Las Vegas Rock n Roll Marathon Weekend Recap – The Non-Race Part

Well that’s that!  After months of preparation, in 5:27:08, just like that, *POOF* it’s over.

Where to start, where to start…

We arrived in Vegas about 3:30 Friday afternoon and met up with M and her husband (who beat us there by a few hours) at the hotel.  After tossing around some options, we decided to catch a comedy show that night.  We got what we THOUGHT was a good deal on some tickets–free tickets but a two-drink minimum.

Wanna see what a $13.50 beer looks like?

Yeah.  I really wish I were exaggerating.

But the show was funny and we had a good time!  Right after the show, we headed back to the hotel.  By that point, our friends had been up close to 24 hours, and I’m a perpetual early bird anyway, so we were all ready to call it a night.

We slept in Saturday.  By the time everyone woke and got stirring it was lunch time.  I still can’t say the name of the restaurant without giggling.

Inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino

After we stuffed our faces with Mexican food (which I was praying wouldn’t haunt me the next day!), we taxied directly to the Sands Expo & Convention Center for the race expo where we picked up our packets…

Nobody ever accused me of being normal.

… and proceeded to make huge dorks of ourselves.

I spent quite a bit of time at the expo but very little money.  I bought one Sweaty Band to be exact.  I wanted the 26.2 one, but I refused to buy it (or anything else with the word “marathon” on it) before I completed the distance.  I didn’t want to jynx myself.  M’s husband said they need to make one that says “22.5.  I almost made it.”  LOL

I also had an actual gait analysis done at the expo by some Brooks reps.  I’ve had one done before at my dinky little running store, but this was much fancier with computer monitors and software and stuff.  So I waited in line for about half an hour to run barefoot on a treadmill for 20 seconds and be told that I need a neutral shoe–which is exactly what my dinky little running store told me months ago.  haha  But it was cool to see the technology behind it.  And a second opinion is always good, right?  He recommended a couple of Brooks shoes, and I just might keep them in mind next time I buy.  I’ve been using the Mizuno Wave Rider 13s for a while.  I don’t THINK they are a contributor to my knee/ITB issues, but I’m not against trying something else to see what may work better.

After I had kept everyone waiting on me for too long, we left the expo and headed back to the Strip.  We had the cabbie drop us off at The Bellagio.  They had a really pretty Christmas setup in the lobby!

We wandered around and fed the slot machines for a while and then went outside to watch this before heading back to our hotel:

Okay, this will require some audience participation.  Use your imaginations and visualize a really cool video of the Bellagio fountains.  Stupid Blogger isn’t uploading it right.  It’s probably way too big.  (That’s what she said.)

We all ate pizza in on Saturday night.  (Do I hang out with some good sports or what?!)  D hung out with me in the hotel all night.  I insisted he go out, but he wouldn’t hear of it.  M and C caught the Cirque production Le Reve and said it was amazing.  I was planning on making an early night of it, and I succeeded.  I was in bed by 9:30, asleep by 9:31.  Before I knew it, the alarm was going off Sunday morning.  It was go time.

***FAST FORWARD 12 HOURS***

(This post is getting too long, so I’ll do a separate one for just the race!)

After the race was over and I had cleaned up and iced/heated my knee for a while, we headed out for dinner at my all-time favorite place… The Cheesecake Factory.

*wipes drool off the keyboard*

After I had successfully replaced the 2600 calories I had burned earlier that day (Have you ever looked at the nutrition information on their cheesecake?  Don’t.), we walked (limped) from the Forum Shops to Bally’s for Jubilee.  This was my and D’s second viewing, but it was definitely good enough to go back to see a second time!

The show was over by 9:30, but I was pretty spent, and my knee had had about all it could take for the day.  And M and C had an early flight out the next morning, so we made our way back to our hotel.

All told, it was a fabulous trip.  This was our second time in Vegas in a little over two years, and we still haven’t seen and done everything we want!  So much to do, so little time…

Next up… THE RACE!