The Big Race Weekend

After months of training and fundraising, race week finally arrived.

Friday morning I took Wilbur for a long walk and then dropped him off at Waggin' Tails, his happy place. The name is quite fitting because every time we drive there Wilbur gets so excited he almost falls over from wagging his tail so hard. He has to sit down while the rest of his body wiggles uncontrollably until we arrive at daycare.

I immediately drove to Milwaukee to catch my flight to Las Vegas. Naturally, the new iPhone map application got me lost while I was trying to find the long term economy parking, but I figured it out without any help from Siri.

I spent Friday afternoon going to the marathon expo, getting as many freebies as possible, and exploring the strip. Heather, Ann and my mom wouldn't be flying in until Saturday, so I had plenty of time to myself. A few people from my team went out for burgers on Friday night, so I tagged along. My burger was delicious, but when I paid the bill, I was pretty sure that my burger wasn't $37 delicious...

The inside of The Venetian

Saturday morning I slept in and took a long shower while watching the C-USA championship football game. Yes, you read that correctly, I watched the football game from the shower. The large suite that I shared with my mom had two very fluffy and comfy queen beds, a humongous sectional couch in the living area, three televisions and a fax machine. I was tempted to send a fax, but couldn't think of what I would send or who I would send it to.

During halftime I wandered down the strip until I found three dollar beers and the Tulsa football game. I watched Tulsa win the conference championship in overtime while receiving texts from my friends at the game and staring at the characters on the strip during the commercial breaks. Gosh, there are some crazies in Las Vegas.

One of the characters wandering the strip... notice the Lightening McQueen tattoo? I told my dad he should get one...

My mom arrived to the Venetian around 3 and we went out for drinks to wait for Heather and Ann. Our first stop was less than impressive and quite smelly, so we took our seemingly virgin drinks and walked toward the Bellagio. She and I made it just in time to watch the water show. When I received the text from Heather letting me know that they were jumping in a cab to the hotel, my mom and I headed back to meet them in the lobby. Their flight was delayed, so we only had a matter of minutes to change for the pasta party.

At the pasta party we learned that the 1,104 runners raised nearly $4 million for Crohn's and Colitis Foundation! $4 million! That's amazing. We also saw Sean Lowe, next season's bachelor. He was the celebrity for the event, and I was pretty darn excited about it. Heather even snapped a photo with him at the start!

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Sean speaking at the pasta party 

After the party everyone was pretty tired from traveling, so we called it an early night.

Sunday morning my mom and I grabbed breakfast before heading to the pool. It was a delight. We were on the fourth floor between the towers of the hotel, and it felt like we were nowhere near Las Vegas, which was fantastic. We were away from the filth of the street, the crazies of the town and the crazy traffic. Unfortunately, it was also incredibly windy. Heather and Ann met us poolside, but the four of us only lasted about thirty minutes before we were too chilly.

We went back to our room to get ready for the race. With our sparkly skirts and socks, we were ready to run.

The wind advisory as we were getting ready for the race... gusts of 45mph? Yes, we ran through that.

Race recap to come....