What Happens in Vegas, Comes to the Blog :)

Last Friday Brad & I packed up the car and headed out to Las Vegas for my 1st marathon post baby (3rd ever marathon). For those of you who don't know, we are talking 26.2 miles! Here is a recap of my FULL marathons:
1st marathon: January 18, 2009 - Arizona Rock n' Roll - finished in 3:45
2nd marathon: May 31, 2009 - San Diego Rock n' Roll - finished in 3:43
3rd attempted marathon: November 15, 2009 - San Antonio Rock n' Roll - found out I was preggo 3 weeks before so I couldn't run the entire thing. I ran the first 3 miles with my bro and then cabbed it down 13 miles and waited for my brother to reach me. We then ran the last 10 together.
4th marathon: December 5, 2010 - Las Vegas Rock n' Roll - finished in 3:57

But before I tell you about the run, let's talk about the par-tay:) We had a few stops along the way. Stop #1 - drop the dogs off at Dr.Tom's to be boarded. Stop #2 - drop the Cade Man off at Mimi & Poppy's house. Then we were off to the races... literally!

Once checking in at the Mandalay Bay, it was time for a cocktail.
We made it! No traffic... we were cruisin'.

Off to the bar... so many choices....

Cheers!

Then, Yours Truly got a new Michael Kors bag:) You like?

Next on the list, we went to The Bellagio to see this:

The show was great!!

Day 2 - first on the agenda was to hit up the Marathon expo to check in and pick up my bib, goody bag, etc.

I picked up these babies too! I had wanted to try these shoes I have read about but no local stores carried them so that I could try them on. The expo had them so I cashed in!! Hopefully I can try them out for a run this week...

After the expo we went to Carnival Court at Harrah's - a fun outside bar with crazy singers and bartenders that flip bottles 'cocktail' style. It was an early night since the big run was the next morning. So early, in fact, that we (ok, I) woke up at 1am rested and ready to venture downstairs for some food. I figured it was time to 'carbo-load', so we went to a 24 hr cafe so I could get some pasta. Brad had the sliders....

And I got the spag and meatballs... by the looks of my empty plate, I think I liked it:)

We then headed to the tables to gamble for a few hours before I needed to head upstairs and get ready...

I am ready! How do I look?

At 6am, I headed over to meet Jeff. Do you remember Jeff? I met him 1.5 months ago while we were running the LA Half Marathon. He lives in Arizona and we decided to run this race together. He dressed up in full Elvis gear.

Because it was freezing outside, most people stretched and waited in this room until the last possible minute.

And we're off! Just for you, I ran with my camera again. You're welcome:)

Jeff & I met the girl in the pink hat (bottom right corner) as we were waiting for the race to begin. Turns out Sandy lives by me in Huntington Beach. She & I left Jeff around mile 5. And then I left Sandy at mile 11. I felt great and was running pretty fast.... until about mile 13 when I lost some of that energy.



Still going....

Feeling great! We had the whole strip to ourselves. It was closed down for about 5 or 6 hours.

You can't tell here but we are going over the overpass. It was pretty darn steep and we were on the last mile. The Mandalay Bay is straight ahead and that is where the race ends.

I was NOT having fun at this point. My exact thoughts, "why did I do this to myself?"

I'm done!! I can now smile... if I don't throw up first from drinking way too much water, way too fast! Now we gotta run up to the room, grab our bags, and hit the road to pick up Cade and the dogs.

Except..... we didn't anticipate the traffic. It took 2 hrs to get onto the freeway since the race had closed the roads down. Once on the freeway, we were flyin' for about 5 miles until the freeway came to a stop. Evidently they were doing construction. Who knows why they would do this on a Sunday afternoon. It took us 2 hrs to get to The Gold Strike hotel (which wasn't even to State Line)! We got off the freeway there, had lunch (along with many other drivers) and ended up getting a hotel. We decided to sleep and get up when the traffic would be gone. So we set the alarm for 2am. Not ideal, but much better than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic the whole way home.

Here is our $30/night room. You get what you pay for, right?

Brad was out 'like a light' within 15 minutes of hitting that bed.

Not me! I can never sleep well... I was a few hours behind him. I watched tv and played Suduko until I was tired. Good night!

P.S. Did I tell you who we ran into? Being the Bachelor fan that I am, right away I noticed Jason Mesnick & Molly Malaney as they walked past us in the Mandalay Bay/Luxor bridge. I stopped them for a picture - although the camera was turned on 'video' so it took a 2 second video instead - darn! Brad later apologized to them on my behalf for 'stopping them'. Hey.. what's wrong with stopping them?! I have to laugh at the pic (video) though... I have my arm around Molly like I am her long lost best friend! haha! Hey, it's not everyday you run into people from The Bachelor! :)