Mike and I were so excited to do a half marathon together in Las Vegas. We flew into Las Vegas on Friday evening and my parents picked us up at the airport and had our numbers waiting for us. Since we came in too late for the Expo my dad picked up our numbers when he picked up his own. Mike and I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria hotel since it was kind of a race/birthday weekend. We got into the hotel, made our massage reservations, and ordered the most fabulous chicken and spaghetti dinner to our room. We got up at 2:30am and were out of our hotel and into an Uber by 3:00am. We met up with my dad at the bus pickup and then we all rode the bus up to the starting line. The weather was perfect. We got to the starting area in enough time to go to the bathroom and warm up. With 10 minutes before race time Mike and I headed to the starting line. When I realized that the start was further down the road than I thought I started to jog. I made it to the front of the startling line with 2 minutes to spare. I was going for a PR today of sub 1:30 so my miles needed to be no slower than 6:50/mile. I started out running in front of the 1:30 pacer group. They kept going ahead of and then behind me for much of the race. I eventually tagged onto the tail of a really tall guy who was running the pace I wanted to hold. We didn’t talk but it was good to have someone to run next to. The first 9 miles were all at 6:40 pace and I felt awesome. As we made our way further down the canyon and sun started shining on our faces, I used my tall friend to block the sun from my face for 4 miles. It would have been perfect if he hadn’t stopped to use the bathroom at mile 8. Still, my body felt good and I wasn’t breathing hard. I made sure to thank him after the race. I continued on with a fantastic pace until mile 10 when the course took a turn upwards. That mile and the two after were a bit slower than they should have been. Miles 10-12 were low to mid 7’s. I had banked enough time that I knew I could still break 1:30 so I mustered all the energy I could and started to pick up the pace for the last mile of the race and clocked a 6:56 pace for the 13th mile. My official time was 1:30.19 for the Revel Mt. Charleston Half marathon but myself and several others clocked the course as long by .10 so my adjusted time is 1:29.43!!!! I placed 2nd in my age group, 7th woman overall and an overall 47th out of 1988 runners! This was the fastest half marathon I’ve run since I was 20 and pre 5 kids. Mike and my dad both ran great races considering they were both injured. Both came in under 2 hrs. Mike finished in 1:56 with an injured knee. He amazes me! This was his first race in over a decade. Afterwards, Mike and I went back to our hotel to eat, sleep, get a massage and sit by the pool the remainder of the day!
