Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon - RunMarathon

Well first of all my adjusted goal was to break 3:30:00. It felt very ambitious for my first marathon, but I knew if I ran a perfect race I could do it, and thats just what I did! Here are some highlights from the race:

Mile 1: As is almost always the case with any running race I do, I started too far back and had LOTS of weaving to do to make it around people in the early miles. But I was enjoying myself and felt really good early on.

Mile 4: I was getting a little warm and decided to ditch the hat, pullover and gloves I got at goodwill for just this purpose. I would later regret this, especially the gloves.

Mile 4.5: I spot Jamie ahead! I totally thought I missed my chance to see her before the race, and it turns out she must have started a bit ahead of me. We were pretty excited to see each other and I ran with her for a little before wishing her goodluck and taking off on my own.

Mile 10: After all the early weaving slowed me down, I am now slightly ahead of my planned pace (8:00/mi) and feeling really good.

Mile 13.1: Wow, can't believe I'm only halfway there, but I'm still feeling good and still slightly ahead of schedule, so I'm pretty happy.

Mile 16: Other than my hands being EXTREMELY cold, I am going really well at this point. I have my biggest time cushion at about -1:20 and am still feeling okay with 10.2 miles to go.

Mile 19: The last 3 miles were terrible. Hit the wall. Legs starting to really feel it. Its getting harder to get going after a few walk steps at the aid stations. And to top it off, I've gone from way ahead of schedule to behind, about +1:20. A small voice inside of my even says I've lost my shot at breaking 3:30:00.

Mile 20: Stopped the bleeding from the previous miles, and began the take over the race mentally. I know I can't get all 80 seconds back in one mile, but I've got a full 10k still to go, so lets start chipping away at this deficit.

Mile 22: After two sub-8:00 miles, I'm feeling confident and the aid station is playing the Rocky theme to top it all off. Cramping has started to become a major issue though. Felt like each leg had tons of mini cramps all over, and if they went past a threshold I wouldn't be able to move. I just tell my legs "You are not allowed to do that" and keep trucking along.

Mile 24: The cramps are horrible now, but I'm still chipping away each mile, only +0:15 now. The blister that has been forming the past few miles on the bottom of my foot is also beginning to get bad. But we're almost there!

Mile 25: Right at the marker the blister either pops or tears I'm not sure, but something extremely painful has happened and I'm expecting lots of blood is involved. Its really quite painful, but having completely erased the time deficit I am now back on 8:00/mi pace and with one mile to go nothing is going to make me give any back. At some point during this mile I start getting a little emotional when I realize, "Oh my God, I am going to do this!"

I crossed the finish line with some gusto, and even jumped across the line like I told Jamie I was going to do (which almost caused me to fall flat on my face).

What a race!!



As usual, I should probably start where I'm supposed to, but otherwise I'm really proud of my first marathon!

I made sure I didn't stop moving because I knew these cramps were just waiting to take over my body. I grabbed some cytomax and went to the bag drop to get my camera so I could get pictures of Jamie crossing the finish line, which she did ahead of her own goal of 4:00:00!!


I guess all the weaving early on, but I beat my goal so I can't complain.


I loved this race! As long as nothing gets in my way I would love to come back next year!