Group Practice #11
8 miles on the schedule
Start time: 6:00 PM
Location: Kellogg-Zaher Park

Since the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon is at night, we’ve tried to do a few of our trainings in the evening. The first one was the Sunset Rock ‘n’ Run we held earlier this fall. The second one was this weekend!

We’ve had a big cooldown this weekend, so I really grappled with what I should wear to this training. My iPhone told me it would be around 57 degrees when we started, so I thought that was shorts weather. I debated that decision over and over, but finally decided that due to the fact that the 50’s are ideal running weather, the shorts would be fine. I wore my Team Challenge coach jersey (short sleeves) with arm warmers, tied a pullover jacket around my waist and then (almost as an afterthought) tied my Tommie Copper compression calf sleeves to the jacket around my waist too.

Since our course had a lot of loops to try avoiding most of the crowds (there was a Light the Night event for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society happening at the same location as our training that night), it was decided that I would run 2 miles in one direction while the team headed in the opposite direction to start. The goal was that I would beat everyone to this spot and could give them directions around the second of the night’s loops. Coach Jimmy rode his bike with the front runners right from the beginning to help direct them around the first loop area. Then Coach Deb hung out in the final looping area.

I felt great running the 2 miles out… but then I proceeded to stand in place for about 85 minutes.
And the temperature kept dropping.
Down to about 47 degrees.
And I was freezing!
I put the pullover on and then the compression sleeves, both of which helped, but not nearly enough. And I had my new pink Saucony Vizipro Protection gloves on, they kept my hands warmer but they’re also way too big. The problem of having child-sized hands.

Once my final walkers made it past me and started on the loop, I ran backwards through the loop to meet up with them again. Just moving again helped me warm up a tiny bit. I started to walk back with them when I met up with them, but I was shivering too much so I made sure they knew where to turn and I ran it in to the finish.

I was so cold I physically hurt!

The whole team was pretty cold, so this was a good test in seeing how we might feel temperature-wise on race night as well as practicing fueling for an evening race. The area where we ran had some lights on the path, but I’m pretty sure the Strip at Night will be a lot brighter than these lights! That area is pretty well-lit! The spotlight on top of the Luxor is supposedly the brightest beam on earth.

I didn’t take my camera that night, but I should have. It doesn’t take the best pictures in low-light situations, but I should keep experimenting with it to see if I can figure out how to get pictures on race night!

I do want to leave off with a message about what this organization is running for… Many people think that Crohn’s & Ulcerative Colitis just affect the digestive system. Yes, we make jokes about “Leaving the craps on the Strip” and have wristbands that say “Crohn’s & UC are crappy diseases.” But these things can affect so much more than that… basically if someone is sick they are not absorbing the nutrients they need. The body starts rebelling and destroying itself because everything is so inflamed. We had a participant who ran in honor of a friend who killed himself due to the horrible circumstances he dealt with from his disease. And our honored hero Ashley is so sick lately, …

Here is a picture of us coaches with Ashley at the beginning of this season:

And here is a picture of Ashley lately, with the latest way Crohn’s is affecting her:

It breaks my heart… I didn’t know much about these diseases before Team Challenge, yet I’m amazed to see how many people I come across who are affected by these terrible diseases.

I know this is kind of a low note to end this on, but I just wanted to let you know that no matter what kind of charity program you are involved with… there is most likely a face, a human being, an individual who is afflicted and every little bit makes a difference. If you give of your money, time, effort… it all matters!