Rock And Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon and Full Marathon Recap and 23 miler recap!

Have you ever heard of a 23 mile marathon. Read on and you will hear about my version of one! December 6th was the inaugural R&R Las Vegas Half and Full Marathon. I had a number of clients doing both distances and I was doing the Full. I will recap my day and then let you know how all my clients did!

The morning was very cold in the 30's. This years course was new and actually went right in front of my housing complex on Hacienda. This proved to be a critical factor in my overall performance! I was getting a ride to the marathon because I only live about 3 miles from the start. I planned on taking a cab home after the race. My goal was to finish in a PR of 3:35. My best time in a marathon was 3:39. Even though I wanted to PR, I did not have as many long runs as I would have liked. I did have a ton of base from running a lot this year. I completed a 50-mile in August and another marathon in May. I knew the part of the course going from the strip to Durango was going to make it a bit challenging to pull off a 3:35. I was in corral number 4. They had 29 corrals and I was getting annoyed when I saw people in the wrong corrals. If you are supposed to be in 7 or 8 don't come to 4! This is a small little thing that bugs me. Your corral is designated by your estimated finishing time. Basically the faster people in front and slower in the back. So at 6:15 we were off and running. I decided to carry a watter bottle in one of those things made by Fuel Belt that enables you to hold it without really gripping it. I have used these all year when I was training and during my 50 miler. This was the first time I used one in a marathon (and the last by the way). I felt awesome for the first half through mile 13 my time was 1:45. I was right on track. I threw away my water bottle at about mile 10 because my shoulders were feeling it. I slowed down on the uphill portion of the course but not too bad. At mile 16 I passed my house for the first time. At about 18 my shoulders were feeling it and I slowed more but I was sure I could still do 3:40ish. Then I started thinking..............it seems so silly to run 3 miles past my house only to wait for a cab to bring me back home! I kept thinking that over and over until I got to the turnaround on Hacienda. Then I was more on track to do a 3:45-55ish. I decided (pretty easily I must say) to stop at my house at mile 23. I went home ate two packages of top ramen (I don't recommend anyone do this it is not very healthy!) I really wanted something warm! Then I took a warm bath to thaw! I was so cold. In reflecting on this race, I don't think I was ever really excited about doing this race in the first place. I waited until the very last minute to sign up. I am glad I didn't finish because I heard it was like a two hour wait for a cab! The best part was all the text messages asking me how I did. When I told people I stopped at mile 23 because I was home they would text me back and say "really or r u kiddn?" I would say 90% of people said this and I was like yes I really did stop! Some said "u only had 3 miles 2 go and u just stopped?" I replied, "YES!" I guess if you know me well you know that I don't usually do things like that. It proves to everyone (ANNE and ROBERT) that I am human. I couldn't resist the temptation of my home!

Now let me talk about some really great things that happened yesterday. A couple people I train finished the Half and Full. For some it was their FIRST time running in an event. It is always really exciting to see and hear about someone finishing their first event. I have a client named Anne (who I mentioned above). Anne always says that I am just not human because of what I do (Ironman, 50mile runs etc). For almost a year I have been trying to get her to either do a triathlon or a running event. She has actually trained for several things but didn't actually do them. She likes training for them but doing them freaks her out. So she was going to do the half marathon. She didn't actually sign up online so I was doubtful all the way to the end that she would actually do it! She went to the expo Friday and signed up! I was so excited but as she has said many times she has no problem signing up and then not doing it. So I was still worried all the way until she showed up at my house race day morning! I was so excited when she did show up! She ended up finishing in something like 2:35! Outstanding job!

Alam is another client I have and he was running the Full. He came to me ONLY 2 months ago and wanted to run in the marathon. I was not thrilled because he really did not give himself enough time to train for a Full. He really wanted to do it so I started him on a program. Alam followed the training and finished in something like 4:21! That is excellent.

Several others that I coach and people I know did great. Kit finished in a record time for her and did an outstanding job! Gabriella and Heather finished in just over 2 hours for the Half! Sheletha who was injured had to walk the Half but finished and got her medal!

The race was much better organized than last years Vegas Marathon. The new company putting on the event does a great job with a few exceptions. I guess on the Half Marathon course they ran out of water! This a ridiculous thing to happen in a marathon or half. Everyone is paying OVER $100 to enter and there is 27,000 people running AT LEAST HAVE ENOUGH WATER. I guess they also ran out of GU. They will most likely send out questionnaires so please fill them out and give them feedback so next year can be even better.

Everyone is on a high and hopefully will start thinking ahead toward their next event. I trained Heather today in the gym and she wants to do the Full Marathon in May in San Diego (which by the way is a great race).

So even though it was not my day what makes it a great day is knowing everyone I trained finished and felt the feeling of finishing their first race.

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