Going out with a bang

Our final race day brought cool weather and overcast skies, resulting in a spectacular sunrise.



It being our final event and final race day, it's also hopefully the last time I have to wake up at 4AM in the near future. The race started off with a bang, as they shot off a full fireworks display at 6AM as the race started. I'm sure it was greatly appreciated by all those who were sleeping in nearby hotels (though who are we kidding, if you've gone to bed by 6AM in Vegas you must have called it an early night).

The race itself was populated with many more characters in costume than normal, including numerous Elvises. Stephen was one of them, and somehow or another he ended up running in a skirt that said "The King" on the back. Along the way, he and his other Elvis friends (specifically the Elite Racing girls) took numerous pictures and even watched a mid-race wedding take place.

This picture of Stephen's is of particular note because it's pretty much just awesome. It wasn't posed, and he didn't have to retake it 20 times to get it right. First try, and this was the result: Bekah flying through the air while rocking out.



After the race I made it a lazy afternoon. I got a few necessary tasks out of the way, including a nap. Then Molly and I went to see Mystere, the Circe du Soleil show playing at Treasure Island. It was excellent. It combined sheer athleticism with grace, beauty, showmanship, humor, and plenty of completely random moments as entertainment between acrobatic sets. For those who haven't seen a show, I highly recommend it. While I had many favorite parts, my favorite had to be early on when a single male gymnast/acrobat/person capable of doing seemingly impossible things pretty much flew around over the audience holding on to a single cable.

After the show, we headed to Mandalay Bay to say goodbye to Stephen. We headed up to miX, a new lounge/bar at the top of The Hotel (Mandalay Bay's newest addition). It's 64 stories up, and provides a stunning view, complete with a balcony area overlooking the strip.



This morning we dropped all the shoes, apparel, and remaining merchandise at the Crocs outlet store storage space in Vegas.



It was a very, very large number of shoes, and the truck I drove today was pretty much empty after the shoes were taken out (all the marketing stuff is in the other truck). This made things interesting in the windy conditions on our way to Albaquerque. Instead of the normal scenario of feeling like you're in a big truck getting blown around by gusts, with less weight in the back I felt like I was in a large truck with a sail attached to it. We drove through a tiny snowstorm, but we're in the clear at the moment for our morning departure from Albaquerque. I'm curious to see what the weather will be driving into Colorado tomorrow.

Running Around

So, some catching up...

The expo. The expo was held in the Alamodome, which was by far the largest venue for a Rock and Roll event. It was necessary, however, as 30,000 people signed up for the race. The expo was absolutely packed, especially on Saturday.



There was a long line for our survey (at one point it wrapped around two sides of our booth), and several times there were so many people in the Crocs area you could barely move. We had some record-breaking numbers this weekend, and overall from a work standpoint it was a good event.



Saturday night we headed out for our final team dinner. We walked along the riverwalk for a while, which reminds me a bit of New Orleans Bourbon Street, only with a canal down the middle and a little more tame.



I also walked over to the Tower of the Americas, which is basically a less intesting knock-off space needle. It even has a revolving restaurant at the top.



We got to the Italian restaurant, where we proceeded to have great food and horrid service. We sat waiting for our table, which sat open for a half hour before we were seated. Then we waited for 10 minutes before we were brought water. Another 15 minutes elapsed before our drink orders arrived. The appetizers and salads took long enough that we worried the entrees would arrive before them. And we asked for more bread three times before getting it. Finally, Molly and Lyndsay ordered a pork tenderloin to split, and they were brought a steak. Granted, a really good steak. All the food was great. The service was just so dismal it was almost comical.



I got an entry into the half-marathon Sunday morning, so Molly (who was also running) and I met at 6:30 to go catch a shuttle to the start line for the 7:30 start. The race organizers hadn't planned for the shuttle demand correctly, and we weren't able to board a shuttle until 7:10. We got to the start area at 7:30, and we figured the race had been postponed because there were still many people who were on shuttles behind us. Wrong. I found out the elite wave had just started and I was in corral #1. I proceeded to run the length of 32 corrals to get to corral 1 as the runners left. Good warm-up. With my heart rate at 195 from racing down to the starting line, I got off to a faster start than I probably should have, but overall I ran a very steady race.

My goal time was 1:35:00 after having run a 1:39 in Philadelphia with very little training. I averaged a 7:08 pace after 5K, 7:02 after 10 Miles, and 7:06 overall, resulting in a finishing time of 1:33:03. Success!



The training paid off not only in getting faster, but also in recovery. I wasn't as sore yesterday or today in comparison with after Philadelphia. Still hobbling around a bit, but if I wasn't it would mean I didn't run hard enough.

After the race we packed up our finish line set-up and said goodbye to Lyndsay who flew out to go home before starting her job for the coming winter months at a ski shop.

Then we drove north to Dallas where we got to see the new apartment of Nate and Whitney (his girlfriend). He started work today, so it was an extremely fast turnaround between jobs for him. We said our goodbyes, and this morning Molly and I got started on a long 650 mile drive to Albaquerque, New Mexico. About 300 miles in, my truck started to lose acceleration like it has done many times before, and after several more incidents we were worried that we wouldn't be making it without some repiars. We put some new fuel in the truck and tried to get it going on the road again. Sure enough, we made it the last 200 miles on new diesel fuel without incident. At this point we're thinking/hoping we got a bad tank of fuel from a station in Texas.

Assuming the truck decides to cooperate tomorrow, we'll go to Flagstaff, where I'll get to see my brother for the first time since August!