Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon - RunMarathon

I will start off saying that doing the marathon was NOT my initial intention. In fact, I signed up for the half marathon and only switched it at the last possible second. I just figured "why the hell not?".

I was afraid of the full marathon because I am WOEFULLY undertrained for it. I had not run at all really, since my HIM in early Nov. and I had not done any runs longer than 15 miles getting ready for the HIM. So nothing longer than 15 miles in the last YEAR (since my IM run in 2008). I had some serious doubts I could do it (or at least stay injury free).

But who doesn't like a challenge? So I changed but planned to go REALLY easy. My goals were as follows, from easiest to more optimistic...

1. FINISH MY FIRST EVER OPEN MARATHON!!!!
2. Beat my IM run split of around 5 hours.
3. Run an average of 10:00 miles
4. Run a sub 4 hour marathon (I knew this was not going to happen...)

After helping the wife and checking in my cold weather gear, I headed to the starting line. There were 29 groups of 1000 racers each and I was standing where group 5 was, but I was in group 14! I decided to just stand there and wait for my group to move forward and jump in with them. However, I was getting tired of standing there freezing, so I just decided to jump in with group 8 or 9 and just run.

I started off REALLY easy. I knew I didn't want to go too hard without a good feeling about my fitness. So I started in Z1 (nice recovery run pace). That put me at about 10:00/mile.

That pace was feeling pretty easy, too easy in fact, so I formulated a race strategy on the fly. It was to run the first 10 miles in Z1, then move up to Z2 for the second 10 miles, then give it all I can (Z3/Z4) for the last 10k.

After the first 10 miles I felt as fresh as I did at the beginning!!!

OK, that's an utter fabrication. I didn't feel as fresh as before the race, but I felt GOOD. Plenty of energy, and felt strong. I also developed an on-the-fly nutrition plan to drink 3 cups of Cytomax at every aid station (about every 1.5 miles). PEFECT.

I would say that by about mile 3, I was warmed up and got out of my running jacked and stocking hat and was in my long sleeve running shirt and gloves. PERFECT running conditions after I got warmed up.

At mile 10 or so, we turned west and started the slight uphill. That resulted in Z2 effort, but my pace was still about 10:00 per mile.

I took a piss break at about the half way point which cost me a couple minutes, so I had to scramble to make up for it.

Again, I felt really good. It was about mile 17 when my body said "hey dude, we are usually done by now, are we going to consider stopping any time soon?" It was the first moment I realized that I was running for a LONG way. But the body and I continued on.

The next 3 miles felt ok and I was looking forward to the turn around and to head back east towards the strip and the downhill!!! I cranked it up to make up for the lost minutes from the piss break and was running about 9:20 miles. I would say that it was about mile 22-23 that it finally hit me. I was TIRED. I kept checking the Garmin and the miles and time just crept by. Every minutes felt like 5. I would look down and expect to see a quarter mile had gone by and only see 1/10... Also during this last 3 miles, the only significant hill were encountered. I had to trudge up them which hurt, and stomp down the other side, which hurt MORE.

The last mile just seemed to stretch on and on, but the last 0.2 miles in the finishing chute? The pain faded away. What a great feeling to have a marathon under my belt and to have ran the entire thing. I also accomplished 3 of my four objectives, finish, beat my IM run split, and have 10:00/mile pace. (BTW, about the pain? It came back big time as soon as I stopped!)

The race was a lot of fun (up to mile 23!) Lots of great costumes including a lot of Elvie, couple show girls, caveman, etc...

This was also the biggest event I have ever done with over 27,000 runners.

I guess I surprised myself with my ability/fitness/determination. I guess I had more residual fitness from my HIM training than I had thought.




Train!

Space blanket to stay warm, some pics with my showgirl wife and all of my showgirl friends! Eat a couple bagels, lose my car keys, find my car keys, go home, shower, go out with Tony for drinks and eats, take pain meds, walk around like an old broken down man... They usual.


Unclear on my ability and held back a bit too much.


The race ROCKED!

Thanks Goggs (Tony) for sharing it with me...