I came back to Vegas for another attempt at the half marathon. I wanted my time to be 10 minutes faster than last year. This is an easy marathon. Flat, no hills, no sun, cooler temperatures, live bands keep me running, and I ran 6 other marathons this year, I was ready!
Paul and Eli dropped me off at the waiting area and then went to the M&M store to wait until the race started.
Look at all the runners! This was behind me and it curved around the building and went for another block.
Almost at the starting line!
One of the live bands that played.
Kiss.
This is a horrible picture, but this is Elvis. You can’t have bands playing in Vegas and not have Elvis!
I was running along thinking of when/if I was going to see Paul and Eli. Thousands of people along each side of the street and and 40,000 runners, I didn’t think I would see them, and then I heard this…
I totally heard my little Pea from across the street and through all the noise!
I ran a pretty good race. I liked my pace until mile 10. I wasn’t feeling so well so I slowed down a bit. Through the full race I only drank the gatorade I was carring and the gatorade at the drink stops. I didn’t dilute my salts with water like the mistake last year. I ended up alternating walking and running till mile 11.
Mile 11, things were not going well at all so I walked the rest of the mile.
Mile 12 I was really nauseous and now trying to find a place to throw up, but I couldn’t do it. There were too many people around me and no garbage cans. I kept walking and soon I was soooo tired. I wanted to just stop and sit on the curb and go to sleep. I knew if I stopped, I wouldn’t get up.
Mile 12.5 The strip started to sway, and I couldn’t hear anything around me. I pulled out my phone and was going to call Paul and have him hop the fence and get me.
Mile 13.1! I didn’t think it would come. I WALKED across the finish line and walked right into the med tent.
I looked out this tent door for almost 1/2 hour. I was so dehydrated, they gave me a cup of something that was supposed to be extremely salty, but tasted refreshing, so they gave me another one.
After a few of those drinks, I wasn’t able to keep any fluids down, I started dreading the walk back to our hotel. I didn’t think I could make it. I had to call Paul. He came shortly after having a police escort down the strip to the finish line. 🙂 Things didn’t improve.
I ended the night with an IV. 🙂
I was so disappointed with this race. I was prepared with gatorade, and prepared with training of previous races. This ending was a surprise to me.
At the beginning of the race I told Paul this was my last Las Vegas run, but now I want to run it again, to not only beat my time, but now finish without an IV 🙂