In order to avoid the typical weekend traffic, I took an early start on my drive up to Las Vegas. I gassed up the car and was on the road at a little after 4 am. I made pretty good time and crossed the CA/NV border at about 7 am. That meant that I would get into town a bit early, so I decided to stop by the Seven Magic Mountains. Apparently it was on display starting on May 11, 2016 and should be there until the end of 2018. I've seen pictures of them from my friends, so I decided to check it out for myself. I was there for maybe a total of 10 minutes which included parking the car and walking about 100 yards up to the display. There was a couple doing weird poses for pictures when I got there. Just as I was leaving a bunch of people pulled up. I guess it was a pretty popular stop.
Seven Magic Mountains
From there, I drove to the Cracker Barrel near the Silverton Hotel on Dean Martin Dr. Per the usual, it was pretty busy in there, but I was able to get seated right away after a quick stop in the restroom. Once seated, I ordered coffee and their Old Timer's breakfast.
Old Timer's breakfast
After I was done with my meal and settled my bill, I drove over to Town Square to catch a matinee showing of Solo: A Star Wars Story over at the AMC Town Square 18. The earliest showing was at 10:45 am, so I had some time to pass. I walked around Town Square a little bit and found that only the coffee shop was open for business. I ended up walking over to Fry's as they opened at 9 am. From what I've read, the movie theater normally opens about 30 minutes before the start of their first movie which was at 10:30 am. So at about 10 am, I showed up at the box office to wait with a few others for the theater to open. Once they were open for business, I used one of the kiosks to buy a ticket with my MoviePass.
After being utterly disappointed by The Last Jedi, I had zero expectation for this movie. It wasn't in any stretch a great Star Wars movie, but at least it wasn't filled with lame juvenile jokes and the story wasn't horribly written. It was a safe average movie just to show how Han, Chewie, and Lando all met. I can live with that.
After the movie, I drove over to my place for the weekend. It was the WorldMark Las Vegas - Spencer Street property. It was pretty quiet place, located just South of E Flamingo Rd. During check-in, the concierge got me to commit to attending an owner presentation. Once I got to my room, I got unpacked and relaxed a bit.
For an early dinner, I decided to walk over to the nearby McDonald's. Since it was pretty hot outside, the walk felt much longer than it actually was on the map. I used the app on my phone to get a pretty good deal. It was for free medium fries and medium drink with the purchase of a Quarter Pounder with cheese. This McDonald's definitely wasn't one of the cleaner ones. I normally get an unsweetened ice tea, but the top of the dispenser wasn't covered and it looked pretty gross. I ended up drinking Powerade instead. There was also quite a bit of trash in the dining area. I quickly finished my meal and headed back to my room.
Saturday 5/26
The directions for this race was very straightforward: head North on highway 15, get off at exit 80, turn right and keep going until you see the race. As I exited the freeway, almost right away I came up to the mile markers for the race so I knew that I was at the right place. It looked like a nice road for the road half marathon until I came up to a somewhat rocky road. My Mini Cooper definitely wasn't designed for this kind of terrain. It kind of made me miss my old Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with the big tires. Even though I was running the road half marathon which started at 6:45 am, I timed it so that I would arrive at about 5:40 am so that I could see a few of my friends before they started their marathon and 50k races.
After parking my car, I got my bib and race shirt. I dropped it off at my car before coming back to the start line to take a picture with my Marathon Maniac friends.
Race shirt, front
Race shirt, back
Marathon Maniacs/Half Fanatics
6:00 am 50k and marathon start
6:30 am trail half marathon start
6:45 am road half marathon start
7:00 am 5k and 10k start
Before
Start
The field for each of the races were quite small. I started off the race as was my usual style: hard effort, but not too hard. The course started off with a little out and back. It was a gentle climb going out which felt pretty good for my gimpy left ankle. It would be the downhill sections that would cause the same 'ol discomfort and slow me down. After the first out and back, it would be another longer out and back in the opposite direction. The course took us through the rocky road that I drove on while getting to the race. Although my ankle didn't like the rocky terrain, that was pretty much the only section where we had respite from the blazing sun. This out and back took us out just past mile 8. From there, it would be entirely uphill all the way to the finish line. There wasn't as much discomfort going uphill, but my left foot was just not having it by this point. It was good to see my friend not too far behind at the turnaround. Before the race, I told her that I would be her rabbit to catch. Indeed she would catch me about a mile from the rocky road section where we ended up leapfrogging each other. Whenever she went ahead, I would use her to pull me along. A couple of times, I thought for sure that I would eventually be unable to keep up with her. After a walk break, I decided to just run and not stop again.
During
Finish
Finish: 2:13:48
Click here for my Garmin data.
The heat really got to me. I was a bit dizzy and uncoordinated as I got my finisher medal. The volunteer at the finish line was talking to me, but my response was slurred and incoherent as if I was having a stroke. I couldn't articulate the words that I wanted to say. I stumbled over to a nearby table to prop myself up to prevent myself from falling down. I took a few deep breaths and felt better. My friend was just behind me, so I waited for her to cross the finish line.
Medal
We both grabbed a cold wet towel and waited a bit in the shadow next to the truck to cool down. We spotted our friend near the portapotties as he had finished the trail portion of his race and was working on getting through the road portion.
After
I was tired and hungry, so I started heading out after I changed my clothes and said bye to the race director. Man, my clothing and visor were all caked in salt! Once again I had to go very slow through the rocky road portion of the course. Also the other cars and I didn't want to kick up too much dust for the runners on the course.
I stopped in at the Cracker Barrel on E Craig Rd for some breakfast. My dining experience here was pretty standard for a Cracker Barrel. It was very crowded inside, but they were still able to seat me right away. My table was in the section with one of the friendliest waiters that I've ever come across. I ordered coffee and the Country Boy breakfast with a medium rare sirloin steak. Man, did that meal hit the spot! At first I thought it was too much food, but I ended up eating it all.
Country Boy breakfast
I went back to my room, got cleaned up, and turned on the TV to watch the UEFA Champions League Final match between Real Madrid and Liverpool. It should've been a good competitive match, but Sergio Ramos would go on to injure Liverpool's best player, Mo Salah, early in the match. Salah tried to play through the shoulder injury for a little bit, but he had to be subbed out. Even without the miscue by Karius, it would've been hard for Liverpool to overcome a couple of amazing goals by Gareth Bale!
Sadio Mané picking up the slack
My owner presentation was scheduled for 2 pm, so at 1:30 pm, I went down to the lobby to get a shuttle ride over to the WorldMark property on W Tropicana Ave. It looked to be a larger and much nicer property than the Spencer St location. The 1 hr owner update turned out to be a one-on-one meeting with someone that I would characterize as the closer. Wyndham has been in the process of bringing the value of WorldMark credits up to the level of Wyndham points. That meant that the number of credits to reach the Diamond Elite status would be going up very soon. This closer was very hard-nose, not taking no for an answer despite every reason not to purchase that I threw her way! Long story short, they offered me 7,000 credits at the old Trendwest prices and I bought them to get myself to 35,000 credits and the Diamond Elite status. I mainly did so, so that I could have Personal Choice and use my credits to make purchases same as cash for things such as airfare. However since I'm not rolling in the money, I will definitely be frequenting McDonald's more for the next 5 years or so as I work on pay everything off. :)
The WorldMark by Wyndham vacation rental definitely works for me. For one, it has put me up in much better accommodations. However in the long run, it will pretty much break even in terms of money spent. If I have someone to whom I could pass the ownership once I'm gone, that person would benefit greatly if they also like to travel even if they have to take over on the maintenance fees.
Sunday 5/27
I got ready and checked out of my room early in the morning to hit the road. I was hoping to avoid all of the traffic with an early start home. With about another hour to go before reaching home, I stopped in at the Cracker Barrel in Victorville for a pit stop. I ordered their Grandpa's breakfast with the chicken fried steak. This was the 3rd Cracker Barrel location that I'd visited on this trip alone!
Grandpa's breakfast
After paying my bill and starting my drive home, I nearly got t-boned coming out of the parking lot. While I was going to make a left turn, a car driving in a right turn lane decided to drive really fast going straight. Good thing I was just rolling and haven't stepped on the gas for my left turn. Never assume that the other drivers will follow the rules of the road! Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful drive home.
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