December 4, 2011
Finish Time: 5:10: 55
Splits
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| 11:52 | 55:57 | 1:33:48 | 2:05:14 | 3:24:44 | | 05:10:55 | 05:13:03 |
Great weekend!!! Sisters on the Run did Vegas? What could be better?
We started the weekend with a friday night dinner at Emeril's New Orleans Fish House at the MGM. Great steaks, sides, and of course dessert. The martinis were also well received! Next we shopped, shopped, and shopped some more.
After sleeping in, we were off to....
The Expo
The expo was great, as most RnR expo's are. They are big so they bring out all the vendors. We picked up our shirts and got a RnR shirt. They don't always have a big selection of shirts to get. Plus they use Brooks and Nike is just better. Nike has good slogans, etc. We still got a shirt and then took our time going through the vendors and getting things. Our fave is a headband that says, "I'm Kind of a Big Deal." We also got some pink sparkly arm sleeves for the race and American stars for Marine Corps next fall. You know us, we have to run in style too! They had some vegas show girls there too so we snapped a picture.
After the expo, we shopped some more because, well that's what we love to do, and then headed to the Bellagio Buffet (YUM). Great food and outrageous desserts. We definitely used the excuse to carb up.... and it was one of the better carboload sessions we have ever had before a race!
After dinner, we headed to the O! show which was in the Bellagio. It was fantastic! We shopped a little more after that and then went to bed.
Sunday, race day, was funny because it was a night race so we weren't used to that. We had a brunch at 11 and ate but not too much. After we ate, we opted for some rest time in the room where we watched
Friends with Benefits on the in Demand in the room and got ready for the race. We headed out to the start line (corrals) at 3:15 and heard just a little of the headliner concert because they started (Cheap Trick) at 3:30 and the marathon race started at 4 pm.
The Race
The first half was actually great, we started at 4 pm and ran through warehouse areas, not the most exciting but it was dark and we were able to run fast without a lot of crowding which was good. You could see the strip is certain spots which was cool. It went super fast with the anticipation of getting to the strip at the half way mark. The sun set while we were running so we turned on our flashing light arm bands and flashing pony tail holders and had fun! We didn't stop for water much or if we did, we just ran through it. Our mile splits were around 8:35-9:00 so we were going pretty fast for the first part of the marathon. Now we knew this isn't how you get any kind of negative splits but we were concerned about the 4:30 marathon cut off time because we had just run our double two weeks before so we weren't exactly running on fresh legs. Our goal was to make the cut offs and then we could relax and slow it down if we needed to. The front half of the course was almost all flat with some hills, but what went up, surely went down and it went down fast. In fact the whole first half we were running with the 3:45 pacers so that felt good. The jackets & gloves came off. tanks, capris, and arm sleeves were fine. It felt good.
and then…. It got ugly!!
We got to the half way mark at 2:05 and we were ready for a 4 hour time easily until we merged with the half marathoners who started at 5:30 pm, so we got there at 6 pm and they had the last corrals going through who were mostly walkers.... and this was very SLOW walkers at that. We all shared one side of a 3 lane road so there was only a small space for the marathoners (8,000 of us and 38,000 half marathoners with a 4 hour limit). So this meant that you had 4:30 marathoners sharing a small road space with 4 hr half marathoners. All we kept saying was, "Seriously? Really?" What were they thinking?
There were not clear separated areas for the marathoners at all, only these tiny Pylar cones with signs that people either knocked down of ignored. Then there were people on road bikes trying to maintain the separation but they only made it worse because they were biking right by us. So now we're dodging the runners and the bikers. At one point there was even a lady with her dog in the route. What?????
We were forced to slow to a 11-12 min/pace. And to top it off, the water and Cytomax stations were ransacked, so we had no real water or if they had it then we had to wait in line for water for miles 15-26. GU without water is not cool at all. The marathoners were really angry. At one point there was a trash can filled with water that they were just dumping cups into and then handing to us. Did we drink it? Of course! We had run 17 miles and needed to hydrate.
We continued to run and dodge and slow and trample through the trashed water stations. Funny thing though was that they kept handing out GU (at 3 mile spots), but yet no water....
At one point one of us really needed to pee, but the Porta john lines were awful. So then after running into Mc Donalds with a line of 30 other runners, we went forth and like every good, experienced runner, found a nice spot behind a tree to go with a spotter. Honestly, men have it so easy. It is so difficult to have to pee in a race and search for the perfect spot when all along a back wall there you see men lined with their backs to you. Someone needs to create some running apparel for women with easy access. Just Sayin'
Some good things did happen during the second half. First running along the strip at night was awesome. seeing all of the lights, spectators, and shops was very cool. Also, they had a run to the chapel part of the race, so around mile 17 we saw runners getting married at the chapel. very cool to see. Also, we got to ran with quite a few Elvis Presley's which is always a hoot!
We ended up fast walking the last 6 miles because the dodging was enough and our legs were pretty torn up at that point. It got cold during this part because the night was here by now, and we weren't working as hard as when we were running. It actually started raining as we neared the finish. Nevertheless, we finished in 5:10. Not bad after running 3 marathons less than two months before.
The moral of the story, don't run any big races that combine half and full marathoners like that- very poorly thought out, or have a reasonable time limit for the half marathoners, like 2:15 since we had a 4:30 limit. Almost all of the marathoners lost about 45 minutes of time and were really angry. You should see the facebook page for RnR Vegas, scathing reviews! Too big for such a small area and fast marathoners with slow half marathoners = not a good idea at all.
But the bling was worth it! It glows in the dark.
Post Race
Often people forget about post race but it is perhaps one of the most important aspects of race planning because you have a lot of tired runners who need bling (of course), warmth (especially if it is a night race), fuel, and rest. Beer is also nice.
So... we finished in the cold rain, got out bling, warmers (foil sheets), and grabbed fuel (snickers trail bars, pretzels, water, and we skipped the green bananas). We followed the crowd through the Mandalay Bay (race headquarters and our hotel), into the massive crowd. What a mess! It took us an hour to go 300 feet and runners were dropping like flies all over the ground. There was no crowd control and medics couldn't even get through. The most hilarious part of it all though was this was the opening weekend of the Michael Jackson Immortal tour, SO, there were all of these nicely dressed patrons trying to get to the show, mixed with the Jackson impersonator conference, and yes us sweaty runners. One could only laugh, except the runners on the ground of course. Rumor has it that there was bad water (shocker) and people were vomiting from it, etc. and had to be hospitalized.
Glad we made it through... go to our rooms, and just slept because we had to be up at 4:00 to get to the airport, but we did it and we made it. Couldn't have had a better time. Sisters on the run did it again!
Cheers!
Sisters
