Little Buddha

Way to get out and loosen up a bit. You'll feel alot better getting out today (Tues).

If we don't talk, I hope you guys have a great time at Disney Land!

In response to your interest in the Las Vegas Marathon, I write this novel. Ok, I won't ramble I promise.

It was my first marathon so I didn't know what to expect. My training was seriously lacking as I had just begun a new job and had a new baby. That and I ran by myself in the heat of the summer in Vegas. Yeah, the motivation was not there. Anyway, the training lacked, so my performance lacked, which affected my opinion of the race. I loved the first 5 miles or so of the race. It began at the South end of the strip and ran north right down the middle of the strip. I have never seen the strip so void of people (other than the runners). My favorite part was running down freemont street (if you have been there you know why as it is a very unique street with the canopy of lights). After that it was pretty windy and cool the rest of the way. Vegas can be windy but this was excessive. Another cool part was that at every mile there was a band, choir, dancers, cheerleaders, elvis, or some other random entertainment. The race is reasonably flat with most of the uphill towards the beginning. I hit the wall at 18 miles and struggled to finish. I was so wasted it took well over a half hour for me to walk back to my car (1 mile away). Lesson learned, make sure you train for more than 10-24 miles a week to prepare for a marathon and make sure you get in a long run longer than 9 miles. This is embarrasing admitting how pathetic I "trained". With your training it should be a breeze. It will be a unique marathon for you if you decide to do it.

The Top of Utah was another experience altogether. My training still lacked as I decided to start training 8 weeks prior to the race. My accelerated program only got me up to 40-45 miles a week at best, however, the race went much better than Vegas. The start was cold, but so was the Vegas marathon so no biggie. The first half was sweet. I felt like I was hardly working and still keeping a 7:00 pace down the canyon. The biggest complaint about the race was that there are so many turns between miles 21 and 26 that you can see runners 1 block away from where you are but will take you 1 or 2 miles to get there. That was a mental hurdle for me.

If I had to pick which race to do again, I would choose the TOU hands down. The course is so much better. Of course, since I lived in Vegas I didn't get to the party scene that most of the runners experienced and would probably say was the best part of the race weekend.