Expanding Our Borders: THE RACE

This race is such a huge event!! I heard the number of people actually running were 300, 000 people but I don't know if that was just the half and full marathoners or between all of the races (the 5k, 10k and half and full marathon!) This is the first race that I have run where you are given a corral number and then before the race you have to find your corral and then are herded just like cows! Unfortunately, my sister had corral number 13 and mine was corral five!! It took me a long time to get to my corral. In fact, I hardly made it before the race started!!! Anyway, I was wanting to run with my sister but felt like she would rather run without me beside her for mostly two reasons. One of which, my pace has always been faster and she doesn't want to hold me back and the other being that she doesn't want to feel pressured with me running beside her. I understand this since both of us train by ourselves. There were 35 corrals, I believe. This worked well with the amount of people, so they staggered the runners at the starting line and then people were not running on top of each other (as much!)

I like to compare these races to labor but feel that it does injustice to real labor because the outcome is something so great, a human life, where as the outcome of a race is a medal, selfish pride, feelings of accomplishment (which is a great thing, don't get me wrong!) The similarities though is that it certainly tests you and the pain during the race can get almost unbearable, as well as the after birth contractions, or soreness for the days after! It is also similar because you do forget about the pain of it in time and remember mostly the great feelings of accomplishment!!

The race didn't start until 4:30, so by that time we had been sitting around for some time waiting for the festivities to start!! I was pretty pumped up and I have to admit, I shot through the starting line pretty quickly, so eager to start that race!! Problem was, I started following a guy who was also going at a pretty good clip! I kept telling myself, "You need to start out slower or you'll pay at the end!" "HA, I feel great though and look at all these people that I'm passing!!" my body told me! Well, I lost the guy I was following in a throng of people around mile 5 and then I told myself it was fine so I could go a little slower for a bit and save up for the end because I really wanted to finish strong! Around mile 7 maybe my legs were already screaming at me, "Why are you pushing me so much?!!" I also got really hot! I was starting to get nauseous and the smells became even stronger.  The race was right on the strip of Vegas, so I passed a McDonalds and felt like throwing up smelling the greasy food, then the sewer more than once, and about anything and everything there in sin city!! I think I was struggling to keep from a heat stroke (I have been sensitive ever since having one in high school) but I was also used to training in 30 degree weather, so I was probably a bit overdressed with my running tights! At one point I watched a guy rip his shirt off and I seriously remember contemplating doing the same but the coherent thought was, "I have to keep my bib on!"  Then, I saw a water fountain and had to get my thoughts away from what it would feel like to jump in it!!   Needless to say, the last miles were seriously torturous!!! I even stopped at the last miles' water and Gatorade stops to get a drink and I don't usually do that! I also developed a blister under my callous on my right foot and I never had any problem during training! UGH!! However, I DID finish and I didn't just slide in at the end but I ran that last bit sprinting!! My nose scrunched up when I saw my time because I was hoping to do better than last years time (which was 1:45) but this years time was around five minutes difference (1:51!)

I waited at the finish line for Crystal to come in, just hoping she was doing okay and trying to send her positive vibes through the air but don't think I had any left to give! (smile) She made it, though, and we were so happy to see each other again and to have FINISHED the race!!!  They handed out disposable blankets since by then it was dark and had cooled off considerably!  We were both happy about that!  We collected all the free hand outs, power bar, water, Gatorade, apple, bagel, but passed on the free beer (it's Vegas!!)! Did it look like we wanted to party?! Umm, don't think so! We wanted to go shower and sleep!!!  So, we didn't wait around much but headed back to our motel which was in walking distance (close, thanks to Crystal's good planning!)!

About the sleeping part? Uhhh, well, there was a live band playing right out our window between our motel and the next one over and they didn't quit partying there until around 2 am.  Even on the 14th floor, I could make out the words of the songs!! So between the noise and our internal organs protesting as well as our body aching, we didn't get much sleep! It really is true, don't go to Vegas to sleep because there isn't much sleeping in that place, especially on the strip!