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Comments: The race was a blast... The plan was to pace Scott... who was going after a pretty healthy PR... his 'A' plan was sub 1:28:30... 'B' was sub-1:30:00... 'C' was PR (1:32ish) - but i wasnt even thinking about that... the race is up and down the strip which is slightly downhill (steady ~0.5% grade) from mile 0.5 to mile 7.0... and same steady grade uphill on the way back... we wanted to keep the effort relatively constant... which meant a slightly faster pace going out than coming back... took about one mile for me to get my legs under me... also, due to the congestion the first mile was a bit slower... after the first mile everything felt great... felt like i had it on cruise control the entire race... after the first mile or so scott settled in a few strides behind me... a 1:28:30 is a 6:45 pace... so I figured if we kept it sub 6:40s going out and sub 6:50s coming back we'd be in good shape... I tried keeping a reasonably steady pace... but also play off of scott... i kept looking over my shoulder to see where he was at... if he was further back i'd ease up... if he was closer i would push it a little more... he stayed strong and we kept the pace pretty much on plan... every once in a while someone would tuck in behind me that was wearing something similar to scott and it would screw me up... damn them... :) actually.. in hindsight... i probably could have done a little better job playing rabbit... since i was feeling good i was probably less concerned than normal about running straight, tangents, etc... so i know i cost us a little bit of time as i was wandering back and forth taking in sights of the vegas strip... that and i kept running over those darn reflectors in the middle of las vegas blvd... The crazy thing about this run for me was how low my HR was for the entire race... at a pace much faster than i was running at the lakefront marathon my HR was still about 12-15 beats per minute slower...!!! huge difference... anyway... saw all kinds of strange sights out on the run along the strip... my cousin was out there with his wife and friends... so i got to high five them as i was going by... and then on the way back... The first 8 miles of the race this flew by... finally during mile 9 i felt like i started working a bit... but that passed and i quickly went back to cruise control mode... i thought the grade change (even though slight) would impact us a bit more... but really wasnt an issue... i could tell that the legs certainly had more in them... it felt great to keep such a strong pace and still feel really fresh... it must have been around mile 10 that the marathon split off from the half... things seemed to really thin out after that... scott was looking great... staying right behind me... around mile 12 i picked out a girl about 1/10 mile ahead of us that had a really short running skirt (or shorts) on that i told scott we had to catch before the finish... there were a couple guys up ahead... but what fun is that... ;) so we picked up the pace a bit mile 12... slowly we were closing the gap... but we were going to have to pick it up more the last mile to catch her... we hit mile 13 and i gave scott the "1 to go" sign... i figured we were right on pace for the 1:28:30... and i decided to pick up the pace for the last mile... caught up to the girl in the short skirt fairly quickly into the last mile... hung with her for a bit then decided to see how many i could run down over the remaining 1/2+ mile... ran the last 1.12 miles at a 6:12 pace... and managed to run down about 10 - 12 other runners... Hit the line and then turned around to wait for Scott... watched as he hammered it to the finish and just edged out the girl we were tracking down... :) high fived and we were off to find the wives and cheer in Terri and Clint... i managed to sneak in just under 1:28.. and Scott came in with a 4 minute PR...!!! thats a solid race...!!! These are the splits from scott's watch for the first 12 miles (the last 1.xx is from mine)... as i was having watch operator issues... 1m: 6:54, 150ahr 2m: 6:33, 160ahr 3m: 6:38, 160ahr 4m: 6:34, 158ahr 5m: 6:39, 158ahr 6m: 6:39, 156ahr 7m: 6:38, 156ahr 8m: 6:38, 156ahr 9m: 6:42, 156ahr 10m: 6:47, 157ahr 11m: 6:41, 158ahr 12m: 6:36, 159ahr ----------------- picked it up a little the last 1.XX miles... 13m: 6:15, 163ahr 0.22m, 5:45, 166ahr 1:27:57... math above probably doesnt work as both our garmins had the course a bit long... or at least my running of the course made it a bit long... :) note: this is cool you can actually watch the finish line camera.. if you go to http://las-vegas.competitor.com/features/finishreplay/ and enter "1604" for the bib # you'll see me finish... and it keeps going - so about 15 seconds later you'll see scott 'flying' to the finish line to pass the girl i had pointed out to pass at the start of mile 12... What would you do differently?: nothing...!! i've heard people talk about enjoying races and i never quite understood how that was possible...?!? ;) it was great to go out and push a strong pace and really 'enjoy' myself out there... and not to feel like i was struggling or hurting at all... except for the last mile i suppose...  Post race
Warm down: grabbed some food and water... scott and i got our picture with one of the vegas show girls and ronald mcdonald.... hung out and waited for terri to finish and then we poked around the finish area waiting for clint to finish the full marathon (not a half like us wimps)... actually, we went inside to warm up a bit... it was chilly out there... after we all finished we went back inside and grabbed some food and started the cocktails... after lunch my wife got up and said she was going to go get a tattoo... and so she did...!!! 3 little stars under her left ankle... crazy girl...!!! we hit it pretty solid for the balance of the day (and night)...!!! the night concluded out on the strip with a little vegas style karaoke... must admit... the schmeisers definitely one upped the scharffs in the karaoke and dancing department... also... as an aside... i learned a few interesting things out in vegas from our travel companions...!!! ;) What limited your ability to perform faster: nothing... felt great out there... Event comments: Pics... #1 Becky and me with my cousin Chris and his wife Steph (that met us out Friday night)... #2 - Me, Becky, Holly, Scott, Terri and Clint going out for dinner and to see 'O' on Saturday night... #3 - Terri, Me and Scott post race... #4 - Clint coming into the finish of the marathon... #5 - Becky winning big with a 'blackjack' on Sunday... AWESOME TIME IN VEGAS...!!! Thanks to the Weningers and Schmeisers for a great and memorable trip...!!! Profile Album Last updated: 2009-10-08 12:00 AM
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Overall Rank = 162/17,827
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 24/1,202
it's VEGAS..!!! What do you think the pre-race routine was like...?!? ;)
Flew in on Friday... Becky and I grabbed lunch and hit the expo... For about 10 seconds I considered switching to the full marathon... but that quickly passed... While at the expo we went to get chair massages while waiting for Scott and Holly to show up... Quite possibly the most painful experience of my life...!!!!! Clearly pretending to be more manly than I am I told the masseuse to give it to me as hard as she could... OMG..!!! The way she jammed her elbow into my back i thought she was going to snap my spine a few times... There were people walking by right in front of us... so I had to hold my breath as not to scream out like a little baby... I kept looking at my watch hoping the pain would end... I was sweating it hurt so bad... Once finished she looks at me and smirks and says "impressive... i thought for sure you would tell me to ease up..." i was ready to curl up in a ball on the floor...
After the torture session we were off with Scott and Holly to do a little gambling and drinking... Finally made our way back to our hotel and met up with Clint and Terri... Got cleaned up and continued the festivities at one of the casino bars... where my cousin and his wife (chris and steph), as well 2 other friends of ours from back home, met us out... it had been a (long) while since becky and i had seen my cousins out there... we had a really fun time with them... also, we managed to miss our 10pm dinner reservation.. so eventually ventured out for food (and more cocktails)...
Saturday was a little more laid back... the boys mostly gambled and hit up the sports book... while the girls shopped over at ceasars palace... that evening the six of us grabbed an early dinner at 'FIX' in the bellagio... and hit the early show of cirque de soliel 'O'... awesome show...!!! Our friends Jim and Jessica (who were there to run the HM as well) met us for the show...
Got back to the room relatively early Sat night because the race started at 6:15am on Sunday... Scrambled around the hotel room trying to find stuff, accidentally breaking stuff, and contemplating what to wear for the race... just the normal pre-race franticness...
Woke up around 4:45am... plan was to meet the others in the lobby at 5:20am... temp was supposed to be 32 at the start of the race so wasnt sure what to wear... called Terri (who pretended to still be sleeping) to see what her and Clint were wearing... finally decided to just wear shorts and my donkey jersey... with arm warmers, gloves and calf compression sleeves... it helped that becky and holly were going with to the start so i could wear additional clothes to the start and ditch them with those two... I figured if i got too cold during the run i could just hop in a casino to warm up... ;)
Did a short warm-up with Scott (which really helped as i was feeling pretty tight) and made our way to corral #1... We were feeling pretty cool about that...!!! Dropped the extra gear with the wives and we were ready to go...