I didn't exactly have a great buildup to this race. On Monday 3/31 evening, I passed a kidney stone. It definitely felt better to have that out, but how often will I need to deal with this issue? I had been considering seeing the primary doc for some recommendations.
Anyhow, it was time to head out for this race that I had grown to love. I never did like extreme downhill races, so for the longest time, I stayed away from REVEL races. Although faster race times were all but guaranteed, there were different challenges. Without proper downhill training, the body will not be able to handle the pounding on the quads.
I got ready and left the house before 6:30 am for the road trip out to the Las Vegas area. In previous trips, I had been stopping in Bartow for my first pitstop. However, I usually let the charging rates decide on the location. They were all about the same, so I waited until I reached the Tesla Supercharger in Baker before exiting the freeway. After plugging the car in for a charge, I walked over to the Shell gas station to use their restroom and to buy a drink. I went with one of my favorites, Starbucks vanilla sweet cream nitro cold brew. It was a pricey $6.99 at this location.
Tesla Supercharger, Baker
Can of Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew at Shell
As I rolled into the Las Vegas area, I picked the Tesla Supercharger location with the lowest charging rate. It was located in the Scottsdale Plaza along Maryland Parkway just north of Pebble Rd. I stayed inside the car for the duration of the charge. I did notice that there was a Subway, Dunkin', and Pop Drinks nearby if I needed a drink or something to eat while I waited.
Tesla Supercharger, Scottsdale Plaza
After the car was done charging, I drove over to the World Market Center Las Vegas for the race expo. While the parking structure had been designed to streamline the flow of traffic, not everyone follows the markings on the ground! After finding a suitable parking spot, I took the elevator down to the ground floor for the expo. I met up with my friend, Albert, at the entrance. Per the usual, the race packet pick-up was really well streamlined. First I picked up my race bib and gear bag with some swag. Before moving on, I bumped into the usual suspects. After getting our shirts, it was on to the rest of the expo with the vendor booths. There we collected the codes from specific vendors for reward points. REVEL calls it the Vendor Passport Program. It's great for the vendors to get traffic to their booths as well as for runners to earn free races! Along the way, I bumped into more familiar faces.
World Market Center Las Vegas
Expo entrance
Bib pick-up
The usual suspects
Race packet
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Participants name wall
Found my name
Heather and Barbara
Allan Jay and family
My friend and I then carpooled over to Chinatown to get lunch. It would turn out that my friend had never been to Chinatown until now. I had suggested that we eat at Silverlake Ramen. I had been wanting to try them out at their locations closer to home, but this will have to do. It also helped that they were participating in the AAdvantage dining program. I ordered the shoyu ramen with pork and a side of edamame. I liked the clear chicken stock that they used for the broth. These days, I've had my fill with the much raved tonkotsu ramen. Unfortunately, the edamame was a bit overcooked for my preference. Overall, not bad.
Silverlake Ramen
Edamame
Shoyu ramen
All gone!
We drove back to the World Market Center. We went back to expo as my friend wanted to meet up with a friend and I still had time to pass before it was time for me to check into my timeshare rental property. We ended up bumping in my friend, Ted. We kind of commiserated over the current political turmoil and instability in the United States. No matter which side of the aisle you fall into, everything is just not stable these days.
We went our separate ways. I drove over to WorldMark Tropicana to see if I could get checked in a bit early. The guy at the front desk that helped me out was a bit clueless. I spelled out my last name more than once and he kept entering it wrong on the computer and told me that I was not in the system. When he finally entered it correctly, he asked if I had a preference of upstairs or downstairs. I said whatever as I really do not care. His response was that none of the units were available yet and for me to see the concierge. Perhaps it was all planned out this way. The concierge looked familiar. She pretty much skipped the usual bullshit and offered me a $100 gift card to attend an owner update. Might as well since I still had to wait for my unit to be ready.
Once again, it was a complete waste of time. This time around, they had 3 people work on me. The first one was the nicest one, but English was not her first language. Now, for the other two, the guy had a softer approach. The lady took the approach of insulting my intelligence. She pretty much said that it was stupid for me to use credits for a Southwest flight and that I should've asked for more than a $100 gift card. Yeah, thanks lady. You can go kiss my ass next time. Oh, the joys of timeshare rental ownership! I don't know what's worse, dealing with these people or buying a car.
WorldMark Tropicana Owner Update
After losing about an hour that I'll never get back, I then went back to the front desk to check and see if my unit was ready. The same guy said nope, so I found a bench to sit down. It was no problem as I was able to connect to the WiFi with my ownership credentials. Eventually, another employee waved me over. She asked if I would be okay with an upstairs unit. If so, there were already units available. Thank you for being helpful and not a clueless idiot like your useless coworker. She assigned me to unit #8201.
Shuttle schedule
After dropping off my stuff and getting settled into my unit, I headed out to the newest Zippy's location in Summerlin. They now have 2 locations in the Las Vegas area. It was actually about 1.5 miles further than the Arroyo Crossing location, but I just had to go check it out. It was a slightly smaller restaurant without counter seating. I was there at about 4:30 pm to get ahead of any dinner rush. I ordered their Garlic rib steak and Orange Bang. I had a couple of refills of my drink during my meal and the waitress still gave me another one in a to-go container when I paid my bill. I wish that people that weren't familiar with Zippy's would not come here thinking that it was some Michelin star restaurant. It's pretty much equivalent to Denny's for Hawaiians. It's just diner food.
Garlic rib steak
Orange Bang
I think that was one too many Orange Bangs. That was probably way too much sugar than what I had been used to consuming as I felt pretty queasy for the rest of the evening. Eventually, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race, took a shower, and called it a night.
Flat runner
Saturday 4/5
I woke up, got ready, and left at about 3 am to drive over to shuttle pick-up spot by the Asurion Corporate Office parking lot. My friend and I used one of the portapotties before getting on one of the buses for a ride up to the start. We were on one of those smaller party buses which was rather awkward for a ride to a marathon. Although at times it was a bit blustery and cold, it wasn't nearly as cold as the last couple of years where there were a lot of snow still on the ground. Everyone pretty much hovered underneath a heat lamp. I left only to use one of the portapotties.
Albert and I at the start area
Under the heat lamp
As it got closer to the 6 am start time, we had to start making our way over to the gear truck and convince ourselves to shed our nice warm layers. Lately, I had been making a bigger effort to start wearing throwaway clothes. My collection of race shirts needed to be reduced. I believe most charities such as Goodwill will reject items that they cannot resell. I didn't want to start the race out too fast, so I hung out in the back for as long as I could. That allowed me to bump into JC who was pacing his usual "sexy pace" group.
Gear truck
Beautiful mountain views
JC
I crossed the start line at about 6:10am. The goal for today was to see how close I can get to finish in under 4 hours. Having run this race before, I knew that the first mile would be slow. There was a steep climb and we were starting at a higher elevation. The 2 things that I kept in check were my overall pace and my maximum heart rate. I wanted to keep the overall pace at about 9:09 minutes per mile and my heart rate below 140 bpm. After 3 quick miles, I decided to take a walk break after reaching mile 4. I took another walk break at mile 5 as there was a little bit of a climb. After that I was pretty much dialed in with my effort. I took a quick walk break during the 13th mile after covering an uphill section. I covered the first half in 1:57:22 (8:58 min/mile).
The next 7 miles were supposed to be a nice gentle run down to highway 11, Veterans Memorial Highway, until about mile 20. However, the course was very much exposed to both the sun and the wind. I felt like I was running into a head wind the entire time. I felt my first sign of potential leg cramps shortly after reaching mile 17. I took a short walk break before I continued on. I took walk breaks at mile 19 and 20 to prepare for the final 10k. I ran a little bit with Michael bib #1812 through mile 22. It was his first marathon. The last 4 miles would be the most challenging part of the course with a long gentle climb at mile 24. Once I got over the 215 freeway and had reached mile 25, I could start emptying the tank for the last mile. I saw my friend up ahead as I made the right turn onto Durango Dr. As I passed her, I told her that I would be a couple minutes short of my goal. I ended up with a positive split, running the second half in 2:04:32 (9:31 min/mile).
Race photo 1
Finish: 4:01:54
Click here for my Garmin data.
Interesting fact. These 2 ladies had the same last name and their bib numbers were sequential. They crossed the start line at different times and didn't run together. However both crossed the finish line at the same time, just 5 seconds ahead of me. I believe all 3 of us were trying to finish in under 4 hours, but we all faded in the 2nd half and fell short. While I ran well enough for a new PR, I still need some more training to finally get myself under the 4 hour mark.
Her chip time was 4:05:44
Her chip time was 4:07:45
I waited for my friend to cross the finish line for a quick selfie. Further up ahead, we got our finisher medals and a cold wet towel. I continued on and bumped into my friend, Eddie, who had just run a Boston qualifying time. While chatting with him about our races, we saw the Slinky Dog duo come through. They must be quite the runners to be running a marathon in that costume! I didn't pass them until about mile 24. I continued on and got some post race goodies.
Heather
Finisher medal
Back of medal
Close-up of medal
Eddie
Slinky Dog
Post race goodies
Near the exit of the finisher chute, I stopped at the Bake the Cookie Shoppe tent for my post race cookie. My stomach wasn't in the mood for anything solid, so I saved everything for later. I headed towards the gear bag area to collect my bag. Along the way, I bumped into my friend, Ted. After I got my bag, I stopped by the results tent to get a print out of my race results. While I didn't run a negative split, I did like that I was able to run the last 10k with a strong effort while passing a bunch of people.
Ted
New PR
Last 10k
Garmin HR zone
I walked over to the final u-turn to catch some of my friends and to support my fellow runners. I just happened to bump into my friends that had finished the half marathon. After drinking my post race chocolate milk and watching our friend come through, it was time to head back to my car. At first, I had considered walking back, but once again, I opted for a bus ride back.
TruMoo
Our friend coming around for the finish line!
Bus lines
I totally vegged out after getting back to my room and getting cleaned up. For an early dinner, I drove over to the Zippy's Arroyo Crossing location. Since I was dining alone, they had me sit at the counter. I ordered Saturday's daily special, Kalua Pig Plate. For my drink, I went with the Orange Bang. While the food might look pretty basic, it was delicious with plenty of protein for recovery. Once again, they gave me another refill of the Orange Bang in a to-go container on the way out.
Zippy's Arroyo Crossing location
Kalua Pig Plate and Orange Bang
I must of had some electrolyte imbalance as I had diarrhea and then had the chills later that evening. I ate the mini pretzels and drank some water as I couldn't get myself to feel warm even while being underneath the covers.
Sunday 4/6
I got ready and checked out of the unit at about 6 am. I drove over to the Tesla Supercharger at the northern end of the Las Vegas South Premium Outlets to charge the car. I picked this location as cost-wise, it had the lowest charging rate and was located right next to a McDonald's. After plugging the car in for a charge, I walked over to McDonald's for breakfast. On the mobile app, I ordered a steak, egg, & cheese McMuffin and large coffee. I used the $2 Breakfast Sandwich deal and the coffee was $1.39 for any size.
Tesla Supercharger, Las Vegas South Premium Outlets
McDonald's
Steak, egg, & cheese McMuffin and large coffee
As I started approaching Yermo, I thought about exiting to charge the car. However, I decided to drive a little further and check out a newer Tesla Supercharger location just off of the 15 freeway at the Main St exit. There were 120 superchargers with up to 325 kW max. After plugging the car in for charging, I walked over to the Circle K gas station to use their restroom. Their restrooms were locked and reserved only for their customers. I bought a can of Starbucks vanilla sweet cream nitro cold brew and had the cashier open the restroom for me. The can of coffee was $4.64 at this location.
Tesla Supercharger, Main St in Barstow
Newer, even faster supercharger
Can of Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew at Circle K
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