Renae getting ready to run her 10K
Getting my medal after finishing the 1/2 marathon.
Posing at water station with 1 mile left.
Getting ready to cross the start line.
Sitting in the grown up chair before the race.
Ahhhh. Where to begin. I think we packed 4 weeks worth of stuff into just 5 days. It all begins last Friday when I got off work to head to Reno for the Half Marathon and RCS National Conference. Renae and I finished packing said goodbye to all the animals and headed to the airoporto. Unbeknownst to us we had locked Salem (kitty) downstairs, thankfully we had someone watching the animals. So we checked in and listened to all the commotion going on about how the plane was over booked and was over weight and these women had to be on the plane. For some reason I so enjoy sitting at the airport watching people they fascinate me. We took off for Denver and I nearly lost my lunch as we were landing due to excessive side to side motion and up and down motion of the very tiny airplane. I had to sit with my head between my legs for some time before deboarding or disembarking. The flight to Reno seemed pretty unremarkable. We picked up our rental car and I listened to the direction to get to the EL DORADO pronounced the Spanish version not the Kansas version. We had a slight disagreement in the authenticity of the directions and took a small detour seeing what was on the other side of town. For those of you who enjoy the Vegas/Reno nightlife/lifestyle I am terribly sorry for what I'm about to say.....but it would be alright with me if a big assed flood came along and took out casino's, their drunk assed patrons, and the sleazy people that hang around outside like pedophile stalkers. With that said....the lights were pretty. Forgot to mention that the rental car place upgraded Renae to a SUV......ha more like a luxury liner.....they gave us an 8 passenger Ford Expedition. I thought I was driving my 77 Monte Carlo. Not to mention that like most places the casino makes the parking garage maximize space to the 10th multiple making it quite difficult if your are driving the Space Shuttle. I was quite tired when we got in but we decided to walk around and check things out. I took a 5 dollar bill with me in case I felt the need to stick it in a slot machine. I'm glad I did because I won 82 dollars and that was my playing money the entire time I was in Reno. Saturday we got up and ate breakfast at Trevlo or something like that and decided to wait around until registration began so we could pick up our race packets. We walked around a bit and found the Salon/Spa. I had mentioned that I wanted to get my haircut and we discovered they did facials. We thought it would be fun to have a little pampering and so each signed up for one. For my first facial it was absolutely fabulous. I was just sorry that I hadn't yet showered because we had only just come down to eat breakfast. Then I had my haircut and they brought me a mimosa (didn't like it but now I know what it is). By the time we had finished it was nearly noon and so we went to pick up the race packets. The race tee was just blah but we got to try on some vibrams which was way coolio.
We got something to eat from somewhere and then showered, ate lunch, and headed outside the casino to walk around and look at stuff. We were connected via skywalk with the Silver Legacy and the Circus circus. Don't exactly remember what we did the rest of Saturday afternoon and evening but we ate at a pub for dinner and turned in early. I made Renae get up at like 5:15 in the morning on Sunday I don't think she was very appreciative, lol. But the marathon started at 0630 and the half started at 0700 and 10K at 0730. Renae had decided to run the 10K since her doctor put her on Antibiotics and Steriods three days earlier and told her not to run, what is it about health care professionals. Anywho, I showered and we headed down to a coffee shop to get some yogurt and Renae got a coffee. I'm not sure how she can drink coffee before running I would be stopping at every single port-a-jane they had. We got to the starting area right around 0630 and watched the marathon runners take off. It is super exciting feeling right before a race everyone is all jazzed. Me I had butterflies floating around because this was my first half marathon and I really hoped I finished. I wanted to start close to the end because I didn't want to get run over but I kinda got bunched in the middle and still got run over. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt that I could toss off as it got warmer (a tip from Kristen).
And we were off..........they didn't have chip timers so I used my stop watch and my Nike Plus on my I pod to monitor my time. For the first mile I was just having fun watching all the people and trying not to start out to fast. After we passed through downtown we started following the river. It was amazing the number of people that were lining the streets cheering people on and the police were awesome blocking traffic and friendly. Between mile 1 and 2 I was listening in on peoples conversations. I had fallen in between the slow runners and the run/walkers. As we were passing through a park near mile 2 I was passing an older lady and I slowed to have a conversation. She was a teacher at one of the schools and her school had joined the pound for pound Biggest Loser Challenge and this was also her first 1/2 marathon (she ended up beating me by like 5 min she was run/walking). As we neared mile 3 I had to go pee and luckily there was a park bathroom so I ran inside and there were three other runners using the facilities which had no doors. I did my business and continued running. I was feeling good and having fun. As I approached the water station at Mile 3 I thought I heard one of the volunteers yell out "Warm Banana's" so then I started joking about warm banana's with her. As we passed mile 3 we ran along a bike path that went under the HWY and along the river to a sub division. We headed into the sub division and along lovely tree lined streets up a hill (advertised as a flat fast course, not so, not so). We turned back onto a major street for a mile or so. I started using my gel packs around mile 4 as I was at 52 min in. I was able to use a gel pack about every 30 min or so and felt really good. After passing Mile 4 we headed down into another park area along the river. I texted Renae that I had just passed 5.5 miles or so and took a picture of me running with my phone. Unfortunately I happened to have the sun behind me so it didn't turn out to well. But I looked good in my new contacts and sport sunglasses. I was starting to tire a little and had stopped passing people but wasn't getting passed either. We went up and down these little rollers for a while until Mile 6. I decided to take a small walk break and was going to empty my shoe from the rock I obtained after mile 4 but never stopped to do that. I walked for about 5 min and the walk/runners started to pass me so that motivated me to start running again. For the next 1.5 miles I was in a continuous battle with about 5 different run/walkers. They'd run and pass me as I was running then just stop right in front of me so I would pass them and so on. After I started running again after Mile 6 I made a decision to run for 20 min and walk for 5 because I wanted to finish this race. So I ran battling the run/walkers till we hit the water station at 7.5 miles and I walked for 2-3 min and started running. I caught up with a runner that was doing an airborne shuffle type of run and stayed with her for a long time. But she would catch sight of me and kick it up a notch so I would to, then she'd slow down, so I would, then fast, slow, fast, slow until she decided she wasn't going to loose me and we ran side by side till about Mile 9. It was then that I knew I could make the next 4 miles. I walked for 2-3 min and my little buddy was a bit ahead of me so I ran my pace and caught back up with her and we restarted the whole speed up slow down routine until around Mile 10.5. I walked again and some run/walkers passed me and started to pass her and she kicked it into gear and sped up. We all started laughing. this whole time I had been texting Renae where I was in my run. She had just finished her run when I hit Mile 9. She said she was headed back onto the course to meet me and run with me. We connected around Mile 11 as we were headed back into the first park we had come through. I was glad to see her because my energy was draining and my feet were starting to hurt. She ran with me real well considering she had just run 6.2 miles. I walked another 2 min or so and then ran the last mile in. As we rounded the last 3 blocks or so onto S. Virginia St Renae left and started running along the sidewalk catching photos of me. I kicked it up a notch and ran the last little bit super dooper fast. I was so happy to cross the finish line. They gave me a medal but I have yet to really look at it. We walked around a bit so I could cool down and then we signed up for massages but they said it would be about 30 min so we walked to the hotel and showered. Renae went back out for her massage and I slumped down in a couch at the reception desk at the hotel with all of our luggage, taking a much needed 20 min power nap.
We then headed over to the Nugget Casino and hotel to get the room for the conference. We walked in and there were like 50 people in line to get their rooms. Ugggg. I think we took a short nap and then went to the pool and stopped by the Spa to see if they did massages. Luckily they had a foot pampering massage and we both signed up for the next day to get one. We soaked in an awesome hot tub and then got ice to put our feet in to reduce swelling. The next few days were somewhat of a blur with conference stuff. A couple of firsts on this trip; facial, 1/2 marathon, staying in Reno, and winning 82 dollars, wearing a dress for first time since graduating AIT in 1993 (sorry no pictures of that).
Almost bought a long board but wasn't sure how to get it back to Junction and how much I'd get to ride it with all the running we have planned. Ate at Grimaldi's Pizza and wasn't worth the calories, money, or energy. But have video.
