Pre-race Jitters

It’s 4:39 AM MST, which means it’s an hour earlier here in Las Vegas.  The inaugural Rock n Roll Las Vegas Marathon starts in less than three hours.  The alarm is set for 4:30. Obviously I’m not sleeping.  No point in laying there staring at the lights from the casinos coming through the cracks in the curtains.

I’m nervous for the race!  I can’t believe it.  Mostly I’m nervous about getting there.  We’re staying at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino about four miles from the starting line.  It was a great deal, about a third of the price of a hotel on the Strip.  Never again though; if we ever travel to a race again, we’re going to stay at the place where the race is starting, or as near as we possibly can.  I’m kicking myself for not staying at the Mandalay Bay, because then we could walk downstairs to the corrals at 5 AM and been done with the whole thing.  Now, I’m worried about traffic and listening to my heart beat fast.  At least I don’t have the cold sweats right now, just a racing heart.  That’s something to be thankful for.

I met a Pacer at the Expo on Friday and am thinking about trying to stick with him during the race.  However, I forgot to ask how he paces.  Does he start out with the “average” pace and stick to it the entire race, or does he do negative splits?  How does he break up the miles?  I’ll have to find him in the corral and ask.  If he does an average pace the entire way I’ll have to let him go from the start and catch him at the end.  I always do negative splits; that way I start out slow and get faster as I warm up and the miles start slipping away.  I refuse to start out fast; I’ll crash if I do.

Speaking of pace, here’s the plan.  I’m shooting for a 1:40, as that’s what I did on my last training run two weeks ago in hilly Colorado.  Because I’ll be with 29,000 people at lower altitude on a flat course, I think it’s feasible to drop 15-20 seconds from my pace per mile, which would put me in the 1:35 range.

Goals:

1. Don’t get hurt
2. Have a ton of fun
3. 1:30 time – off the charts cool PR!!
4. 1:35 time – excellent time
5. 1:40 time – training time in Colorado
6. 1:45 time – last half marathon time
7. Finish

Bill’s going to wear his running gear so he can run up and down the Strip to cheer for me.  He’s going to head for the Excaliber walkway that spans the Strip to take pictures of me on the way out and back.  Then, we’ll plan on meeting at letter “Q” back at the finish line.  Why “Q”?  Because that will be the least populated letter.  Smart, hunh?

I decided to wear my Nike Fit running pants today.  The temp is going to be between 32-37 degrees while we’re running, so no shorts for me.  Boo hoo. I was all set to wear my new Nike shorts, assuming it was going to be over 40 degrees, but no such luck. The good news is that my red Go-Lite running shirt looks better with black pants than the new purple shorts, so at least I won’t look like a fashion faux-pas while I’m running the Strip.  I’ll look great in my pictures, assuming my sweet hubby can find me.  “Just look for the girl in the black skullcap, black gloves, red shirt and black pants, honey, and I’ll be the one with the race number on my front.”  Ha.

It’s time to get dressed, drink more water, and prowl the Palace Station Hotel and Casino for a banana.