During this time of thankfulness I am thankful for my second year of racing. This year brought challenges, new experiences, new courses as well as familiar courses. It got me to become a Half Fanatic and getting me ready for my first marathon. This year I got to see my relatives, and participate with them in a couple races. Got cool medals, got me to begin looking into the running community, seeing friends begin running and hoping to see them in races in 2014. I’m thankful for my personal cheerer,who has made me a poster for all my runs, and who has designed my running wall to display my medals and running collages. I’m thankful for the ability to run, it’s kept my blood sugar down, and it’s been a healthy habit that has become quite the obsession. I am looking forward to see what 2014 will bring. It will all start with my first marathon in January…the Walt Disney World marathon! Thank you for reading my blog and I look forward in sharing with you my races for next year!
Running the Strip at Night
I chose to do this race because I wanted to get the Encore medal in the RnR series and thought that running along the Vegas strip at night would be fun. I planned this race very early on so I thought that I would be running by myself. About a week earlier I got a text from my cousin Nanette that she entered a contest and won a free admission to this race. I was very happy that she was able to go.
We arrived at Las Vegas on Friday night. We got our In-n-Out burger and met up with a friend from grade school. When we got back to the room we found out that the bathroom shower was backing up. So we called the front desk and with some other problems with the room we got upgraded to the deluxe room, which was way better than the room that we got.
Saturday we walked up the strip towards the expo at the convention center. I apparently saw the wrong building on the map because it was further that it looked on the map. Also we found out that there is a tram that would of taken us there from the MGM Grand. We met my cousin at the a Expo. We spent a few hours there, but had to keep track of the time because we were going to go to the Cirque du Soleil LOVE with my cousin and her son Nicholas.
After the show we carbed up in a Italian restaurant in Caesar’s Palace, which was really good. We then dropped off Nanette and Nicholas at their hotel and hopped on the tram towards our hotel. It was weirded not worrying about getting up early for the race, because this race started at 4 in the afternoon so the lights would be on when we run. In the mornin we had a leisurely breakfast, walked around and then went back to the room to relax.
Met up with Nanette and headed over to Mandalay Bay hotel to meet up with some of the Half Fanatics and take some pictures. After we heard that there was another meetup by the Las Vegas sign, so we headed over there and got another picture with other Fanatics. After milling around we entered the start corrals, we were able to stay in corral 7 and waited for the start.
Once we were off, we went south for about a mile the turned around towards the strip. The sun started to set and it was night when we approached the strip, with that all the signs were lit up. Once we got closer to Harrahs we started to look you my aunt and Nicholas. We saw them and got a picture with them. We ran up the strip and headed to old downtown. There we ran past the store from Pawn Stars, when looking at the for it looks like that they might of been filming an episode. Around mile 7 I had to use the bathroom so I told Nanette to yo ahead and I would try to catch up.
Around mile 9 I had some GU, and I started to get cramps. I started to slow down and take more walking breaks. One thing that was disappointing was that we didn’t run through the Freemont Experience, which they’ve done before. Once I saw the lights of the trip I knew I was almost done. I did manage to see Rick and Nicholas before the end so once I did I sprinted towards the finish. I completed the race in 2hrs 46min 29sec. Since I didn’t catch up to Nanette I looked for her around the finish chute, luckily I found her before the picture stations. We took our finisher photos together and then tried to find our cheerers.
This was a fun race, it was my first time wearing my fanatics gear which I got a bunch of greetings from other fanatics along the course. This is my official last run for 2013. Next race will be the full marathon in WDW! This year had a lot of fun races, some I will do again next year.
Chicago Hot Chocolate 15k
I was wary in signing up again this year because of all the problems this race had last year. But I knew a bunch of people that were running it so I decided to run it again this year. It fell in line with my training plan so it worked out.
The expo was was well organized, they added another day for the packet pick up an it took me less than a minute to get my bib. The swag this year was also really good. It was a quarter zipper pullover and it was fitted, perfect for my cold running days. There were not that many vendors at the expo so we didn’t stay there too long.
This year I was placed in corral I, which was in the first wave. We arrived at the starting corrals fairly early so I was able to check in my bag and use the facilities and get in my corral in plenty of time. I only had to wait about a half hour and then we were off!
The course was slightly different this year, we ran quite a bit through lower wacker and then went out to the streets of downtown. I really like the races that go through the streets of downtown, I really love this city. The first refreshment station wasn’t well prepared. I don’t think they expected such a big crowd, but they pushed out the Gatorade as fast as they could. The volunteers are great! Speaking of volunteers, my friend Mel volunteered in the 3rd medical stop and I saw her, and it was just past the 5 mile mark, so that gave me a boost to go further.
I finished in 1hr 46min 5sec. I beat my time from last year, I am happy with the time. After finding Rick and got my bag we went and got my chocolate!
I have one more race for this year and that will be in a couple of weeks! Vegas baby!
Chad's Blog for Running, Disney & Movies 