Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon working in the Garmin/Fleet Feet booth at the expo. It was very busy, hardly a spare second all day. I never had a moment to try eating a snack or anything, so by the time I got home near 7:00 I was famished. I was also tired and grumpy, feelings that carried over into the morning today.

I was not mentally prepared to run a race today. Even though we were fully planning on doing the Las Vegas Half Marathon as a training run, there is still a little bit of a race mentality when you’re in that environment. I was full of negative thoughts about waking up early and venturing out into the cold (50 degrees, we are wimps!). But once I actually had a number pinned to my shirt and a timing chip on my shoe, I felt a little more “ready” to face the event.

I had to get up at 3:00 AM in order to eat, get ready and meet my friends at 4:30, so we could all head to the Mandalay Bay for the 6:07 AM race start. I made my usual bowl of oatmeal, but only ate about a quarter of it, I just didn’t feel like eating.

We drove across town and parked in the parking garage at the hotel. After meeting several of our other friends there, a couple of us decided to make a quick pit stop before the race. Let me tell you, getting to have a pre-race pit stop in the Mandalay Bay Resort with flushing toilets and sinks with soap is a treat, never mind the fact that the restroom is lavishly decorated as well. Every race should start like that.

Finally we headed out to the madness that was the start line. There were no neatly organized corrals like the Rock ‘n’ Roll races, just a mass herd of people waiting. So we crowded in where we could, listened to Robin Leach attempt to make witty banter for the crowd for a bit, hung out with the masses of people dressed as Elvis and made jokes about living in Las Vegas. Right before the start they began to shoot off fireworks (because in Vegas, we shoot off fireworks for EVERYTHING! 4th of July, New Years, building implosions, etc.) and the running began. The race organizers must have spent a small fortune on the fireworks, because they kept going for quite some time.

The race starts off running up the Las Vegas Strip, that’s a pretty awesome way to kick off a race, especially since it was before the sun had risen and we got to see all the glittering Las Vegas lights. I had hoped the Bellagio fountains would be singing and dancing as we ran past, but no such luck there.

At Mile 5 they had a “run-thru wedding chapel”, for people who were getting married during the race. We saw several girls before the race in their wedding/race attire… white tights, white tops, tutus, veils, tiaras, etc. It’s a very Vegas activity that I hope is retained next year when Elite Racing takes over, I find it kind of charming. (They also had a wedding cake/water stop, where any runner could eat a piece of wedding cake and wash it down with Gatorade or water!)

The second half of the race was on boring, slightly-ghetto streets filled with strip bars. There were also numerous potholes in the roads as they went behind construction projects along The Strip.

My left knee started hurting pretty bad with about 5 miles left, I was in a pretty gloomy place for a bit. I started to doubt myself, my abilities and my sanity; wondering if I am crazy for running the race just 3 weeks after I did San Antonio and for planning on the full in Phoenix in a few weeks. But Melinda always pulls me through those moments with her Dean Karnazes words of wisdom. Plus, my pals are just as crazy as me with this non-stop running. That helps!

At Mile 11 we went through the Fleet Feet sponsored water stop, something we had to be excited about as it was staffed by friends! Plus we were running as Fleet Feet representatives, dressed in bright red shirts proclaiming our affiliation! Melinda works for Fleet Feet and I do freelance work for them. It was the only water stop that we used during the race, since we were carrying our own hydration.

With the finish line approaching, we all kicked it in gear a little harder… because we were “taking it easy” on our “13.1 mile training run”. HA!

I finished the race in 2:11:24… a new PR (since I now only have 2 official half-marathons under my belt). The tops my old time by 10 minutes.

At the finish line I had my knee sprayed with a pain relieving substance called Salonpas. I came to the conclusion that any product that is for “pain-relief” will probably receive a positive review in my book. That stuff was a life-saver at that moment and truly made me feel a lot better!

There weren’t nearly enough mile-markers or clocks along the course. The crowd support was non-existent. Every now and then we would see a random grouping of people that would give a little cheer, but it didn’t have the energy of the Rock ‘n’ Roll races at all. I think that’s why people like the RnR races, the course is always lively and that’s something you can count on to keep spirits high.

My Nike+ locked up on the course, so it said I did 1.99 miles the whole time. I had to do a hard reboot of it after the race and it lost that little bit of the race it tracked. That’s okay with me, since I didn’t really want to record an entire half-marathon as a barely-under-2 mile run… that’s just weak!

So even though I didn’t start out feeling all that pumped, I did finish the race feeling happy and content with my time, performance and outcome. I am going to take a couple days off from running, just to try and get past these apathetic feelings and so I feel good for my long run next weekend. I may be a little bit in the over-training zone and need to allow my body (and mind) some time to recuperate more.