Via Byway, My Way.

Okay, so I typed out a great blog and due to my lame limited knowledge of blogging, I erased it. So here is the short version:

I brought the horrible Oregon weather with me from San Francisco to Las Vegas, with another close call. It also didn’t help that in the morning, I added oil to the car but forgot to replace the oil cap. So 200 miles later, a burning oil smell wafted into my car and traces of smoke emitted from my hood. I spent the next 30 minutes backtracking to Los Banos, CA, to an auto supply store and buying a replacement oil cap.

My visit to Vegas was to compete in the new Las Vegas Marathon, which starts at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino and proceeds 7 miles up along the World Famous Strip to the Fremont Street Experience in downtown. My goal was to complete it within 5 hours and with limited injuries. I’m staying with my pal Sarah, who I’ve known since high school and she is currently an art teacher for an elemtary school. We spent Saturday at the Health & Fitness Expo where I picked up my race packet, and we also drove the marathon course and visited a few sites along the Strip.

Finally, Sunday morning, race day. I tried to turn in early at 8:30 the night before, but my sleep was in and out and my mind kept turning to the marathon. I haven’t trained for this! Two 12-mile runs in 3 months, and I was supposed to complete 26.2 miles? I woke up at 4am to beat the traffic rush and did all my pre-race prep in time for the 6am start time. A colorful display of fireworks greeted the crowd of 12,500 runners, in chilly 39 degree temperatures.

4 hours and 15 minutes later, I crossed the finish. Unfortunately, my finish is not posted in the official results at http://www.lvmarathon.com. But I should have my official pictures shortly posted at http://www.marathonfoto.com (select the Las Vegas Marathon and enter my last name ‘Tanedo” and my race number 3570.

I am proud to say that I finished strong and I ran a smart race. I never bonked out, never developed the crippling cramps of debilitating pain, and kept hydrated the whole race through. The last 2.2 miles were quite the mental challenge, but positive self-talk and passing other runners made for an encouraging and satisfying end to the slowest marathon I’ve ever run–but hey, with no training, I’m on a cloud 9!

With my marathon finish, it’s now on to Phoenix, AZ….

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 4th, 2005 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.