Saturday 8/9
I left early in the morning for the drive up to Las Vegas. I rolled into town and headed over to Albertsons to buy some coconut drinks, a banana, beer, and cookies to snack on later. I then drove out to Chinatown for an early lunch.
I decided to check out a Vietnamese restaurant called
Pho Bosa. It was located in a not so nice area of Vegas. There's nothing aesthetically pleasing about the place. It's not quite located in the thriving Chinatown just further West down the road on Spring Mountain. You'll have to turn onto Polaris Ave to get into the parking lot. Inside the restaurant can get pretty warm. They currently do not have working air conditioning, but they do have several huge fans running to help with the heat. It's actually tolerable if you happen to be eating a hot bowl of pho. According to their website and menu, they're known for their broken rice dishes. They take pride in being the best in Vegas. It wasn't until later that they started serving pho due to popular demand. This was my first time eating here and I was in the mood for pho, so I ordered their pho dac biet and their pork Spring rolls. Both were pretty dang good for this hungry guy and if pho isn't their specialty, you can bet that I'll be back next time to try one of their broken rice dishes!
Pork Spring Rolls
Pho dac biet
After lunch, I drove over to the Cosmopolitan to hang out a bit before checking into my hotel. I walked across the walkway over to the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. I decided to have a couple of beers at
Sin City Brewing. I've definitely experienced better, but hey it's Las Vegas where people get tanked drinking cheap crappy beer. If that's what we're comparing this place to then this place has some pretty dang good beer. But if you compare it to the craft beers that you can get across the US, then this place has some pretty sub par beers. I had their IPA and Classic Irish Dry Stout. They're both okay and not horrible. If you've never drank anything but Bud, Bud Light, Miller, etc. then you could use this place as a springboard into a whole new world of better tasting beers! Once you've started drinking good beer, you'll never go back to drinking piss-poor-excuses-for-beer... unless of course you're already drunk. :)
I still had some time to kill before checking into my hotel room, so I went back to the Cosmopolitan and checked out the
Chandelier. I decided to do some more day drinking instead of gambling. It was about 1 pm in the afternoon and the bar was pretty much empty on the second floor. So I grabbed a seat at the bar and got two dirty martinis with extra olives, the first one with Grey Goose and the second with Ketel One. I still prefer Grey Goose vodka. I think this will be my new go to place to get some drinks. It's expensive enough to keep the riff raffs away. I walked around the casino area observing some of the tables before making the short drive over to my hotel,
The Royal Resort.
Grey Goose Martini
The Chandelier
Ketel One Martini
I relaxed in my room, watching some TV before heading over to the expo at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to pick up my race packet. I went through my bag and realized that I had forgotten to pack my watch. So I made a mental note to drive over to the nearby REI in Henderson to buy a stopwatch after dinner.
After making a quick stop at the expo to pick up my race packet, I headed over to
Fukumimi Ramen to eat an early dinner. I ate the usual Fukumimi Ramen and an order of karaage. I like coming here for ramen, but the quality seems to be dropping a bit. I might need to start scouting for a new pre-race ramen shop.
Fukumimi ramen and karaage
So after dinner, I drove out to the
REI in Henderson. Twice I've stopped at this REI to buy something that I needed for this midnight marathon. First time was for some reflective gear and this time was for a regular stopwatch. I had forgotten to pack my old trusty stopwatch for this race so I bought the cheapest watch they had. It was a nice Timex Ironman watch. The only thing that I don't like about the watch was that it only stored up to 30 laps. The watch case was near the cash registers and one of the clerks was happy to help me out with the watch. After he identified the watch, he went into the backroom to grab one for me. He was one of the friendliest clerk that I've ever come across. Come to think of it, they have some of the friendliest employees at this particular REI. Who knows, maybe that's a requirement to work here! :) I was also finally able to use my REI member dividend dollars.
Race gear
After going back to my hotel room, I changed into my race gear then drove over to Hard Rock Hotel to catch the bus to the starting area. I met up with a couple of my buddies before getting in line for the bus. Casey is my Disney buddy and Don would be completing his 100th marathon. I brought along my banana and coconut drink for the bus ride up to the starting line at the "black" box. It was good to catch up with my friend on the long bus ride.
Shuttle pickup at the Hard Rock Hotel
Dropped off at the starting area
We got off at the starting area for the marathon and 51k and headed to the line for the portapotties. After taking a few pictures at the "black" box and with other Marathon Maniacs, the ones running the half marathon got back on the buses to go to their starting line.
At the "black" box photo from Casey
Pre-race MM photo from Don
Sunday 8/10
At midnight, it was time to run. There was a bit of confusion with the start of the race. It was a verbal shout of "Go!" by the race director on the bullhorn. I don't think it was loud enough and it followed her little last minute pre-race instructions. People might have tuned her out. Fortunately I was close enough to hear her and started running.
I started running at a pretty easy effort and felt generally okay. Then I started having some really wicked tummy issues about 6 miles into the race. My body just absolutely hates this race. I was having lots of gas as well. My apologies to the runners behind me. I tried to hold it in as much as I could if I could see a runner coming up behind me. Then as if the tummy issues weren't enough, I started getting very tired. I had not been sleeping very well lately due to the hot weather and I was just plain tuckered out. It was hard to run in a straight line. Thank goodness the course stopped climbing near the halfway point and turned into an extended downhill to mile 20. As I was approaching mile 20, the arch of my right foot was hurting which was a new pain for me. So I backed off on the running as I made the last 10k out and back. I was able to recover enough to run pretty much the entire last two miles finally feeling good. Thank goodness the arch pain went away. As I was about to make the final turn for the finish line, I saw Don heading out for his final 10k. I wished him well since I was going to take off right after the race. The mile markers were all over the place so I stopped pressing the split button early in the race and just used the markers as a general guide. I finished in 5:31:31 which was right where I normally finish for this race.
Finished at the Little Aleinn
After getting my medal, I got some water and said hi to my friends that were waiting at the finish line. They were waiting for Don to finish the race. I had to make it back to my hotel room to shower and check out. I used the restroom in the Inn before catching the bus back to the Hard Rock Hotel. I finally had a little shuteye on the long bus ride.
I got back to my car and changed into some clean clothes. I was craving some curry, so I drove out to
Curry Zen. It was a pleasant surprise to see that they had expanded the restaurant. It used to be a small hole in the wall, now it's a big hole in the wall! The layout was a bit awkward, but the whole restaurant looked nice and clean with a couple of television screens. Now for the important part... the food. The food continues to improve each time that I come back here. The menu also keeps expanding. In this particular visit I ordered their kushi katsu 5 piece (chicken, quail egg, zucchini, shrimp, shiitake mushroom) curry plate. It was on the chalkboard where they listed their specials. It was good and I definitely will be making a return visit sooner rather the later most likely the next time I'm in the Las Vegas area.
Kushi 5 piece curry
After lunch, I drove over to the
AMC Town Square 18 to catch a movie. Parking was pretty easy and painless. It was located almost directly across the Yard House and you'll have to climb a flight of stairs for the entrance. As with the current trend with our society, even though there are live ticket tellers, it's much easier to just buy your tickets from one of the machines. I got a ticket for the 1 pm showing of Guardians of the Galaxy. There were plenty of comfortable seats, chairs, and sofas in the general area for you to sit and wait before catching your movie in case your theater wasn't ready yet for seating. The seats here weren't the biggest, but they were nice and comfy seats. This was a nice well air conditioned place to come to, relax, and watch a movie if you need a break from partying it up on the Strip. GotG was a good movie. Loved the soundtrack! Go see it if you haven't already!
I then drove over to
Jenni Pho to eat some pho with my friends before heading home. I had my usual bowl of pho dac biet and a Thai iced tea to keep me awake. My friends kept the meal short since they said that I looked pretty horrible and wiped out. I guess that's the look of lack of sleep plus a rough midnight marathon. My eyes were pretty bloodshot. :)
Pho dac biet
