We were gifted with a rental car to drive to Vegas on Friday - a copper-orange Eclipse sports car. The drive was smooth, enjoyable, uneventful.
We stayed with Dani's in-laws about 40 minutes away from the starting line, they were wonderful hosts. I had a comfortable room with my own bed and bathroom, they fed us very well and drove us around. On Saturday we went to the Strip to visit the M&M store and the Belagio planetarium. These pics are from the planetarium:
Sunday morning we were up at 3:30 am, ate breakfast, made coffee and headed to Mandalay Bay for the race.
There we enjoyed the nicest pre-race bathrooms, inside Mandalay Bay. We stretched and stayed warm inside the hotel an hour until the start of the race. At 5:45 we braved the 30 degree weather and left the comfort of the hotel for the start line. We were in coral 20 - which meant that with the 2-minute per coral wave start we had didn't start the race until 40 minutes after the starting gun went off.
However, at 5:55 as the race began with the elite women starting first, the race gun was not a gun at all. It was 30 minutes of fireworks! While we inched our way towards the start-line we watched the race on Mandalay Bay's big screen tv.
When it was finally our turn to reach the start line we saw the most amazing race start experience. On either side of the start line there was a white tiger in a cage and a showgirl (she looked cold!). Above the start line there was a stage where the entire Blues Brothers Band was playing! Awesome!
I ran a great race, enjoying it the whole way. Running down the Strip was great, seeing all of the hotels. There were lots of running elvis'. We heard about 6 bands along the way. I saw one runner with a race bib labeled "yesterday" from the Death Valley Marathon!
I managed a sub-eleven-minute-per-mile pace the whole way (after a slow start in the crowd) and finished in 2 hours and 22 minutes.
My goal was 2:30, so you can imagine my excitement to get 2:22. I felt great both physically and mentally. It was possibly my best race ever.
When it was over I wrapped up in a mylar wrap, it was freezing! That was the first time I've ever been given a wrap after a race. While I chowed down on the post-race pretzels and bananas the band played "Viva Las Vegas!" Dani and I then went back inside Mandalay Bay to stretch. Best post-race cool-down area ever.
We went back 'home' to get some sleep (and warm-up, we were still freezing!).
2 comments:
Kelly!!! WOW! I am SO PROUD OF YOU!!! You are such a studly woman. You amaze me. The race sounds like it was pretty spectacular...wish I could have been there to cheer you on. Did you run in your five finger shoes? I have been telling my students about the race and they are all very impressed. We all agree that you are very cool. :) Love you tons!! 12ish more days til we get to see you--yay!! (start praying now for clear roads so we can make good time.) Miss you and love you like crazy!
p.s. Your hair looks so cute! you look like you're rockin a pretty great body too with all that running you're doing...wow! You look so great! (I can say that since I'm your sister right?) :)
That sounds like so much fun. Maybe next year you can be the showgirl at the beginning of the race. Or, you could just run it, again. Whichever, I am so proud of you!
Let's put a little camera on you so we can get footage of your next race! So cool!
Blessings.
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