Run to Win

As far as I can tell, the Las Vegas Marathon is no more, which is good news for all concerned because now the Rock’N'Roll folks have taken over and are running their version of a brand new marathon there this December.

In an unprecedented move, the marathon is going to be the first private event to shut down both lanes of Las Vegas Boulevard, which allows the half marathon course to be almost entirely on that one road.

Honestly, if there’s one road I’d want to run on in Vegas (when there’s no traffic of course) it would probably be right there on the Strip so you could see all the craziness as you ran by.

The runners will be treated to all the staples at the aid stations such as water and sports drink, and if Vegas holds true to my experiences on the strip they’ll probably be treated to some pornography as well.

Of course, even with better race management I still have to wonder…why would anyone really want to run a marathon in Las Vegas?

Before I went out to visit, I probably would have thought that it would be a great idea. Having been there, though, I’d much rather run a marathon outside of that bowl of pollution.

Inside the city, you’ll have trouble sucking down the air even going 2 or 3 minutes slower than race pace. Head just 20 minutes outside the city and cross the mountains there, and you’ll have all the clean air and beautiful scenery you can handle.

My recommendation is that if you are going to visit Las Vegas to run a marathon, take a look at the Calico Racing schedule and see what events they have going on. You’re lungs will thank you.

(More Info: LV Marathon Home Page – Calico Racing)

Shortly after running 50 miles, I wrote a short little article analyzing what I ate the morning of and during the race. I examined the exact number of calories that I consumed compared to my estimated caloric usage.

Today, I’m going to share a few of the meals that I consumed in the week leading up to the race that allowed me to successfully navigate the 50 mile course.

Early in the week, we took a trip to the Valley of Fire. Beautiful place! Walking around there all day was hungry work, but thankfully we packed some sandwiches that we made in our room before heading out.

It’s important to relax now and then, which is surprisingly difficult to do in the daylight ambience of The Venetian in the middle of the night. Thankfully, I had an Italian beer to help me wash down an excellent pasta dish.

Walking around Vegas can be very tiring, though. There are a lot of people, nothing is near anything else, and if you follow the signs to get where you want to be then you’ll take pretty much the longest route possible that passes as many slot machines as they can bring you near. We were pretty tired by the time we found this Creperie in fake Paris.

Our original plans were to do a hash run on New Years Day, but instead we met some friends at the Egg Works. As it was lunch time, I decided to try one of their Burgers. I don’t think that Erin thought that I’d be able to fit it in my mouth.

She was wrong.

Sometimes, though, a burger just isn’t going to do it. Especially when you’ve been walking around in Vegas. Thankfully, there was a goldfish handy…

(Full Size Images: Flickr)

Now that I’ve covered my training schedule for my first 50 miler, here’s what I did in the week or so leading up to the race.

I tapered very aggressively. I basically just did not worry about how much I was going to run from Christmas through the New Year (the race was on January 3^rd.) Any training benefits that I was going to get were achieved well before, and my priority was recovering as much from my training as possible. After a few brief runs after the Christmas holiday, my wife and I flew to Las Vegas which involved a 2 hour bus ride and a 6 hour flight. We arrived in Vegas around 10:00 p.m. which was more like 1:00 a.m. for us. We were relatively tired, given that we normally turn in pretty early.

When you fly into Vegas, you can see the lights from the city (especially the strip) but you can’t see much else at night. Our drive to our resort was similarly unenlightening for what we could expect when we woke up in the morning.

Imagine our surprise, then, when we wake up and step outside for a short run and we see this directly in front of us:
(Click here to continue reading…)

Lisa Sabin is a personal trainer, and she hired me to write about her program over at Konamoxt where she is offering to train people online for free to get them ready for the Las Vegas Half Marathon.

By joining this introductory program you get access to exclusive features, personalized training and support, tons of useful articles and information to take your running to the next level, a pre-race party where you’ll meet fellow athletes, and membership in an active community of athletes who share your passion.

(Click here to continue reading…)

The Sports Weblog has an article about the possibility of the Florida Marlins moving to Las Vegas. I just have to say that I can not see that happening. Baseball is not as large of a betting sport these days as say football is, but I find it hard picturing Bud Selig agreeing to allow a franchise to move there. It’s been over 80 years, and the White Sox are still being called the Black Sox after getting to the World Series this past year. Baseball is still trying to distance itself from gambling as much as it can; they won’t invite trouble and bad connotations by moving a team there.