"Fabulous" Las Vegas Half-Marathon

By Jen Grube

12--10-06

What’s better than hanging out with your closest friends? Running with your closest friends! That was the plan for the year. My friends and I all decided on running the Las Vegas half-marathon together. My sister-in-law Anna and my friends Jean and Cassie came up from Tucson, and my friend Erin drove up from Phoenix. My good friend Ellie, who lives in Vegas, decided to also partake in this event.

All the girls arrived in Las Vegas Friday evening. We headed to The District in Henderson to eat at  Lucille’s Bar-B-Que. After our satisfying meal we walked over to Fado’s Irish Pub to hear a local Irish band called “Darby O’Gill and the Little People.” We all had a blast!

Saturday we headed to Mandalay Bay Hotel to pick up our packets at the Expo and made a quick stop at the Village Runner (where I work part-time.)  After a small glitch with my bid number ,we shopped around a bit and left. We then carbo loaded at The Olive Garden (which is one of my favorite places to eat!)  In the evening we had pasta & salad again and went to bed early to rest for our big day!

Arriving at the race was a little stressful. We were supposed to meet Ellie at the Islander Room in Mandalay  Bay before the race; however, we didn’t give ourselves enough time to fight traffic. The road I would have taken to park was closed and we had to park at Excalibur, basically jogging to the start of the race. When we arrived at the Islander Room, Ellie and others we planned on meeting  already left to the starting line. Oh no! We had no other choice than to go outside and line up as well.  We searched for Ellie among the crowd of over 16,000 runners & spectators, but could not find her.

The Blue Man Group along with a spectacular display of fireworks started the race. Temperatures were around 40 degrees with a pretty strong north-east wind.  The first 6 miles of the course was filled with spectators, music entertainment, and hotel attractions (such as the Bellagio fountains and Mirage’s erupting volcano!) We made a quick stop for the restroom around mile 3 and stopped a few more times for personal needs (muscle rub and so forth.) When we arrived at the turn around point at the Freemont we were all amazed at how fast the time seemed to pass by. “Wow!, We already ran 6 miles?!” commented Jean. Yep, sure did J

Paul, who is a member of the Green Valley Cyclists (GVC) volunteered that morning to bike patrol miles 7-9. This was a great opportunity to give him clothing we no longer needed and to take some neat group photos. Huge thanks to Paul and the GVC for the all support!  We appreciated the pick me up.

Miles 9 through 13.1 were run down the back side of the strip. There were a few bands set up on the course, but mostly these miles focused on staying together and fighting through a few nagging injuries. The arrival of Mandalay Bay was exciting and we all anticipated the finish. We crossed the finish line linked hand-in-hand at 2:18. This was indeed the most fun I have had during a race! I hope we can do it again next year.