Las Vegas Weekend & Marathon

As my cousin Sarah recently pointed out to me, it's taken me quite a while to get this post up, considering we returned from Vegas on Monday night. On Tuesday, when I had a little time to start it, Bill had the camera at work so I couldn't upload the pictures. Then later that day I had the camera with no time to upload them. Wednesday and Thursday were consumed by work and preparations for Bill's company's Holiday Party. Finally today I managed to get both the camera and the time.


Anyhow, last Wednesday Bill came home from work sounding terrible. His voice was nearly gone and what was audible (between his hacking coughs) was very nasal. We had hoped to get on the road around 1 on Thursday afternoon, but Bill determined with how he felt on Wednesday night that he'd have to see a doctor before we could go. Those in the Army will share my displeasure that with it being Thursday, there was sergeant's time in the morning, so the earliest appointment Bill could get was 3:00. Fortunately the doctor told Bill the virus and its associated congestion was limited to his head, and told him just to take it easy for a few days. I don't think running a full marathon a few days later was exactly what the doc had in mind for Bill. When Bill mentioned it the doctor said, "Well, at least it's not in your lungs. I won't tell you not to run, but listen to your body." With Mucinex and some other meds in hand, we finally got on the road around 5:00.

Two of Bill's Episcopal buddies, Peter and Andrew, flew in for the weekend to meet up with Bill, so since Bill had slept in the car from about Phoenix on, he was ready to go meet up with them even though it was after midnight by the time we got in. Bill dropped us off at my parents' house and took the car back down to the Strip to meet Peter and Andrew. On Friday and Saturday, the boys played their way through half the hotels on the Strip, having better luck at some casinos than others, but enjoying themselves nonetheless.

Friday night my parents and I took Drew to the Festival of Lights at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. The Preserve is a historic site commemorating where the Las Vegas springs originally bubbled up. I'm sure it's an interesting place to go during the day, but we were a bit disappointed with the organization and setup of the whole light display. One of the reasons we were attracted to this display was the advertised kiddie train ride. Drew is a huge fan of trains, particularly since the birthday arrival of the GeoTrax train set. So when we bought our admission tickets we, of course, spent the extra $2 on the train ride. We headed there once we were able to find our way around a little bit (signs and directions were a bit hard to come by). I can honestly say that those two dollars are possibly the worst money I've ever spent. The train ride was about 4 minutes long and did not follow a track through any of the lights, but rather just headed down and back a road decorated by a handful of inflatable snowmen, penguins, and snow globes. The driver actually tried to make the ride more interesting by slowly swerving back and forth. We were not impressed. Anyhow, once we managed to find our way to the gardens, we did find the lights to be pretty, but the train ride had permanently colored our opinions of the place.


Grandma, Grandpa, & Drew in front of the Christmas Saguaro Cactus




Drew leads Grandma & Grandpa through the gardens at the Preserve



Mommy & Drew



As a bonus surprise, on our way out to the car, we ran into a completely unadvertised Elmo!



Saturday night Bill and his friends came up for dinner at my parents' house. We enjoyed the traditional pre-marathon dinner of pasta. This was the second of two pictures I took of Bill and his friends, and you'll notice that Drew snuck into this one at the last minute.


After leaving my parents' house, Bill, his friends, and I went back down to the Mandalay. Bill and I had our own room for Saturday night so I could see him start the race without waking up Drew. We made just a quick stopover at Fremont Street in Old Vegas. We watched the Don McLean's American Pie Light Show at the Fremont Street Experience (I may have embarassed the guys with my singing along) and played in Binion's Casino for a bit. Finally Bill determined it was time to head back to the Mandalay. He went to sleep and Peter, Andrew, and I went downstairs to play. That was a decision I regretted when it came time to wake up at 5:00 the next morning to see Bill start the race. But I did wake up.

Around 5:15 Sunday morning Bill and I (and thousands and thousands of other runners) headed down to the starting line outside the Mandalay Bay.


After the race started the fireworks began. It was really quite a sight to see this massive fireworks display over the lights of the hotels on the Strip.

Somewhere in that sea of runners is Bill, though my camera batteries died before I actually found him. He was able to find me to pass me his jacket though, so that was good.


Despite the road closures due to the marathon and my complete and total lack of a sense of direction, I was able (with some phone assistance from my father) to negotiate my way to a road running parallel to the stretch of the race from about mile 14-21. Going by Bill's intended pace I arrived at the first point about 20 minutes before Bill passed me and then made my way to the next stop about a half hour before Bill arrived (with enough time for a quick breakfast stop).

Bill between miles 15 & 16



Bill between miles 20 & 21.



Bill getting ready to cross the finish line. Peter and Andrew woke up in time to join me in cheering Bill on at the finish line, and my parents and Drew came down too.




Bill crossing the finish line at the clock time of 5 h 20 m 17 sec. His chip time was a few minutes shorter than that due to the mass start of thousands of runners. I still can't believe he wants to continue running these things! Tempe in January...

Drew is thrilled with Daddy's post-marathon cookie treats!

Family shot after the marathon. We actually took two different pictures and my eyes were closed in both of them. I could possibly be the least photogenic person on the planet.

Funny story about my Geneseo sweatshirt. Waiting for Bill between miles 20 & 21 I was standing near some spectators with Florida Gators gear on. After their big win over Alabama the day before that sent them into the national championship game, several runners commented on the spectators' Florida gear, yelling "Go Gators!" Obviously I didn't expect to hear any comments on my college gear...Geneseo not really as nationally recognized as the University of Florida. Strangely enough, after about the third or fourth comment about the Gators, one of the runners pointed to me and said "Geneseo? Livingston County baby." Not long after, another runner said something similar. I was shocked. I didn't think little Division III Geneseo had any name recognition outside of the Northeast. But then again, we were just on the Sportscenter Top 10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAnZJJDSvTg