A Week Late and $7.00 Short - The Las Vegas Marathon Race Report

The primary reason I decided to run this race was so I could shake the 4 hour marathon monkey off of my back. When I ran The Little Grand Canyon Marathon back in September I knew I could get closer to 4 hours than I did if I had a little help from Mother Nature - by way of weather and terrain.

I cut back my training a bit through October to focus on the half-marathon I ran in Moab and to give myself a little break. Through the last part of October and November I ramped up my training to 45-53 miles per week to prepare for this marathon.

In addition to the increased mileage I added in some weekly speed work and a tempo-ish run every other week. My training looked something like this...

Sunday: Long Run (ranging from 14-21 miles)
Monday: Recovery Run (usually 1/4 to 1/3 the distance of my Long Run)
Tuesday: Cross Training
Wednesday: Medium Long Run (half the distance of my Long Run) OR Medium Long Run with 6-8 miles at Goal Marathon Pace - I alternated these weekly.
Thursday: Easy Run (4-6 miles)
Friday: Yasso's 800's (built from 4 to 8 with 1 mile warm up and cool down)
Saturday: Rest Day

The speedwork and tempo runs definitely gave me confidence going into this attempt - but I wasn't sure if it would be enough.

On to the race....

Bret and I headed for Vegas on Friday afternoon and after a long and boring drive through Utah we were in awe at the sea of lights that is Vegas!

Our plan for Saturday was to visit the expo at Mandalay Bay to pick up our race packets and then see the sights on The Strip. Our hotel was about a 1 mile walk to Mandalay Bay which wasn't too terrible but it was awfully blustery.

The expo was really crowded so we didn't spend too much time there. I did check out the pacing booth and found out that Matt Manning would be the pacer for the 4 hour group. I recognized his name as a RWOL forumite who recently completed a double-triple marathon streak. I know I was in good hands for this attempt.

When we left the expo we headed toward the casinos on The Strip. I'm not a big fan of giving my money away but it was fun to see all of the casinos and the opulence that is Las Vegas. Everything is bigger and better - apparently!

I think we over did the walking on Saturday. I was wearing my old trail shoes to walk around in which was a bad call. I kept having shooting pain in my left hip which has given me all sorts of trouble over the past year or so. I have recently been seeing a chiropractor to get everything all put together - and it's been helping, but after all of the pain I was seriously having my doubts about Sunday!

Fast forward to 3:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. The weather report was not promising and not what I expected for Las Vegas at this time of year. Temps were supposed to be in the 30's at the start and nearing 40 by the end and overcast.

Bret is not a big fan of early mornings - much less when it involves running. :) We caught the shuttle from the hotel to Mandalay Bay at 5:00. After we arrived we hung out in a huge lobby area waiting to head towards the start. During this time I was trying to push the doubts of being able to run 9:00/mile out of my head. I decided on my mantra for the times when the going got tough - "forward; finish". The training was there - I needed to trust it.

I found the 4:00 hour pace group heading out towards the start line but I didn't see Matt - oh no! He found us in the corral and it was a matter of waiting for the start.

The spectacle at the start line was unlike any other I've experienced - show girls, Bengal tigers, and fireworks! There's nothing like Vegas style for a race! We were staged in Coral 7 and were about 15 minutes behind the gun.

The first mile lead us south on the strip and then north again near the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. As we neared the 1 mile marker there was a lot of "traffic" - apparently the coral start wasn't working as effectively as it should have. The marker was short by about .1 miles according to my Garmin, but none the less my split was 9:22. Crap I already had time to make up!

Miles 2-7 were pretty spectacular - being able to run on The Strip was so cool! It was a great way to see all of the casinos, lights, and craziness of Las Vegas. Crowd support wasn't great, but hey, I don't have that on my runs either. :) Around mile 7 I thought I was warming up (finally) and decided to throw my mittens to the side of the road - big mistake! After the slow start (I was passing race-walkers - how did they get ahead of me in the corals?) our pace group had some time to make up. I'm not sure if these faster miles made a difference later in the race, but it did help to get out some nervous energy.

Mile 2 - 9:25
Mile 3 - 8:37
Mile 4 - 8:47
Mile 5 - 8:25
Mile 6 - 8:45
Mile 7 - 9:04

We settled into a nice pace after the turnaround and the traffic started to spread out. Around mile 10 the marathoners split off from the 1/2 marathoners and headed West of the strip. I have no clue where I was running to but I just kept going.

Mile 8 - 9:10
Mile 9 - 9:03
Mile 10 - 9:03
Mile 11 - 9:02
Mile 12 - 8:58
Mile 13 - 9:12

At the 1/2 I knew I had about 3 minutes "in the bank" - so I was figuring if I could keep my pace between 9:10 and 9:13 for the rest of the race I would be okay. Apparently that's easier said than done.

Between miles 14 and 17 I was getting really uncomfortable because of the cold. My legs were feeling great - but my hands were bothering me. They were getting red and puffy. My concern was how to warm them up. I decided I needed to ditch my water bottle and find a pair of gloves. I figured since I threw my gloves away chances were pretty good that someone else did too. So I kept scanning the ground for a pair of discarded gloves. I guess my attention was too focused on getting warm and this is where I fell behind the pace group. Crap!

Mile 14 - 9:04
Mile 15 - 8:58
Mile 16 - 9:31

Mile 17 was really good to me! I found a pair of gloves but I just couldn't catch up to that pace group. I knew my chances of 4 hours were slipping away but I wanted to keep giving it a fair chance. I threw the water bottle at mile 18 and just focused on going "forward" and getting to the "finish".

Mile 17 - 9:25
Mile 18 - 9:33
Mile 19 - 9:39

While I was heading towards the last turn around I was able to see the sub-3 - 3:30 runners heading towards the finish - so inspiring to see them looking so comfortable at such a fast pace!

When I crossed the 20-mile chip mat I knew I wasn't going to hit the sub-4 goal. Based on my splits for the previous 3 miles there was no way I could make up that kind of time. My legs still felt great, but not that great! I started with some negative self-talk, and self pity and I don't think it was a coincidence that mile 20 was my slowest mile.

Mile 20 - 10:10

I decided that the last 10K would get everything I had left to give. Since I threw my water bottle I had to stop at the aid station for water and Cytomax and decided to walk through them but to keep going forward!

I was definitely surprised by how good I was still feeling for the last 6 miles. I was able to pass many people during this stretch which was giving me some confidence.

Mile 21 - 9:42
Mile 22 - 9:57
Mile 23 - 9:22
Mile 24 - 9:22

As I spotted the pyramid at the Luxor I knew the end was in sight. The course meandered over a couple of over passes and I almost laughed out loud - knowing that these were the "hills" on the course.

Mile 25 - 9:53
Mile 26 - 9:36
Mile .41 - 3:36

Garmin Time 4:04:43
Chip Time 4:04:44

I guess I could make lots of excuses for the reason I got so close to 4 hours but not quite. But I can't change anything in the past so I am okay with the results. I had a great time on the course - I felt great throughout the race - and I know that I'll shake that monkey next time. I learned a lot about how to train for this distance this time around so I'll be ready to try again. Not sure when that will be, but it will happen.

Oh - and Bret had a great day on the half-marathon course too! He finished in 2:15:xx - which was amazing considering this is what he looked like 15 minutes before the start...


















He looked a lot better after the race...


















I love that he has a winter hat and coat on with a palm tree in the background!!!























Bret enjoying his crawfish at Hot n' Juicy!!! Great post-race refreshment!!!