If I could blink if I could breathe If I could get my legs to move*

I have some pictures this time!  (Not many, Blogger is being a pain in the butt, and I don't feel like fighting it anymore).  But, you can have some!

This trip has been so nice not being at work for a whole week.  Sadly, I did NOT win big at Vegas, but I had fun nonetheless.  :-)  I never really managed to get on Vegas time the whole week I was here, so I was passing out by 1 or 2 every night, and waking up around 7 every morning.  I was definitely living the wild life here.  :-) 

But, I did manage to get a picture or two of the Strip at night.  (Also, I STILL giggle like a 12 year old boy everytime anyone says "The Strip".  I apparently will never grow up.  :-) 

I love the New York New York Casino.  Especially at night.  So pretty and reminded me of home. 

The Venetian is also really pretty, but just made me feel and like I was going to break something just looking at it.  Way too luxurious for me, but still very pretty to look at.  (I can't get the inside pictures to load, sorry, they're much prettier). 

Then, the real reason we were here.  The dreaded half marathon.

I have done a few of the Rock and Roll Half Marathons and I feel like this one was the most disorganized run I have ever been in.  They had WAY too many people and not enough volunteers or space to run.  They freaking ran out of water at some of the water stops (luckily, it wasn't hot, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been), and even worse, they ran out of finisher medals.  They gave me a full marathon medal instead and I was kind of pissed.  I didn't run the full marathon, I ran the half marathon.  What am I going to do with a full marathon medal that I didn't really run??

And, this was in no way under their control, but the weather kind of sucked.

However, here I am at the starting line, headlamp and everything.  Also, majorly nervous for this race.  (Yeah, the picture sucks, it was dark out, and the flash on my phone doesn't work in self-portrait mode). 

The first nine miles of the race were actually kind of nice.  As I said before, there were WAY too many people, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it kept me at a slow pace, as opposed to my normal sprint starts and subsequent dying a few miles later.   And, surprisingly, I was able to run the first 9 miles relatively easily (HUGE shock, since my longest training run was only about 8 miles and it was the worst feeling ever). 

HOWEVER, mile nine began to bring the suck. 

There was a water stop at mile 9, and I stopped to walk through it (I walked through all the water stops, it's too hard to run and drink for us clumsy people).  It also got about 10 degrees colder in the span of a minute, and began a light, icy rain.  And my legs held a mutiny.  My legs were so cold, and my muscles were tightening up by the second.  Then, my hamstrings cramped up and REFUSED to run.  I couldn't even get them to shuffle slowly. 

I promised myself I would walk a mile and then run again.  Yeah, that did not happen. 

So, I was kind of disappointed.  My first ten miles, I was on track for about a 2:55-3:00 finish time (which while not fantastic, is still pretty freaking good for me).  Then, after mile ten, it took me AN HOUR to go the last 3.1 miles.  (Considering I was walking and "hobbling" the last three miles, I guess an hour isn't terrible, but still such a disappointment to have such an epic meltdown). 

I did manage to shuffle/jog my way the last mile and actually picked up my feet the last tenth of a mile to cross the finish line.  (Only to find out they didn't have any medals).  They are supposedly mailing me a half marathon medal, but still.  Kind of sucky. 

I then got a mylar blanket (thank goodness...at that point I was wet and freezing) and my picture taken (I'm ready to laugh at how awful I must look in that picture, I felt so dead at that point).  I then had to walk about half a mile to the gear check area to get my dry clothes and meet up with K and Figgs (which while awful at the time, was actually nice, because it kept me from sitting down right away and cramping up even more). 

I get to the gear check and seriously, Figgs is the best person to go to a race with.  He finished almost an hour earlier than me, and had gone and bought us a bottle of champagne to celebrate with.  Fantastic.  :-) 

Then, it took us almost 2 hours to get back to the room due to the huge number of people and lack of shuttles as promised (stupid race organizers). 

But, even with my terrible last three miles, I managed to eek out a PR at 3:27.  Not exactly happy with my time, but seriously, for the lack of training I had, I shouldn't complain.  :-) 

Sadly, I go back home tomorrow, and back to work on Wednesday.  Sad face. 

*Phantom Planet - This song came on around Mile 11 and was the only thing that kept me walking at that point.