I had used up too much of my vacation time, so I couldn't take a day off for this trip. I had to leave for Vegas after work on Friday. For lunch I ate at Pho Tasia. I got the chicken skewers and a bowl of pho to help recover from the marathon on Thursday. Since the traffic was horrible last time on the 91, I decided this time to take the 60 instead. But first I stopped by Rokuan to eat dinner. I got their black miso ramen and a half order of the langostino roll. Their black miso ramen is pretty unique in Southern California as I have yet to eat something similar at another ramen shop.
Chicken skewers
Brisket and tendon pho
Black miso ramen and half order langostino roll
I rolled into Vegas a little after 10pm and drove straight to the hotel. Self parking was hard to locate at first, but I eventually found it off of Audrie Street. This was a pretty swanky new hotel located just behind Planet Hollywood connected to the Miracle Mile Shops. Their actual entrance was off of Harmon Avenue where you could valet your car. The one thing I liked about this place was that they had people checking your room key before you got to the elevators. They weren't just checking to see if you had one, but to see if it was an active one.
The suite was very modern. It had a kitchenette, microwave oven, fridge, and a TV to control just about every setting in the room. The furthest wall from the entrance was one huge window with a view of the outside. Vegas always looks better at night. The wall-sized blind could be controlled by a switch near the TV or with the remote. I wasn't sure why the room had a picture of an Oscar statue.
Elara, Hilton Grand Vacation Club
Kitchenette
Microwave and fridge
Accessible shower
Bathroom
Very spacious suite
TV seems a bit small for the room
Oscar!
View from the room
Another view from the room
Saturday
The expo opened at 10am. I got ready and hoofed it over to the Sands Expo and Convention Center next to the Venetian. As usual there was a lot of construction and foot traffic all along the Strip. I stopped by a Walgreens to pick up some drinks. When I got there, there was already a huge line formed waiting to get inside. From experience, I knew that the line was nice but unnecessary. I just sat near the entrance and waited. Once the doors opened, it was a free for all. The first thing I noticed was that they used a much bigger space this year.
Vegas looks prettier at night
Drinking the good stuff
I picked up my bib and shirt. Then I headed through the very spacious expo hall to check out all of the booths. I spotted Scott Jurek. I asked if he had any big races coming up. Apparently he hasn't been training and is not in shape for any ultras. I think he has been busy promoting his book. After cruising through the whole place with nothing to buy and no race that I needed to sign up for, I hoofed it back to my hotel to go eat lunch.
Scott Jurek
Expo haul
I dropped off my stuff in my room and drove out to Fukumimi Ramen to eat a bowl of ramen. The local Vegas ramen enthusiasts had been touting this place as having the best bowl of ramen so off I went to check it out. It was indeed very very good! This was definitely the style that I like. I normally do not give out 5 stars on Yelp, but this place definitely deserved it. I also ordered their karaage which was really good as well. The chicken was lightly breaded and very juicy. I will be eating here every chance I get whenever I'm in Vegas.
Fukumimi ramen
karaage
I rested a bit in my room before going back out to what else... eat! On my way to the buffet, I saw one of many Bumblebees on The Strip trying to earn some tip from the tourists. I ate with my coworker and his friend at The Buffet at Bellagio for an early dinner. My coworker was also running in the race on Sunday, so we came here to "carboload". We both had eaten at the highly touted Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's Palace and we were both not impressed. If you eat mainly crab legs and meat from the carving station, you should go to Bellagio. But if you like to try all of the other cooked food, then the Bacchanal would be the better choice even though it's about $10 more. But all in all, I think I'm done with buffets. I will make an effort to stop eating at buffets when I'm in Vegas. No matter how prestigious the buffet is, the quality of food is still pretty low. I might as well spend the same amount of money at a nice restaurant.
Bumblebee, transform and roll out!
King crab legs, cocktail shrimp, beef
More king crab legs and pork belly
Sunday
I packed up my stuff and got my race gear ready. I waited until checkout time and checked out of my room using the express checkout on the TV screen. Then I headed over to the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign to take a picture with the Maniacs. As soon as we took the picture, I took off to eat lunch at Fukumimi Ramen again. I thought it was a bad idea to eat so soon before the race, but I was hungry! Another bad idea was I decided to try their Tan Tan Men which was somewhat spicy. It was good and not too spicy, but it would come back to haunt me during the race! I had to try it because this was the favorite bowl of the cook! Unfortunately I had to tell him that I preferred their signature bowl, the Fukumimi ramen.
Race gear
Maniac photo
Tan tan men
I parked my car back at my hotel and waited in the lobby area to charge up my phone before walking over to the new starting area. From what I've heard, the race had a falling out with Mandalay Bay after last year's fiasco, so they had to move their staging area someplace else. It was moved across the street from Luxor. I went straight to the UPS trucks and checked my bag. It was very windy as I waited for the corrals to be opened. Fortunately I bumped into a few familiar faces so I had some company. Even though it was windy, it was pretty warm.
The full marathon started at 3pm with the half marathoners starting at 4:30pm. Since the half marathoners had a 4 hour time limit, I figured that the full marathoners had about 5 hours to finish the race instead of the advertised 4.5 hour time limit. My goal for the race was to finish under 5 hours.
View from corral 2
The race
The first four miles felt okay but it was warm and I felt like I was overheating. Then I started feeling exhausted as if I ran a marathon 3 days ago. :) But then it got worse. I started feeling a little queasy and started burping up my ramen. So by mile 8 or 9, I was already starting to really struggle. I began wondering if I could even make the generous 2:30 cutoff at mile 13. I was able to get to the halfway mark at 2:18:52. There was also another fellow runner that was struggling with stomach issues. She was trying to force herself to throw up to see if she would feel better. On the out-and-back on Carey Avenue, I could see that the SAG wagon was pretty close behind. It was about 2 miles behind me. Too close for comfort if you ask me. I knew I had to keep pushing as much as I could to get back onto the Strip. Once we rejoin the half marathoners, we should be safe. The wind was strong and very bothersome throughout the course. I had to tighten up my visor a bit to prevent it from flying off.
McDonald's aid station at Lake Mead and MLK!
Running through Fremont Street as we approached mile 22 was the best part of the course. We joined up with the half marathoners at around mile 24. They had gates and tape between the gates to separate the full marathoners from the half marathoners. Some half marathoners still ignorantly duck into our lane. But I didn't mind. The full marathoners were so far and few in between at this point.
1-4: 34:46 (8:41)
5: 9:48
6: 10:03
7: 10:30
8: 11:23
9: 11:06
10: 11:53
11: 11:28
12: 12:34
13: 13:35
14: 10:47
15: 12:44
16-17: 26:28 (13:14)
18: 12:29
19: 13:59
20: 13:16
21: 13:49
22: 11:20
23: 12:59
24: 13:38
25: 13:58
26.2: 14:42
Finish: 5:07:18
Post-race
They passed out our medal, Gatorade, chocolate milk, Jamba Juice, bananas, and water shortly after crossing the finish line. I took only a Gatorade and water as I ran out of hands to carry everything. I walked awhile before coming up to the table where I got my Rock Star heavy medal. It was still a pretty long walk before I got to my UPS truck. It was somewhat of a long wait for my bag partly because the volunteers did not have a light source to look for our bags. I guess that's a problem with having a night race.
Rock Star!
I walked a little bit more to Planet Hollywood and walked over to my hotel where I cleaned up a little bit in the lobby restroom. I hung out in the hotel lobby a little bit to charge the phone before going to my car and making the drive back home since I had to be at work the night day. The drive wasn't too bad since it was almost 10pm when I left.
The race organizer addressed all of the major shortcomings of last year's race. The space used for the expo was much larger to accommodate the number of participants as well as their family and friends. They used Water Monster for their water source instead of the now infamous hydrant water. The finish line was at the middle of the Strip where people could exit towards several different directions. The finish area was also expanded to accommodate the number of runners as well as emergency vehicles. The finisher photos was pushed way back from the finish line to prevent bottle-necking. I was very pleased with this year's race. Out of the 4 times that I've ran the Vegas marathon, all 4 being different courses, this was my favorite version. Again the section through Fremont Street was very fun. The course was deceptively challenging with a lot of small inclines and declines thrown in.
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