The Vegas Disaster

Vegas.  What can I say about Vegas that hasn't already been said by a lot of disgruntled runners?

Running on the Strip at night was amazing.  Seeing Cheap Trick and the Jabbawockeez perform before making my way to the start line was equally entertaining.  Receiving a medal that glows in the dark (because it was a night race) was a lovely touch.

The compliments end there.

- With 44,000 runners registered for the sold out race, I was a bit surprised to find inadequate course support - through 13.1 miles, I think I grabbed three cups of water and two cups of Cytomax (during every other race I've ever done, I've picked up at least 10 cups of Cytomax and three cups of water to splash myself).

- With 44,000 runners, the race organizers should have planned post-race transportation better.  We all needed to get back to our hotels and were incredibly sore, so standing in a taxi line for two hours was out of the question.  So was walking back to my hotel, but I did it because it was actually faster and hurt less to hobble to my room than wait for a cab.  (Editor's note: there was one perk to walking back to the hotel and that was stopping at Jean Philippe Patisserie in Aria for a caramelized hazelnut milkshake.  Recovery drink of the year!)

- To the older lady who fell backward on the stairs at Mandalay Bay:  I don't know what caused you to fall, but I don't appreciate you pushing me off of you when I caught you.  i know that wasn't race related, but there were a million people in that hotel, and she happened to get in my way.

- I heard there weren't enough medals.  Shocker.  (Click here to learn about lame bandits).  I wonder if the water and Cytomax deficiency had something to do with the lame banditry.

- According to my time, I finished the tough Nike course almost 20 minutes faster than Vegas, which is strange because Vegas was flat.  So either I run really slow now or there were too many people bottlenecking the course.  I vote for the latter.  Oh...and it didn't help that I ran into a casino to place a bet, but I wasn't in there very long.

I had really high hopes for this race, especially since I had so much fun last year.  But unless a lot of major changes are made, this may have been my last Vegas race.

Bandits. Ugh.

To celebrate my BFF's birthday, I signed up for the RNR Los Angeles Half Marathon so we could run together.  But due to a few unfortunate circumstances, including, but not limited to the following reasons, I was unable to participate in the race:

1. I was in Las Vegas.  My flight home got cancelled because of a  freak snow storm that prevented my plane from leaving New York.
2. I slipped on a lemon wedge at the casino and landed on my effed up left knee.
3. A week before, I tweaked my left knee playing hockey.  If you couldn't tell, my left knee hates me.

Competitor (the company behind the Rock 'N' Roll race series) has a very strict rule about refunds - basically, there aren't any refunds, so I was especially upset when I found out that people who didn't sign up for the race ran through the finish line and took a medal.

Do I think that running 13.1 miles is an accomplishment?  Absolutely.  Do I think people should go to hell for stealing?  Absolutely.

The same week of the race, Wall Street Journal did an incredible piece on race bandits - please read it, people.  Educate yourselves on the selfishness that is banditry and do your part to prevent this from happening.

Helloooo, Firemen!

Yes, it's true:  I only ran the Nike Women's Marathon because I wanted to experience the gloriousness that is San Francisco's fire department.

Obviously, there were other reasons for wanting to run Nike, like the fact that the medal is a Tiffany necklace, that my lovely TNT Long Beach teammates would be running their first races and that San Francisco is home to some of my favorite restaurants.

I mentioned in a previous post that I didn't train very well this season, right?  Well, this race proved it.  The course was THE hardest course I've ever run.  My complete lack of hill training, coupled with a left knee that hates me, made running uphill and downhill a nightmare.

But the views...oh my, the views were amazing.  San Francisco is an absolutely gorgeous place.  Around mile 6 when the hills were killing me, I was rewarded with a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Will I run this race again?  Who knows.  What I do know is I love San Francisco and will be back again.

Hey Mouseketeers!!

As my first 13.1 mile race of 2011, the Disneyland Half Marathon was a fun way to ease into my running season.  Because of my commitments to Team in Training as a captain, I wasn't able to train as well as I would have liked, but I somehow managed to get my miles in when they counted the most.

Since I ran Disney last year, I took time to enjoy the course, take pictures with my favorite characters and just have fun!  Dressed as Pocahontas, I ran through Disneyland, California Adventure and the streets of Anaheim with my TNT girls, most of whom were also dressed as Disney characters.

Some photo highlights from the race for your viewing pleasure:

STORM TROOPER!  I  heart.

Minnie, Cinderella and Pocahontas

The TNT lovelies with the Disney Princesses