It is 5 a.m. and we are driving out to Sea-Tac. This is it, seven months of exhausting work, preparation and sacrifice all comes to a head in about twenty-four hours. The sacrifice isn’t just mine, but Sunny’s as well. Thank you Sunny for all your support and sacrifice for this vain pursuit!
Southwest gets us to McCarran on time and without issue, unlike Alaska Air. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Alaska Air? We take a shuttle over to the Four Seasons and try to check in early. Props to Four Seasons as they allow us to check in early (10:30 or so). The Four Seasons Las Vegas is an interesting set up. Although the hotel has its own lobby the rooms occupy five floors within the Mandalay Bay. A hotel within a hotel concept. It is very nice, typical Four Seasons set up, but the most refreshing thing about the hotel is that it does not have any gaming tables or slot machines. One thing that Sunny & I noticed while touring the mega resorts is that once inside they all look the same from the inside. It does not matter if you are in the Wynn (sorry Steve) or Bally’s.
Serenity in sin city
After picking up my race bib, nice low number, and quickly walking through the expo (for a race of this size the expo was rather disappointing). We grab some lunch at a restaurant called China Grille in the Mandalay Bay. The China Grille is one of the worst restaurants that we have ever tried. This place is so bad that I will dedicate a separate post just to slam the China Grille.
After lunch we walked down to Bellagio to pick up our dinner and “O” show tickets for Sunday night. We ended “donating” $100 to the Bellagio general gaming fund. As we headed back to our hotel we stopped off at P.F. Changs for dinner. We needed something familiar after the lunch fiasco.
3:00 a.m. wake up call. Didn’t sleep very well, pre-race anxiety, minor cold, I am not sure, but either way I was tired and looking forward to a few cups of coffee. I had been weaning off the caffine for the last couple weeks, so a cup or two or four of regular coffee hit the spot. Breakfast included scrambled eggs, toast, Clif Bar, juice and a couple of Cold-EEZE lozenges. We headed downstairs at around 5:40 a.m. Another great thing about staying at the Four Seasons is the fact that the start is literally less than 100 yards from the start line. I thought that I would have to push and prod my way closer to the front. I saw a few people jumping over the fence to get closer to the front. So, I followed suit, and after landing on the other side a race official came up to me (I thought that I would be told to head to the back for jumping the fence) looked at my bib number and escorted me to the front right behind the elites…awesome, felt like a celebertity for about 5 seconds! There I was less than 2 feet behind MACCA. I thought he would be taller.
Due to my minor cold I decided not to blow it and go out too fast, but that is always easier said that done. At about mile 3 I was fortunate enough to join up with a group of 6 guys that were running consistent 6:25 – 6:30 miles.
At 10k I took my first gel. We were off the strip by this point and the city turned real ugly, fast. Not much to look at so the miles really all blended together. The weather was perfect – 48 degrees at the start, light wind and the course was actually as advertised… FLAT!
We came through 13.1 at 1.25.31 | 6.31 pace. I was thinking right on track and feeling very strong. It seemed like the pack leader picked up the pace, enough so that half way into mile 14 our group was now down to 4.
We came through 30K at 1.58.40 | 6.21 pace (still feeling strong, didn’t even notice that the pace has increased that much – feeling real good after some quick math – we were on pace for a 2:46 finish! It was a good thing that I had packed a few gels b/c there were no gels at the mile 18 aid station. I made sure to drink Gatorade when it was offered. “Don’t bother wasting space drinking water…MEB.”
At mile 20 it was me and the leader of our original group of 7. I was about 10 yards behind him and I got through 20 at 2.07.22 – still on sub 2.50 pace. I was still feeling very strong and wasn’t feeling any affects of the wall, other than my consistent coughing, but was unable to close the now 20 yard gap of the group leader.
At mile 22 there was a downhill that put us onto Frank Sinatra Drive. The downhill and the pace finally caught up to me… too much. My calves started to cramp and I went from a 6.25 pace to a crawling 8.21 pace.
Final time – a humbling 2.56.29 – 34th overall | 4th age group.
I had been struggling mentally with my time. My A goal was right there for a majority of the 26.2 I was running at a pace that would have bettered my A goal by 3 -4 minutes for my first marathon. I quailifed for Boston and ran my first marathon under 3 hours so with that I am struggling less.
The above picture is me sauntering into the finish, my calves were like rocks at this point, even hurt to walk.
My agent and PR people called for a race report… 
Post run meal...In N Out
After a nice hot shower Sunny & I walked over to In N Out. We had been counting down the days for this and we were finally there… so we thought. Las Vegas has got to be the least walk friendly city we have ever visited. I am sure that it has nothing to do with the number of obese people that Vegas attracts. Anyway, after some crafty navigating we finally made it! Sunny ordered the regular burger and I got the double – double with cheese and we shared an order of fries.
yum...
As you can see I am holding that sucker tightly, making sure that it doesn’t fall out of my hands…
... round two, c'mon it was 26.2 miles after all...
Yes, the caption is correct, there was a second round, two more hamburgers and another order of fries. Full, but not overly stuffed.
Dinner at Sensi & the "O" show at the Bellagio
After a quick nap we got ready to head out for our dinner & show. Dinner was at Sensi an Asian fusion resturant at the Bellagio. We were told that all the restaurants at the Bellagio were great… oh really?!?!? okay. What we discovered is that food in Vegas is nothing great, but it is seriously overpriced. Even with the celeberity chef associations, nothing outstanding. In fact, we concluded that In N Out was the best food and best value in all of Vegas. That being said, Sunny ordered the Aromatic Thai Chicken and Cilantro Soup in Young Coconut, this was pretty good. Much better than my salad. I ordered the Wood Oven Roasted King Salmon as my main dish – again good, but c’mon we live in Seattle – how good can salmon be in the middle of the dessert? Sunny ordered the Pan Seared Day Boat Scallops & Porcini Mushrooms. Again good, but nothing mind blowing.
Aromatic Thai Chicken & Cilantro Soup in Young Coconut
“O” on the other hand was very entertaining. The acrobats and synchronized swimmers were outstanding. My favorite performance was from the divers, incredible. Also, the two clowns were funny. We made a quick stop at Bally’s and “donate” some more money to their general gaming fund – I wonder if these “donations” are tax deductible , I should probably ask my brother. By the time we made it back to the hotel I was ready to sleep.
Monday morning began with a quick trip to the Four Seasons’ spa. Sunny got in a quick 5 mile run and I sat on the bike for 40 minutes at level 1 to get my legs going. After cleaning up we were ready to walk over to In N Out. We found a more direct route which got us there in a jiffy (we learn from our mistakes).
Day two, round one... c'mon it was 26.2 miles...
No holding back on this last full day in In N Out land. Two burgers and an order of fries each. It still proved not to be enough – you got it, another round! This stuff is that good. For those of you who have not had an In N Out burger – you are missing out. For those of you who actually think Dick’s Drive In food is good – um, get your head out of your arse!
Day two, round 2... a day after the marathon, I think I am back over 180 lbs
The remainder of Monday was spent visiting other hotels, shopping, gaming, and of course more eating. We had dinner at the Deli at the Wynn, another recommendation and well you know what we think of the food in Vegas. On the way back to the hotel we did stop off at the Coffee Bean & Tea in the Planet Hollywood shopping center and I had a pretty good hazelnut latte – non-fat of course.
The root of all evil...
We decided to grab a bit to eat before heading out to the airport. We got a tuna salad sandwich at the Red White & Blue Deli in Mandalay Bay, again nothing great and of course overpriced ($11). I did splurge for the piece of cheesecake, it was good! No wonder half of the population out there is obese with giant deserts and grand buffets I am actually surprised that the percentage is not higher.
Dispite the fact that I don’t understand the attraction of Las Vegas, I must say that we had a great time!
