our separate ways. I forgot where the race expo was so I guessed on going down to the ground floor. It turned out to be a good guess. From there, they had signs directing me to the entrance of the expo. It was a quick in and out procedure for me as I didn't see anything that interested me after picking up my race packet and finding my name on the participants name wall. I did bump into my friend Deo on the way out. He was waiting in line to take a picture.
World Market Center
Race shirt
Goodie bag contents
Participants name wall
After I was done with the race expo, I started heading back to my car. Along the way, I stopped at the restroom before getting into an elevator. From there I drove over to La Quinta over in Summerlin. I tried to check-in early, but the lady at the front desk was telling me that they were going to charge $20 if I want to check in before 1 pm. I asked her if I still had to pay for early check-in if I'm a Wyndham Diamond member. She said that she would need to talk to her manager. Since I wasn't in a hurry, I told her that that wasn't necessary, I'll just wait in the lobby until 1 pm. I spent most of that time checking work email. When 1 pm rolled around, I got my room keys from her. I went back to my car to get my bags and went up to my room. I was assigned room #418. I used the stairwell to get up to my floor. Coincidentally, it would turn out that the elevator on the western end of the building wasn't even working.
Once I got to my room and got situated, I went through my race packet and goodie bag to check out the contents. I also took the time to lay out my flat runner to make sure that I had everything for tomorrow's marathon. I hope that what I'll be wearing will be enough to keep me warm at the starting area before the start of the race!
Flat runner
After watching TV for a couple of hours, I went back out to pick up dinner. I opted for my usual McDonald's prerace meal. I placed my order ahead of time on the mobile app before driving over. I had selected picking up my food at the counter. However, once I had parked the car, I noticed that they had several signs on the doors saying that the lobby was closed and to use the drive-thru. I hopped back in my car and joined the long line of cars. Once I got up to the ordering speaker, I informed the guy that I was picking up my mobile order.
I enjoyed the 2 Quarter pounders with cheese back at my room. Both tasted fine. However, on some rare occasions, eating at McDonald's will give me late night diarrhea. This was one of those times. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad and I was able to go back to sleep.
Saturday 4/1
The marathon bus loading over at the Asurion Corporate Office off of Grand Montecito Pkwy was from 3:15 am to 4:15 am. Since it takes about 15 mins to get there, I timed my morning routine with a departure time of about 3 am. When I got there, I made the mistake of just following the car in front of me. It turned out that that person didn't know where to go, so we ended up turning onto Rome Blvd. I stopped following and turned right on Riley St and looped back around. This time, I turned in at the first parking lot entrance right after Rome Blvd. I found a nice spot near the southern end of the lot where I gathered my stuff and headed to the first bus in line. It was a smaller party bus with black lighting which caused everyone's running shoes to light up. I tried to catch a quick cat nap on the ride up to the starting area.
The driver informed us that the temperatures were in the lower 20's when we were dropped off at the starting area just shortly after 4 am. The staging area was in the parking lot of the Mt Charleston Lodge & Cabin. The race would start back up the road near the cul-de-sac. While hunkering down for the wait, there was a bunch of snow all around piled quite high which was not the case last year. The guy on the loud speaker took a break from playing music to inform us that in the week leading up to the race, they weren't even sure if the snow would melt enough for the course to be open for a race. It was only in the last few days where it became possible for the race to take place as planned. Still, there was plenty of snow all along the sides of the road. It was pretty much a snow wall. This made it difficult for the larger buses to make that turnaround.
Early morning shuttle ride
Fast Eddie
Lorinda
The race was scheduled to start at 6 am with the gear truck closing at 5:30 am. I was huddled together with my friend near the gear truck. She was nice enough to share the blanket with me. As 5:30 am approached, I finally took off my jacket and checked in my gear bag. I had a sudden urge to pee, so I headed back to the portapotties.
Gear check van
I was near the back of the pack of people heading up to the starting line at the cul-de-sac. I couldn't really feel my toes and my endurance was not quite where it needed to be for a marathon, so I went out at a modest pace. I wanted to take it easy for at least the first half marathon. Having run this race last year, I knew that there would be an incline during the loop through the Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway parking lot at around mile 5. I pulled over and took some pictures. I was then putting my phone away, but I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going. Well, I stumbled onto either a large rock, an ice block, or something else, which had me taking a dive into the gravel and rocks off to the side. I popped right back up, but my right hand and elbow took most of the damage. My right pinkie was quite bloodied. Thankfully, I always carry paper towel with me. I used it to stop the bleeding. My right knee and hip were also scratched up, but thankfully didn't break skin.
Near mile 5
Right before I tripped and fell
Stephanie near mile 16
Mile 23
During the last mile, I ended up chatting with a fellow runner that I had been leapfrogging for almost the entire race. When I told her that I had run a marathon in almost all 50 States, she asked which one I had run for Iowa. She was from New York and originally from Iowa. I told her that I ran the Wabash Trace Marathon and that it was nice running through the cornfields along the Wabash Trace Nature Trail. She told me that she was more into ultrarunning and had been attempting to get back into shape.
Last mile
Finish: 5:00:02
Click here for my Garmin data.
Well, that was a doozy. Even though I was not in the best of shape, I should've finished well under 5 hours. However given the circumstances, I'll gladly take this finish! After receiving my finisher medal, a bottle of water, and a bag of post race goodies, I made my way over to the medical tent to get my wounds cleaned up and bandaged.
Finisher medal
Post race goodies
Post race wound care
After getting my wounds taken care of, I went over to the sweet treat tent to pick up my donut. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I'll certainly have one after completing a marathon! I stopped over at the beer garden to give my beer ticket to my friend, but it looks like I had taken too long today and she had already left. I did find Eddie still there, so I gave the ticket to him instead.
Mmmm... donuts
Before heading out, I stopped by the results tent to get my race results printed out. I then headed over to get my bag that I had checked at the start. As I walked up, a volunteer had already found my bag and brought it over to me. I then headed over to the sidewalk to get in line for a shuttle ride back to my car. While waiting in line, I was handed a gospel tract.
Gospel tract
Back at my room, it was pretty uncomfortable taking a shower. The cuts on my finger and elbow stung a little. To make things worse, the water wouldn't stay hot. I ended up taking a partial cold shower. I vegged out a bit until my appetite returned around 3 pm. I eventually rolled out of bed and drove over to the nearby In-n-Out to pick up an early dinner. Per the usual with practically any In-n-Out restaurant, there was a long line for the drive-thru. The parking lot was also full, so I got into the drive-thru queue. Once it was my turn, I ordered 2 Double Doubles, both with onions, and a Neapolitan shake. When I got to the window to pay for my food, I asked if I could use tap pay. The employee said yes, but kept wanting me to select my payment on the phone first to which I responded telling her to just tap her point of sale device with my unlocked phone and it'll automatically default to it. She told me that that was her first time seeing any mobile device do that.
Back at my room, I started streaming part one of Wrestlemania which started at 5pm. I tuned in early and watched the pre-show build-up and commentary while eating my dinner. It was quite an entertaining first night of Wrestlemania. It was great to finally see Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn defeat the Usos to become the new undisputed tag team champions.
In-n-Out drive-thru
Double Double x2 and Neapolitan shake
Sunday 4/2
I got up at about 5 am just a few minutes ahead of my alarm. While packing up and getting ready, I watched Premier League Mornings as well as the first half of the West Ham v. Southampton match. I dropped off the room keys at the front desk before hitting the road. Originally, I had to planned to charge the car full at the Tesla Supercharger at either the Las Vegas North Premium Outlet or again at The LINQ. It was 16 cents per kW before 8 am at both locations. Eventually, I opted for neither and drove down to the Tesla Supercharger at Primm. It was 26 cents per kW, but I could get breakfast at McDonald's while I waited. Those other 2 locations did not have any convenient options.
West Ham v. Southampton
Tesla Supercharger Primm, NV
When I arrived at Primm and had plugged the car in, I placed my order on the mobile app for a sausage egg McMuffin sandwich and a large coffee for 99 cents before walking over. The place was pretty packed inside with a long queue of cars in the drive thru. When I got my food and sat down to eat it, I noticed that the traffic on the freeway heading south was at a crawl. That's rather unusual. Once I was done with my food, I used the restroom before heading back to my car. I would then join that long queue of cars. It took forever just to even turn onto the freeway. There must have been a major accident. However, I never saw any indication of one. My only other guess would be something had happened at the inspection checkpoint that required a temporary shutdown. Thankfully, once the traffic started moving, there wasn't any other delay for the rest of the drive home.
Sausage egg McMuffin and coffee
Beep beep! Road runner in the drive thru!
Long slow moving queue to get on the 15 south
Wednesday 4/5
So this morning, I found a hotel charge on my credit card. Even though I had booked my stay with Wyndham Reward points, they went ahead and charged me for the stay. I gave them a call and the guy that I spoke to said that he'll have his manager call me back later in the afternoon. At about 12:30 pm, I received that call back and was also emailed a new hotel folio to show that I was charged and then issued a refund. I was told that I should see the refund within 3-5 business days.
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