Dust and the Wind

Sunday started at a very early 5am. We had to be at Excalibur to pick up the buses at 5:30. But there was a lot of preparation to do before then.

As a very prepared marathoner, I had already laid out everything I needed to bring, wear, or deal with the night before. But it still was a lot of work. Some pre-race rituals:
1) I always use Wrightsocks. The double layer that they have is the only thing that keeps my toes from blistering.
2) I use a race belt, just like in triathlon. This allows me to not have to deal with pinning a number on an article of clothing (you never know when you might take these things off)
3) Tylenol. I always take this before the race starts. I figure, faster blood and less inflammation can't but lead to faster times!
4) Hats are underated, sunscreen is overrated. Always wear a hat.
5) I always hold at least one long sleeved shirt and one windbreaker.

Dad was wearing a disposable track suit, which is a good idea since he could chuck the clothing as he ran and would not have to hold onto it (signal foreshadowing music here).

The start was innocent enough, and after a awful rendition of the national anthem by the William Hung of Elvis Impersonators, we were off! It's always a strange feeling to hear your electronic timing chip ping as you run over the mat at the start of a race, because it's very clear that now you've started and are obliged to finish. The first few miles was realatively normal for me, except that I started to get hungry after mile 1. One of the most important things to remember in marathoning is that you have to be flexible in your plans, so I decided to go away from my normal 3mile drink/6 mile eat routine and start a 2mile eat/5 mile drink routine. I recovered around mile 2.5 after having my first shot of hammergel.

Up until mile 13, I was running on my 10 minute pace pratically. In fact, I hit the halfway point around 2:17, so I thought I was on target. Looking back, I was already feeling not so good (the wind was starting to take its toll), and this is a bad omen for the second half of the race.

Dad came by just after the halfway mark. He had shed his recyclable layers and now the wind was making it colder. He asked for my long sleeved big sur shirt that was around my waist (I had already put back on my windbreaker)...how lucky that we are about the same size! I gave it to him, happy to help and also happy to get one more thing out from around my waist :).

As we descended into Las Vegas, the wind just kept increasing. For most of the race after mile 13, I could not actually hear my mp3 player, nor the people around me. Although after mile 8.5 there are no real hills, the wind really made up for it. If you did not lean forward when the gusts came, your hat would go flying off.

I started thinking about Roberto Heras and how when he's out in the wind, his domestiques protect him. Where are my domestiques? Around mile 15 I found a group of taller people going just a little faster than I, and tried to make my own private peleton. However, realistically, unless you are running really fast, the economy you gain from wind breaking is quite small. Eventually I needed water so I lost my peleton buddies.

Around mile 17, I started getting really angry. We had been travelling through a construction section, and little bits of dust were hitting my legs and face, causing these little pricks of pain anytime the wind blows. This angry feeling only got worse as I ran through a waterstation that had run out of cups. How is that possible?

I was reduced to something like a run/walk scheme (remember the flexibility above). I rationalized that I might as well take some time out to enjoy the outskirts of Las Vegas. After about mile 18, you are pretty sure to finish, and I was also pretty sure that this was not going to be a PR day. I basically focused on the fact that the turn out of the wind had to be coming up around mile 20. Suddenly, after mile 20, there was a turn! I was so excited about that, and decided that I would run the entire way once I hit that turn. However, as I turned I realized that I'd forgotten how short the reprieve from the wind was -- maybe 200m, and another left turn toward the airport. Agh!

So back to run/walk until the airport. I knew that you ran alongside the airport until you had about a half mile to go, but what a long airport! Luckily, we were running east, so the wind was only a strong crosswind at that point. Suddenly, I felt great and ran the rest of the way in from the airport!

When I made the turn onto Eastern Avenue, I still could not see the finish line. But Dad found me pretty soon, tried to run a little with me (but he was really tired), and told me we'd meet up at the finish. Mom I found a little ways down the road from him, and she was shouting 1 minute left, which was really inspiring because I really, really wanted this thing to end. All of the sudden, there was a quick turn and we were done! I heard that they said my name at the end, but honestly, I was so tired I could not hear any of it.

At the end, a photographer with a Nikon D70 took my picture. I told her to take a good one, because I was never going to do this again :). Of course, I always feel like that after a marathon, and I always do another one. A marathoner once said that you need to forget your last marathon before you do another one, because your body can't know what's coming. I totally agree :).

So, in all, I finished, Dad finished, and everyone agreed it was a difficult day out there. Would I do Las Vegas again? I've hear that they are planning on modifying the course so it goes down the strip and through downtown. If they do that, AND run it North -> South, I would probably consider it again :).

But for now, I plan as I said on taking it easy for a few weeks!