Strip At Night (mare?)

You know what they say about the best laid plans right?? Well, the Las Vegas Strip at Night run was was overcrowded, unorganized and downright dangerous if you count the pile up of people trapped in Mandalay Bay for over an hour (O and I being two of those people).

You can entertain yourselves here: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/RnRLasVegas for more tales about the race going awry for many (including yucky details like the water we were served out of trash cans and fire hydrants...ewww).

That being said, aside from the timing chip and distance issues O and I discovered, we had a great race. Our GPS said we went 14 miles in 3:15 minutes. I am assuming this is due to all the dodging and weaving we did to get water and avoid walkers. I am proud to say that despite our horrendous training schedule the past two months (what with moving and traveling for work) we did far better than I would have anticipated. We ran the first 10 miles solid, if not slowly. We were careful to stay out of the marathon lane, which I can't say for the rest of our 44,000 closest friends. K, S, & C got caught up in the merging debacle and it basically ruined their race. Assuming our GPS is correct I think I would have actually PR'd this race without the extra mile I picked up along the way! I am also hugely proud of O for sticking out the training and completing his first 1/2 marathon! We even enjoyed getting our gait analysis done by the good people of Brooks at the expo!

Our main hang up with the weekend was the lack of preparation by Las Vegas (yes I'm generalizing) for such a crowd. When you add 44,000 runners, the opening weekend of the MJ Cirque show, the rodeo and the country music awards what do you get?? Utter. Effing. Chaos. There was no food to be found post race and we finally begged our way into an Italian place around 1 am to reload some lost calories back in our bodies. And a much needed glass (or two?) of wine.

Negatives and the fact that I would not do that race again aside, I had a great time gambling, drinking, eating and laughing with the crew that came along for the ride...you know who you are! We are alive, we did it, it's a story. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt (and a glow in the dark medal). See y'all for the next race!