Las Vegas Marathon (Race Report)

Where do I start? This race report could get long and might be boring. But I really want to start from the beginning.

Tony & I flew in on Thursday night around midnight. So we didn't do much but check in and sleep.

Friday
We decided to do the Expo before all my family and Team Point Two teammates got in. Pretty overwhelming! My first marathon didn't have an Expo, just the race. I'm very glad that we got in before the huge crowds. Later that afternoon my parents and bother arrived from Nebraska. It was so nice to see them again! The last time was our wedding in Hawaii. After a nice supper at The Cheesecake Factory we met up with my teammate LJ. It was so nice to finally meet him!!! We talked like we were best friends...just picking up where we left off. At this time I voiced my one concern about the race. What am I going to wear? I brought a ton of stuff with me, everything BUT a running jacket. After about an hour of talking my family returned from gambling and were ready to head back to the MGM for bed. Good idea!

Saturday
Was my day for taking it easy. The only thing I had planned was a meeting with a Twitter friend acmedragon337 at the running Expo and taking my parents to Jersey Boys. My whole weekend was full of meeting people that I have only talked to online before. It was fun trying to pick them out of the crowd. As for acmedragon337 I turned around and instantly knew Tim ;-)It was nice to get to chat with him and meet some of his friends. He in turn got to meet my teammate LJ. At this time I gave LJ my new flip video camera. He promised to get some great shots from the marathon (which he did!). Later that night my parents and I went to Jersey Boys and my brother and husband went to the Metallica concert. As I went to bed I didn't feel very good, but was hopeful that I would feel better in the morning.

Sunday My alarm went off around 3:15 am and I was still feeling SICK! I walked to meet my mom and we headed to Starbucks to get some coffee. I then went back to my room to do my pre race "getting ready" ritual. I was so preoccupied with not feeling good (worried about getting sick on the course) and the weather (would I be too warm or cold) that I left the room feeling as if I forgot something. As we took the tram over to Mandalay Bay (where the race started) I realized what I forgot....my Garmin watch. How stupid can I be? So this just adds to the list of worries. Luckily Tony was still in the room and he ran my watch over to me. Just in the nick of time. While I was waiting for my watch to arrive, out of the thousands of runners guess who I run into.....
Tim!!!
It was so nice to see a friendly face to settle my nerves before I headed out for the race corrals. Burrrrr it was cold out. At this time I took off my sweats and jacket and kissed my family good bye and headed to find corral 5. By the time I got there everything was jammed. I was somewhere in the 6th or 7th corral (which added more stress because I wanted to try to stick with the 3:45 pace group) and ended up stared a couple minutes behind my actual corral.
THE RACE
As we were release I instantly started thinking about catching up with my pace group. I tried to keep an eye on my Garmin to make sure that I was sticking to an 8:30ish pace. At this point the course was flat flat flat and keeping this pace was easy. I knew that an incline would be coming so I tried VERY hard not to go too fast. I also tried to enjoy the strip as much as possible. I still think it was wild that the whole strip was shut down for us, really an AWESOME experience. Around mile 4 I started feeling pretty queasy and was trying to talk myself out of being sick. At mile 6 I couldn't go any longer and had to make a quick stop. After this I started praying that this would be my last stop and was thankful that I made it to the port-a-potty. And this my friends is when the wheels start slowly falling off. I was pretty shaken up over being sick and it was hard to get back into the right state of mind. When we leave the strip I know that the inclines are going to start so I get out my shuffle and hit play and listen to my favorite podcast Phedippidations. I'm hoping that Steve can get me to mile 18 where I believe the course will start going downhill (yes I was wrong). After about 1 mile I notice that my foot is starting to hurt. It is on the top of my left foot. It feels like someone has a nail and is slightly tapping on it with a hammer. I find it hurts the most when I'm going up an incline. At this time I also start thinking about my Team Point Two teammates Nicole and LJ. I wondered if I had passed them and not seen them. When I reach mile 15 is when the wheels really start coming off. I'm not feeling good, and my foot is throbbing with each step. I'm going up hill and I can see the other runners at mile 22 flying down the hill to the finish. So I convince myself that the inclines will all be over at 18. I get myself to mile 16 which seems to flatten out and I start thinking, yep this is it flat and then downhill. I even start feeling better, I have my 4th GU and then the most terrible thing happens...we turn the corner and MORE incline. I can see in the distance the turn around point and its a long way away. Here is where the tears start coming and the fatigue is back. At mile 17 I can't hear Steve anymore because I'm praying over and over. Please let me see LJ, please let me see LJ, please let me see LJ. Around mile 23 my prayers were answered. For a split second I glanced up and saw a HUGE sign that said Team Point Two (that's all that I saw, I hope Nicole took a picture of her masterpiece!). I first see Nicole and think I LOVE HER she made me a sign, I then see LJ....I grab him and mumble something and finally spitout RUN WITH ME. I don't really remember the last 3.2 miles of the race. I just let LJ talk me through the tough parts. The one thing I do remember at the very end was seeing the 4:00 pacer run to my right. LJ said "your not going to let him pass you are you?" I decided I couldn't have that, so I pulled out my rockets and sprinted to the end...and finished in FRONT of the 4:00 pacer. Too bad that he started behind me! Do you see him behind me with his little sign? I officially crossed the finish line in 4:04:12. Here is some of the video that LJ got of me at the finish. I was so lucky that he was there to help me through the toughest part of my marathon. Thanks LJ!!!!


I will end my race report here. At the moment I am putting together a video that I will post as soon as I have it edited. Thank you to all my Team Point Two teammates, my friends and family who supported me through this whole training period. BUT especially my parents and brother who made the trip to Las Vegas, my husband who took great care of me throughout my training and LAST but not least....John Ellis, my coach, my hero, my friend! We've had many highs and lows since May, but without you John I would have never ran this marathon. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for always believing in me!