FINALLY!!!

I’ve been wanting to do this race for LONG TIME!! It always just seemed like a good time and while I’d been to Vegas before, for bachelorette parties, I’d wanted to go as just a solo vacation. So, because I’m a Rock ‘n Blog Ambassador, I was able to pick a few races to run and there was no hesitation choosing RnR Vegas!!

Some backstory–you know me and my crazy ideas, lol!!!! I had this GREAT PLAN to run the inaugural Revel Mt. Lemmon (in Tucson) Sunday morning and then drive to Las Vegas to run Rock ‘n Roll Vegas! Two half marathons in two states in ONE day! Doesn’t that sound awesome!!!?? I somehow convinced my husband and I got us all registered.

Then, he broke his toe on Monday.

Yup, completely random injury–his toe was swollen blue and purple and after x-rays confirmed what we already knew, we decided to nix Tucson and instead, I would run Vegas on Sunday solo.

Except my husband is a stubborn man (he’s also a runner soo…..) and said he felt good enough to run with me at my pace. My goal was 1:45 which would be 13.1 miles at MGP (8:00). I told him that if at any point he didn’t feel good, to walk and he promised he would.

He’s such a champ. ❤ him

The Expo was huge and we stood in line for our traditional race coffee mug and got out of there. The race shirts were super cute and I was glad I went with the Medium (they ran small). I didn’t hang out at all but knew I’d see some #WeRunSocial peeps the next day before the race.

I was able to snag a quick pic with Carlee and Brian–I’ve seen them the past couple of years at Phoenix Marathon and a few other races. I finally got to me Slacker Runner too!!!

And then we were off!!

As I’d mentioned, I wanted to keep at goal marathon pace. The first mile was insanely crowded so I wasn’t worried when we saw a 9 something minute sound off. The second mile was 8:20something and by the third mile, we settled in at 8 or just under.

But then before we reached mile 5 mile, my watched beeped 7:22!!! and a.) I knew we hadn’t hit the mile marker and b.) I knew I was running well, but NOT that well.

I was bummed that my watch was now skewed but decided to just keep running. I felt at each mile I was holding on to my pace even though I didn’t have the watch splits to prove it. The way I gauged it was that I WAS PASSING PEOPLE THE ENTIRE TIME and having so. much. fun.

I can count on one hand the races I’ve done where from beginning to end, I passed people. I just felt good (or maybe people were slowing as the race progressed, lol!) and just held on. At mile 10 we had to do a little u-turn to head back towards the finish and it was then I felt the pace become, still doable, but a tad uncomfortable. I held on, still breathing fine, but feeling the legs a little heavy.

As we reached the finish, a girl I’d been keeping pace with said, “Let’s run it in together!” except she clearly had energy left in her and I was dying trying to keep up

I finished right on target at 1:44:36 with an average of 7:59/mile!! 😀

I was so ridiculously happy for running the race so well. I didn’t get caught up with the crowd or try anything ambitious like trying to PR (which I think the world did at Revel Mt. Lemmon earlier that day). Instead, I ran my race, at my pace and still kicked ass! It was such a confidence booster as I continue on my journey to Boston. I don’t know when I’ll get there, BUT I WILL GET THERE ❤

Thank you, Vegas! ❤

–Have you done RnR Vegas? If not, consider it! 😀

–Do you use races as training runs?