Thanks to my cheerleading, encouraging, energetic Princess, we made it the entire 13.1 miles and lived to tell about it. We're anxiously awaiting official photos from the race website, but in the meantime, I'll share the couple of pictures we took of ourselves (set the camera up and run to pose).
I arrived in Vegas Saturday afternoon and we had to go to the Runner's Expo to pick up our numbers, t-shirts, timing chips, etc. The t-shirts are pretty cool; nice running shirts with the words and graphics forming the shape of a guitar.
We had pasta for dinner on Saturday night and tried to go to bed early. The race began at 7:00 am, but we were in a slower group, so we didn't get going until about 7:40. The weather was good, a little cool, but clear. We waited around with a bunch of other people until it was time for our group to start.
There were over 19,000 people running the half marathon with us, and an additional 5000 more who ran the full marathon. You had to be vigilant to avoid running into people who decided to stop and take a picture or walk for awhile and didn't look behind them. There were a lot of people! You could tell the real runners, too. They just look different. They're the ones coming back toward the end of the half marathon when you're still working on about mile 3. (Of course, they had a head start!)
We did well. I'm happy with my results for this first time and hope that the Princess will do another race with someone her own age and get to see how well she can really do. My muscles were really hurting for a good part of the time (I think it's because I'm used to stopping and stretching every 3 or 4 miles and she wouldn't let me stop until mile 7!) She truly didn't even look tired at the end and she was so helpful and encouraging to me the whole way. I'm very proud of us.
We went back to the hotel room, glad to escape the huge crowds, and took photos of us with our numbers and our medals. We had matching shirts and hats, but I wore the vest so we had pockets to carry our energy chews and some tissues.
All in all, we had a great experience. I had dinner with the Princess and her boyfriend, then they left and I had a well-earned glass of wine and the first good night's sleep in a long time. Today I got to show off my t-shirt to my yoga class buddies and they were suitably impressed.
I'll post again when we get official photos. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's over. Will I do another? If you had asked me that at 10:35 am on Sunday, the answer would have definitely been "no!" Today? It's possible.
I arrived in Vegas Saturday afternoon and we had to go to the Runner's Expo to pick up our numbers, t-shirts, timing chips, etc. The t-shirts are pretty cool; nice running shirts with the words and graphics forming the shape of a guitar.
We had pasta for dinner on Saturday night and tried to go to bed early. The race began at 7:00 am, but we were in a slower group, so we didn't get going until about 7:40. The weather was good, a little cool, but clear. We waited around with a bunch of other people until it was time for our group to start.
There were over 19,000 people running the half marathon with us, and an additional 5000 more who ran the full marathon. You had to be vigilant to avoid running into people who decided to stop and take a picture or walk for awhile and didn't look behind them. There were a lot of people! You could tell the real runners, too. They just look different. They're the ones coming back toward the end of the half marathon when you're still working on about mile 3. (Of course, they had a head start!)
We did well. I'm happy with my results for this first time and hope that the Princess will do another race with someone her own age and get to see how well she can really do. My muscles were really hurting for a good part of the time (I think it's because I'm used to stopping and stretching every 3 or 4 miles and she wouldn't let me stop until mile 7!) She truly didn't even look tired at the end and she was so helpful and encouraging to me the whole way. I'm very proud of us.
We went back to the hotel room, glad to escape the huge crowds, and took photos of us with our numbers and our medals. We had matching shirts and hats, but I wore the vest so we had pockets to carry our energy chews and some tissues.
All in all, we had a great experience. I had dinner with the Princess and her boyfriend, then they left and I had a well-earned glass of wine and the first good night's sleep in a long time. Today I got to show off my t-shirt to my yoga class buddies and they were suitably impressed.
I'll post again when we get official photos. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's over. Will I do another? If you had asked me that at 10:35 am on Sunday, the answer would have definitely been "no!" Today? It's possible.
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