Nevada Marathon – Las Vegas (2015)
I got to
Vegas early. I had a few hours before our conference would start. I got up
early at 5:30am for a conference call at 6am (8am South Dakota time. Still not
sure why I set it for that time, other than not thinking about the time
difference). After the call, I finished the remaining e-mails, watched the sun
come up through my 30th floor window view of the strip to the east
and left my room. Navigating through the casino, which was very busy for it
being 7:30am, I headed out of the front door and started walking for a half a
mile evaluating whether I am really up for this today or not. The strip was
fairly empty of people besides other runners. I hadn’t expected this. It was
very encouraging. Exciting even! I got going, making sure I remain at a very
slow pace. The constant sidewalk constructing made for an exciting maze of
surprising dead-ends, endless up and downs on stairs and bridges crossing the
main street and running past people trudging home from their (successful or
un-successful, I couldn’t tell the difference) nights out.
As the
first 2-3 miles ticked off, I started thinking about that I actually hadn’t set
a plan for the route today. I was going to run the strip. That surely wasn’t
enough for a marathon, but I hadn’t taken the slightest moment to plan ahead. I
did know the Vegas sits in a valley of sorts between some beautiful looking
mountain ranges, which I would’ve loved to scale for hours on end.
Unfortunately they were roughly 14 miles from the Monte Carlo. Which meant, for
my marathon goal, I would just make it to the foot of the mountain before
having to turn around. That seemed like too much mental torture for me. If I
had a rental car, I would’ve driven and run in the mountains, but I figured
I’ll see Vegas from a different side that most don’t see on their 2-3 days
stint in Sin City.
I headed
towards the north aiming for what I call the Vegas Space Needle. Not sure what
the actual name is. I could look it up when I land (I’m currently airborne,
Denver-Sioux Falls), but I don’t care enough to do just that. I took a right
and headed towards Sunrise Mountain. I wasn’t going to run up it, but there
seemed to me a nice running trail (Flamingo Arroyo Trail that had popped up on
one of my many running route apps.
The temps
kept rising and I nearly had emptied my back pack bladder and bottle and made
sur eto re-stock every few miles at gas stations or 7/11s. Here I ran past a
young guy fixing his skate board as he looked up concerned and called out to
me. I took out my headphones and stopped asking him to please repeat. He said:
“DUDE, you dropped…(I was nervous)…your smile over there!!”. Made my whole day.
Awesome attitude! Reminded me on how often you have the chance to impact
somebody’s day by a single gesture or statement. Most people aren’t aware of
this power. I am convinced that this guy knew what he was doing and I
appreciate him for doing just that!
I ran along
a while longer when I got stopped by a traffic light. I checked out the
motorcycle that had just stopped across the street from me and heard a cop car
turn on his sirens just behind him. The biker (crotch-rocket) rolled into the
gas station and the cop slowly followed. The bike revved up and I heard him
speed down the alley until I saw him pop out a couple of blocks later and turn
180 heading back towards where I was. He was gone for broke, running the red
and was gone out of my sight. I looked back to the alley and saw the cop
standing there not knowing which direction the guy had gone. A car rolled down
the window and shouted towards me:” DID YOU SEE THAT, HAHA!”.
Vegas, I
guess.
I kept
going, passed Las Vegas High School and knew I was approaching the half-way
point of my run today. I got to a nice section where you could really get the
sense for running in a desert. One road reaching to the horizon and only cacti
and dust to your sides. Ironically I was listening to an audiobook of a guy
describing running through death valley in July for the legendary Badwater 135
(yes, 135 miles through death valley in July. As a race. Ultimate
badass/dumbass race. I’m thinking about it J). Temps now hit 97F and I was
feeling it. I ran out of water, but had my trusty LifeStraw that Christina
bought for me a year or so ago. It filters the most sketchy water sources
imaginable into regular drinking water. I don’t rely on it, but it’s an
insanely reassuring back up to have! (Thanks hun!) Turned out I didn’t need it
as I hit a gas station about 20 minutes later. I found a spot to take picture
for my 605running shirt, with the strip in the background. The 605 guys are truly
passionate about running and support my goal to get them represented in each
state (#Run605)! As I was waiting for the traffic light to turn, a couple of
non-trustworthy guys walked up next to me. Nothing was going to happen, as
there were twenty cars waiting for the light and I had plenty of space in
between us and could’ve taken off if I had to. BUT, these guys starting talking
and I couldn’t help to listen…”Man, I was up ALL NIGHT….COULDN”T GET HER TO BE
QUIET AT ALL…JUST KEPT SCREAMING AT ME…MAN…HONESTLY…DIDN”T KNOW WHAT TO
DO………………………..THEN, I changed her diaper and she went back to sleep. She looked
so sweet sleeping in my arm after that….” Seriously how awesome was that! I got
a high just from that and was just overall happy (plus I grabbed some water!).
I was at around
17 miles and noticed my calves slowly seizing up and decided to walk for a bit.
This wasn’t a race. No time goal. Nobody to chase down. Just minimize the
damage, so I can run the IceBox480 in a few weeks. It was a wise decision as my
heart rate slowed to a recovering stage and I enjoyed the view of the desert to
one side, the strip in the distance to the other, all the while surrounded by
gorgeous mountain ranges (I will hit them at some point!).
I walked
for a couple of miles and started feeling good again. I had drank a 20oz
Gatorade and the sugar got to me, I guess. I started shuffling, then jogging,
skipping, running, backflipping, etc… you could say I picked up a 2nd
wind. I felt really good and was excited having the famous Las Vegas strip
hotels so close to me and only 4-5 miles to go. I started running around 8-9
min-miles again and after a 4-5 miles turned onto the main strip again. Now it
was a game of Frogger dodging the on-slaught of tourists (same as me!) that
were crowding the side-walks. I had switched from audio book, because I
finished the book, to my “Running” Playlist and got pumped up by the up bead
tempo of the music. It was a fast paced hop-skipping between people and I
passed the 26.2 mile mark at 4:18 elapsed. By far not a fast marathon, but
considering 97F temps, walking a couple of miles, plus doing this all for fun,
I felt good. PLUS, I put into memory my San Jose, CA marathon, which I did in
just over 5 hours years ago.
18 down.
82 to go.
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